1000 ; Low moor, Bradford, 1200; Bowling, Bradford, 800 ; Messrs. Sharp, Roberts, and Co., Manchester, 800 ; Mr. William Fairbairn, Manchester, 600 ; and Messrs. Nasmyths, Gaskell, and Co., Patricroft, 500. The great body of workmen employed by Messrs. Hibbert and Platt are remarkable for the active interest they have manifested in every measure calculated to extend useful knowledge and rational recreation amongst the mass of the population, and their efforts in this respect, particularly in the projected establishment of a public park for Oldham, have been spiritedly supported by their employers. Various operations are conducted within these works. The whole is divided into departments, over each of which a foreman is placed, to superintend and direct the labour. Articles most varied, from ponderous machines to attenuated plates or rods, are produced, amidst a scene wherein the four elements are subjugated by human power and intelligence. The numerous departments of design drawing, pattern modelling, iron founding, iron and brass moulding, forging, turning, planing, fitting, filing, polishing, and adjusting, form such a combination of sights and sounds as are sufficient to raise even in the apathetic mind, the sentiment of admiration.

"_______The ponderous hammer falls,
Loud anvils ring amid the trembling walls;
Strokes follow strokes, the sparkling ingot shines,
Flows the red flag, the lengthening bar refines;
Cold waves immersed, the flowing mass congeal,
And turn to adamant the hissing steel."

The number of machine making concerns increased in proportion to the number of cotton mills, for in 1825 there were 21 firms of machine makers, I0 iron and brass founders, 5 roller and spindle makers, and 4 metal and wood turners in the town and neighbourhood. Several of these firms carried on almost all these processes in single establishments. The principal concerns of this description existing in 1825 in addition. to those previously named were Messrs. Charles and Spencer Suthers, Mount pleasant, Mrs. Garnett, Side

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