CHAPTER VI.

THE WOOD-TURNING LABORATORY.

A Radical Change. -- From the Square to the Circle; from Angles to Spherical, Cylindrical, and Eccentric Forms. -- The Rhythm of Mechanics. -- The Potter’s Wheel of the Ancients and the Turning- lathe. -- The Speculation of Holtzapffels on its Origin. -- The Greeks as Turners. -- The Turners of the Middle Ages. -- George III. at the Lathe. -- Maudsley’s Slide-rest, and the Revolution it wrought. -- The Natural History of Black-walnut. -- The Practical Value of Imagination. -- Disraeli’s Tribute to it; Sir Robert Peel’s Want of it. -- The Laboratory animated by Steam. -- The Boys at the Lathes. -- Their Manly Bearing. -- The Lesson. 30