o bore only six hundred stocks. The remainder have still to be
done by hand, until more machines are constructed.

The history of the Springfield armory would be incomplete without some
allusion to the inventor of the machinery for turning irregular forms
adapted to the manufacture of gun-stocks. This was the invention of
Thomas Blanchard, then a citizen of Springfield and now of
Boston,--whose reputation as a mechanic has since become
world-wide,--and was first introduced into the armory about the year
1820. Before this the stocks were all worked and fitted by hand; but
the marvellous ingenuity of this machinery made a complete revolution in
this department, and contributed to a very large increase in the
rapidity and economy of gun-making all over the world.

The same invention has been applied to other branches of manufacture,
such as shoe-lasts, axe-helves, etc.; and Mr. Blanchard has successfully
used it in multiplying copies of marble statuary with a degree of
accuracy and beauty which is truly wonderful.

Eight years ago the English Government obtained permission of the then
Secretary of War--Jefferson Davis--to make draughts of this entire
establishment for the purpose of obtaining duplicate machinery for the
works at Enfield, and copies of the most novel and important parts of
the machinery were manufactured for them in the neighboring town of
Chicopee; an American machinist being employed to superintend their
operation at Enfield.

These works were the especial favorites of the late Prince Albert, who
took great pleasure in exhibiting them to his Continental visitors; but
no portion of the works received so much attention from him as that
occupied by the stocking-machines. In this department he would
frequently spend hours, watching the operations of these incomparable
machines with the greatest interest and pleasure.

As all of these ingenious and valuable machines are American inventions,
and nearly all of them designed by the various expert artisans who have
been employed at the armory during the last half-century, it would seem
proper and desirable that their peculiar construction should have
remained a secret within our national works, and, at any rate, not been
freely given to a rival government like that of Great Britain, who might
use the arms manufactured by American machinery against the very nation
that furnished it. It is probable, however, that the arch-traitor who
thus furnished the governme