manufacturing purposes; a wheel-feed oscillating shuttle machine, furnished
with a trimmer, used chiefly in stitching leather and boot uppers; double
chain-stitch machine, used for sack making, now shown for the first time;
and a single thread "Lightning Sewer," fitted with a trimmer for hosiery
work. Of Wheeler & Wilson's system, there is a drop-feed manufacturing
machine with the new detached hook and latest improvements; a No. 10
machine with the usual hook, a wheel feed and trimmer, and a smaller
machine of the same type with drop feed. Of Willcox & Gibbs' system, there
is the ordinary single-thread machine for manufacturing, a single-thread
machine, with a trimmer, as used in the hosiery trades, and a machine
specially used for straw hat making.

We have here a small Singer machine, riding upon the edge of two pieces of
carpet, a carpet machine weighing ten pounds. When the handle is turned, it
stitches and travels over the edges, uniting them faster and more securely
than six hand sewers; and several others, representative of the family type
of sewing machine, besides Wheeler & Wilson's hemstitch machine, the
working of which is of much interest.

I would now invite those of you who seek a better acquaintance with those
curious and novel machines to freely examine and test the various types to
be found upon the power benching and upon stands. One or two operators will
come forward and show some of the capabilities of the machines upon actual
work, in which the making of a straw hat will perhaps show what can be done
in a few minutes by quick speed and expert fingers; but these performances
must not be regarded in the light of competitive tests between the
manufacturers showing them, and are intended merely to show the utility of
motive power driving.

In conclusion, I desire to thank those gentlemen at the head of the leading