one room is devoted to some of the processes by which steel pens are manufactured.  Six fly-presses are here constantly at work; in the first a sheet of thin steel is brought by the workman under the die which at each blow cuts out a flat piece of the metal, having the form intended for the pen.  Two other workmen are employed in placing these flat pieces under two other presses, in which a steel chisel cuts the slit.  Three other workmen occupy other presses, in which the pieces so prepared receive their semi-cylindrical form.  The longer time required for adjusting the small pieces in the two latter operations renders them less rapid in execution than the first; so that two workmen are fully occupied in slitting, and three in bending the flat pieces, which one man can punch out of the sheet of steel.  If, therefore, it were necessary to enlarge this factory, it is clear that twelve or eighteen presses would be worked with more economy than any number not a multiple of six.

The same reasoning extends to every manufacture which is conducted upon the principle of the division of labour, and we arrive at this general conclusion:  When the number of processes into which it is most advantageous to divide it, and the number of individuals to be employed in it, are ascertained, then all factories which do not employ a direct multiple of this latter number, will produce the article at a greater cost.  This principle ought always to be kept in view in great establishments, although it is quite impossible, even with the best division of the labour, to attend to it rigidly in practice.  The proportionate number of the persons who possess the greatest skill, is of course to be first attended to.  That exact ratio which is more profitable for a factory employing a hundred workmen, may not be quite the best where there are five hundred; and the arrangements of both may probably admit of variations, without materially increasing the cost of their produce.  But it is quite certain that no individual, nor in the case of pin-making could any five individuals, ever hope to compete with an extensive establishment.  Hence arises one cause of the great size of manufacturing establishments, which have increased with the progress of civilization.  Other circumstances, however, contribute to the same end, and arise also from the same cause—­ the division of labour.

264.  The material out of which the manufactured article is produced, must, in the several stages of its progress, be conveyed from one operator to the next in succession:  this can be done at least expense when they are all working in the same establishment.  If the weight of the material is considerable, this reason acts with additional force; but even where it is light, the danger arising from frequent removal may render it desirable to have all the processes carried on in the same building.  In the cutting and polishing of glass this is the case; whilst in the art of needle-making several of the processes are carried on in the cottages of the workmen.  It is, however, clear that the latter plan, which is attended with some advantages to the family of the workmen, can be adopted only where there exists a sure and quick method of knowing that the work has been well done, and that the whole of the materials given out have been really employed.