A short encyclopedia article on the hydraulic cotton-compress, a steam-powered press used to bale cotton for cheaper shipping and storage. It describes the machine's construction (three hydraulic cylinders, cross-head, platens), its high- and low-pressure steam cylinders and rams, the 3000-ton pressure and the 500-pound bale it produces, and a capacity of 100 bales per hour. A plate engraving of the Miller & Bierce press (Philadelphia) accompanies the text.

Three engraved plates (Plates 482-484, pages 555-557) illustrating textile manufacturing machinery from a mid-19th-century encyclopaedia. The first shows cotton processing machines such as carding engines, drawing frames, lapping and spinning machines; the second shows wool carding, combing, drawing and spinning machines; the third shows looms, shuttles, harness and jacquard-type mechanisms. Figures are numbered and lettered for reference, but the sampled text contains only plate titles and figure numbers.

An illustrated encyclopedia chapter on the machinery of textile manufacture, from the early history of spinning and weaving through nineteenth-century industrial equipment. It covers cotton ginning, opening, carding and spinning (jenny, mule, spinning-frame), wool and flax preparation, warping, beaming, looms, Jacquard machines, dobbies and carpet looms. It then treats finishing machines (fulling, shearing, pressing, napping), twisting and braiding, knitting frames and sewing-machines, with the history of the main inventors. Roughly 20 engraved plates show the machines in detail, and there are no weaving drafts.