cooling the cylinder down to the temperature of the water of condensation. The result of this operation was that, when the next charge of steam was introduced, the first action was the heating-up of the cylinder to the temperature of the steam itself by the condensation and waste of a corresponding amount of steam which otherwise might have been applied to the impulsion of the machine. This enormous waste was first observed and ameliorated by Watt, and the work of all great inventors improving the steam-engine, from his time to ours, has been mainly the reduction of wastes, partly by modifications of the construction and partly by the gradual progress in the elevation of steam pressures, in increasing the speed of the engine, and in making available a more complete expansion, which has attracted the attention of every intelligent observer of its advancement from that day to this.
The machine of Watt, in its most perfect state at the commencement of this century, was, at its best, a slowly-moving, cumbersome, wasteful, and feeble machine, as compared with the modern forms of engine familiar to us as the motors of our steamships, our railway trains. our factories, and our mills. Today it represents the noblest product of the invntive genius of man. We may to-day say, more unreservedly than could Belidor:
“VOILA LA PLUS MERVEILLEUSE DE TOUTES
LES MACHINES ; le Mécanisme res-
semble 4 celui des animaux. La chaleur est le principe de son mouvement; il se fait dans ses différens tuyaux une circulation, comme celle du sang dans les veines, ayant des valvules qui s’ouvrent et se ferment a propos; elles se nourrit, s’évacue d’elle méme dans les temps réglés, et tire de son travail tout ce qu'il lui faut pour subsister.”
Before we can judge with confidence whether this most wonderful of all the marvellous inventions of the mechanic is approaching its last days, it will be necessary to consider what is the nature of this energy-transforming machine; what are its powers ; whence derived ; what its advantages and disadvantages, its merits and its defects ; what it has done, is doing, can do; to what extent further growth and improvement seem to be possible; what seem to be the limits which are being approached ; where further improvement may probably cease ; when may we reasonably expect to see it reach those limits, and what may we anticipate to be the powers and characteristics of the finally perfected machine, when man’s genius can no further go. We must also
