not participate in these regrets. Science | them out of the line of fire, as if engaged in gives as much as she takes. She creates as a great dance on the surface of the deep. much poetry as she destroys. For the ro- In short, wherever science has obtained a firm mance of fiction, she substitutes the nobler footing, numbers of these magnificent myr. romance of reality. She, too, has her spirits, midons are now to be found. She has supmany and mighty; and of these the most plied us with a race of servitors who will potent, whilst it is also the most manageable, bend their energies to any task their masters IS STEAM. At the present hour this country may think proper to prescribe. Without one is covered with a host of dumb docile giants, murmur at the severity of the labor imposed, who are toiling night and day for man, and without needing a single day's holiday, or who have done far more for their masters in scarcely an hour's repose, these noble belots a single hour, than all the fairies and familiars of civilization are now charging themselves that ever lived in the poet's brain, or the with the chief drudgery of this planet. Who peasant's faith. Rightly considered, we be- then will say that there is no poetry in lieve there are few spectacles so striking as steam, when he considers the multifarious the services which are rendered by these ver- offices to which its powers are appliedsatile but obedient monsters. Is water to be pumping, sawing, printing, coining, spinning, drawn up from the recesses of the mine, or blasting, forging, paddling, propelling? We ore to be lifted to the surface? Set your do not wonder that the good Marquis of giant to work, and the duty will be performed Worcester, who made some small advances without pay or reward. Are the thousand towards this great invention, fell upon his wheels and spindles of a manufactory to be kness "when first with his corporal eyes he kept in rapid rotation, and yet each thread did see finished a trial of his water-comspun out with as much delicacy of movement manding engine;" and though he could have as if you were weaving a spider's web? but a very dim perception of its coming Summon up the ready vassal steam, and he glories, yet from the "bottom of his heart will execute the work with a gentler touch and bowels" rendered thanks to Heaven for than that of a lady, and with greater power vouchsafing to him "an insight into so great and persistency than forty horses. Is force a secret of nature, beneficent to all mankind." wanted to drive those massive hammers The man to whom we are chiefly indebted which mould the glowing iron like dough, or for conjuring up this host of valuable goblins those rollers which crush a lump of metal the magician, at whose summons they as it passes through them like a long fiery came from the vasty deep of thought,and filled serpent, until it emerges a straight shapely the land with their labors-was the memorrod? Not Vulcan, with all his Cyclops, able James Watt. Respecting him and his could manage the process as neatly and dex- splendid creations, we have now three goodly terously as steam. Go into the printing volumes before us. They contain first, an office, where thousands of copies of a journal introductory memoir; second, the correare required before day has well dawned; spondence of Watt; and third, a collection and there the busy giant is at work patiently of patents, specifications, law cases, and twirling the type-covered cylinders, and other illustrative documents. Considering stamping their news upon broad sheets, the interest attached to the steam-engine, which will be scattered over England before we think that its history is as well worthy of the sun has fairly set. Do you wish to trav- copious research as that of any little kingerse the island at the rate of some forty dom. We therefore welcome Mr. Muirhead's miles an hour, or to transport a huge mass valuable contribution to the most brilliant of luggage from London to Edinburgh in the chapter in the annals of mechanical science. course of a day? Put the faithful servant The author-perhaps we ought rather to say steam in harness, and that which all the fan- editor-has discharged his duties with scrutastic creations of mythology could not have pulous fidelity, and with a sincere desire to accomplished, had they been yoked to the rear a worthy monument to the memory vehicle, he will effect with the precision of an his illustrious relative. As an executor of intelligent thing. Turn to the ocean, and James Watt the younger, who died in 1848, there the potent spirit is to be seen impelling he became possessed of the papers which vessels across the Atlantic, or conducting war that gentleman had prepared for a work on ships to the point of attack, and carrying his father's inventions; and the discovery of a long series of letters, of which it was thought that no copies had been preserved, has enabled Mr. Muirhead to fill up a blank

* The reader will remember the naval attack at

Odessa, last year.

of the most provoking description, because | empties the pocket of the collector who purit comprehended the period when Watt was chases. working out the idea which may be said to constitute the vital principle of his engine. The writer has endeavored as far as possible to make Watt his own historian and commentator; to use his own expressive phrase, he has striven to render it a self-acting biography. But in doing so, he has been compelled to omit much of the incident which appertains to a true memoir; and the reader who goes to these volumes must not expect to meet with a complete life either of the man or the inventor. Perhaps we could have wished, for the sake of securing the work a larger circulation by lessening its bulk and price, that Mr. Muirhead had crushed a portion of his materials into a much smaller compass. He might have employed a "condensing apparatus" with some effect. The vaporous verbiage of a patent might have been reduced to a single paragraph of fact; nor do we think that readers would have objected, had the Act of Parliament and case at law, with the speech of Mr. Rous, and other legal prolixities, been compressed into a shape demanding less time and patience for their perusal. Perhaps Mr. Muirhead will also pardon us if we venture to give him a goodhumored hint respecting his tendency to the employment of the Johnsonian tongue. We submit that this dialect is not only too anti-strument maker as that by which his future quated for the modern press, but that it is particularly unfortunate when applied to such a lively, rattling thing as modern steam.* It was all very well for the leviathan of literature to write big, but it wont do for us little fishes to talk like great whales. Johnsoneese is almost extinct. A crisper style is required. The impatience of readers, the exigencies of space, and the importunities of printers, alike demand that who undertakes the perilous duty of informing the ignorant, or amusing the curious, should endeavor to write with the brevity of Tacitus, the terseness of Macaulay, and the rapidity of Dumas. Prolix-versity." ity of composition, were it always practicable, were rarely appropriate: it chills the ardors of genius in him who produces, as it fatigues the attention of the student who peruses, and

With this faint little demur, which we regret the more because the space assigned to matters of a formal description might, at any rate, have been devoted to a fuller biography of Watt, we have great pleasure in commending these handsome and elaborate volumes to the attention of the public. It is not our purpose to enter into any details respecting Watt's life, except so far as they bear upon his inventions. The reader must therefore be pleased to suppose him born at Greenock in 1736-a feeble and delicate child-brought up by parents in a somewhat humble rank-drawing geometrical figures on the floor at an early age, after the fashion of Blaise Pascal-displaying an infantile affection for mechanics by pulling toys to pieces, not from any natural propensity to destroy, but from a sincere curiosity to understand their construction-reading all the books to which he could obtain access, but exhibiting a particular fondness for poetry and fairy tales-pondering over steam as it issued from the tea-kettle, and contriving electrical machines, or trying miscellaneous experiments in natural philosophy-and then, when it became necessary to put on harness, and take his share in the world's work, choosing the business of a mathematical in

*

E. g. "In the case of illustrious heroes and statesmen, poets, orators or artists, who have attained the height of their glory in their own time, it often happens that when the excitement of contemporary interest, the influence of power, or the partiality of friendship is removed, the judgment which posterity pronounces on their achievements is not unal

loyed by the hesitation of doubt, the coldness of criticism, or the severity of censure." Introductory Memoir, p. 1.

livelihood might be most congenially procured. After a short engagement as a journeyman in London, where he caught a severe cold, which is said to have sown the rudiments of many an ache in his constitution, and where he was frequently compelled to remain in-doors, lest he should be seized by the press-gang, then very busy in picking up naval heroes in the streets, Watt proceeded to Glasgow in 1756, and in 1757 established himself within the walls of the college, having obtained permission to mount the title of "mathematical instrument maker to the Uni

It is always interesting to notice the trivial circumstances on which the fortunes of mankind appear to depend. The history of inventions is rich in illustrations. The University of Glasgow happened to possess a small model of Newcomen's steam-engine. This fact is of no slight moment to us all; for had it not been the case, it is to be doubted whether a single railway would yet have been in existence in the kingdom. By a further stroke of good fortune, this little engine would not work satisfactorily; had it done so, not a single vessel in our fleets of war

| brought into the field to toil and struggle for mankind?

Watt's quick eye soon discovered the great defect in the Newcomen engine. But to provide a remedy was a task of a most formidable description, because it appeared to involve a paradox. He concentrated all his thoughts, however, upon the machine. To use his own words, he became "quite barren" as to every other subject of research. It was his opinion that there was generally & "weak side in nature," and that if this vulnerable spot could be detected, she might be easily "vanquished." See him, therefore, day after day, examining the subject in every light, and probing it in every part, in order to discover the most assailable point. With a tenacity of purpose and a patience of attack which would have charmed all specta tors had these qualities been exhibited in some showy enterprise, Watt laid stern siege to the question, and for many months kept "Nature" in a state of inflexible blockade.

might have been provided with paddles or screw-propellers to the present hour. It was resolved that the refractory thing should be repaired, and it was accordingly sent to an instrument maker in London for the purpose; but, as if entertaining some dim presentiment that to succeed would be to stand in the way of civilization, this individual obligingly failed in the attempt. The model was then returned to Glasgow, and the box that contained it carried a far more valuable freight than Cæsar and his fortunes. In the winter of 1763-64 it was placed in the hands of James Watt, who had happily been driven to seek refuge within the precincts of the university by the hostility of the borough authorities, these worthies not considering him formally qualified to practice in the city itself. This was the most felicitous occurrence of all. Had the model been entrusted to James White or James Brown, it might have been "all up" with that age; and we, instead of travelling express, might still have been creeping along rough turnpike roads in those four-wheeled cottages which seemed to be the lairs of importunate guards and insatiable coachmen. But, falling as it did into the hands of a youthful mechanician, to whom everything became the subject of "a new and serious study" which it was known he would not quit until he had extracted some decisive result, there was hope that he, if any one, would discover the colossal capabilities of the power which lay slumbering in this little toy. He applied himself accordingly to the task. Without wishing to assign any fantastic importance to a mechanical invention, we may well believe that the hours during which Watt hung over this model, were hours deserving of more honorable mention in the chronicles of our race than many of those wherein great battles have been fought, or When the piston had travelled to the foot great political convulsions have occurred. If of the cylinder, steam was re-admitted until the big heart of humanity ever flutters in its the pressure of the atmosphere above was pulsations when some pregnant event is counterbalanced beneath, and then the weight about to transpire, may we not fancy that it of the apparatus attached to the other exwould beat with a quicker throb when the tremity of the beam drew up the piston-rod genius of this man spread its wings over the again. The business of the steam, therefore, chaos of schemes then associated with the was simply to neutralize the weight of the thought of steam, and shaped them into a atmosphere during the ascent of the piston, creation of marvellous beauty and power? but when this was accomplished, it became If a new race of animals were about to be desirable to kick away the ladder whereby added to the tribes already existing on the the latter had mounted, as speedily and as globe, with what interest should we watch effectually as possible—a very human sort of their advent; why not, when a splendid in-proceeding-in order that there might then vention is about to be ushered into the world, and a new order of herculean agents is

To understand the difficulty, it is necessary to advert to the principle of the Newcomen machine, which was then the only popular form wherein steam-power was employed. It may be enough to inform the general reader that after the vapor had been admitted into the cylinder, it was condensed by allowing a jet of cold water to enter. In consequence a partial vacuum was produced beneath the piston, which we suppose at starting to be at the summit of the cylinder. The pressure of the atmospheric column resting upon the upper surface of this pis ton, and loading it with a weight of 147 pounds to the square inch, then forced it down, just as the plunger of a squirt, if raised when the whole is stopped, will be driven to the bottom of the tube the moment the hand is withdrawn.

be no obstruction to its descent.

But here lay the seeming paradox which

either by forming it of some non-conducting substance like wood, or by clothing it with a "jacket" of that material, or by surrounding it entirely with steam. And during the course of these inquiries, it is worthy of remark, that he stumbled upon the doctrine of latent heat, without any intimation that Dr. Black had already elicited the same interesting principle himself.

Early in the year 1765, however, a lucky conception flashed through his brain. Suppose that instead of attempting to condense the vapor in the cylinder this part of the process were effected in a separate vessel? Steam, being an elastic substance, would rush into any cavity which might be open to it, and there it might be reduced to water without damaging the temperature of the rest of the apparatus. And thus, instead of ushering those two pugnacious principles into the same receptacle, where their energies were crippled by a system of mutual assault, it would be possible, when severed, to turn their resources to the fullest account. condenser might in fact be immersed in the frostiest water which could be procured, whilst the caloric of the cylinder might be husbanded by every artifice that ingenuity could suggest. The former might be kept as cool as Spitzbergen; the latter as ardent as Ethiopia.

The

Watt had to vanquish. He saw that the value of the engine depended in a great measure upon the rapidity and the completeness with which the vacuum could be produced. | Yet were it necessary to wait several minutes between each stroke, or if the steam were so imperfectly condensed that the atmospheric force must be largely counteracted by its presence beneath the piston, just by so much was the practical efficiency of the machine diminished. The colder, therefore, the water injected, and the larger the quantity supplied, the sooner would the vapor be disposed of within the cylinder. Very good: but there was a per contra side to the question. The more effectually the process of cooling was executed during the down-stroke, the worse for the engine when the up-stroke was to be performed. For upon the readmission of steam into the cylinder-now severely chilled by the cold injection-much time was necessarily lost in simply recovering from the exhaustion of the previous beat, and much vapor consumed in merely making head against the wintry temperature within. Here then was as pretty a problem as could well be imagined! For one part of the process, it was desirable that the apparatus should be rendered excessively hot; for the other, excessively cool. One way the cylinder should be kept not lower than 212°; the other, not higher than 100°. And to make the matter Now simple as an idea may seem when more perplexing, it was essential for the well- your egg has been made to stand on an end, working of the engine that these transitions and obvious as Watt's discovery may appear from a tropical to an arctic climate should be when once expressed, we are bold to affirm brought about with considerable rapidity that if the notion of a separate condenser just as it was all-important in the description were to be estimated by its money-value of Purgatory given by Drithelm, and report- alone, it would have been cheap at many ed by the Venerable Bede, that the poor millions sterling. It was proved on one of souls who are represented as passing alter- the trials at law that with a single bushel of nately from a region of extravagant heat to coals thirty millions of pounds could be lifted one of everlasting frost, should be compelled to a foot high upon his principle, whilst only make the change without any gradual season-eight millions could be raised through the ing, in order that the fullest possible amount of torture might be extracted from their circumstances. It seemed in fact as if Hot and Cold, those ancient champions fierce, must needs be shut up in the same cylinder, and an attempt made, not merely to reconcile them, but to render their hostility so harmonious that it should produce a steady, regular, and even rhythmical movement.

At first Watt appears to have thought that as the saving of fuel was a cardinal consideration in all questions of steam economy, it would be safest to take part with the champion heat. Accordingly he tried a great number of experiments to ascertain how the cylinder might be best defended against cold,

same space by Newcomen's engine. Had it therefore been necessary to purchase this brilliant conception on the ground of economy merely, Englishmen would have done well to subscribe and buy its author a small county, and the British government would not have taken an injudicious step had they obtained for him the fee-simple of the Isle of Wight or of some snug little colony.

The spots where great discoveries are achieved ought to be held in perpetual respect. There, monuments should be erected to show that a new thought alighted in the world. The latitude and longitude of Watt's valuable conception have been roughly indicated by himself. One afternoon as he was proceed