TO THE MECHANICS OF GREAT BRITAIN, WHOSE INTELLIGENCE, INGENUITY, AND INDUSTRY, CONSTITUTE THE WEALTH AND GLORY OF THE PEOPLE, BY WHOSE TALENT IN CONTRIVANCE AND EXECUTION IN MACHINERY OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, This Nation HAS BEEN ENABLED TO SURPASS ALL OTHERS IN THE EXCELLENCE OF HER MANUFACTURES, AND WHO, IN PARTICULAR, HAVE BEEN CHIEFLY INSTRUMENTAL IN BRINGING The Steam Engine TO ITS PRESENT STATE OF IMPROVEMENT, THIS HISTORY OF ITS INVENTION AND PROGRESS IS DEDICATED, BY THE AUTHORS. PREFACE. THE invention of the STEAM ENGINE has been productive of so great a change in the arts and conveniences of life, that it may with justice be regarded as an era in the history of the world. It is true that other inventions have raised the intellectual greatness of man, far beyond the anticipations of rational conjecture; that they have enabled him to number the stars, to describe their motions, and bring within the grasp of his faculties those myriads of orbs, which had been esteemed far beyond the compass of his vision, to direct his way unerringly across the pathless ocean,-to stop the course of rivers, to convert the shallow brook into a spacious navigable canal,—to fertilise the barren rocks,—and change the unfrequented desart into the active theatre of his genius! But, however great were the capabilities of man before the invention of the Steam Engine, they have since been multiplied beyond calculation. The mariner avails him- . self of its gigantic power, and the roaring winds and the rushing tides no longer oppose his progress over the watery deep;—the miner calls for its aid—then rivers rise vertically out of the depths of the earth, which had previously arrested his operations;-that useful mineral which is our fuel, is torn from its rocky bed to supply our hearths; and those invaluable metals are drawn from their profound recesses to form the implements and machines J. B |