Steam-Engine
CHAPTER IV. .J.1JE MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. "THOSE projects which abridge distance bnve done most for the civiliza ..tion and happiness of our species."-MACAULAY. THE SECOND PERIOD OF APPLIC.ATION-18OO-'4O. STE.AM-LOCOMOTION ON RAILROADS. lNTRODUCTORY.-The commencement of the nineteenth century found the modern steam-engine fully developed in .. :.... �::�£:��r:- ::::. Fro. 40.-The First Railroad-Car, 1S25. a.11 its principal features, and fairly at work in many depart ments of industry. The genius of Worcester, and Morland, and Savery, and Dcsaguliers, had, in the first period of the · STEA�l-LOCOMOTION ON RAILROADS. 145 application of the po,ver of steam to useful ,vork, effected a beginning ,vhich, looked upon from a point of vie,v vvhich · exhibits its importance as the first step to,vard the wonder ful results to-day familiar to every one, appears in its true light, and entitles those great men to even greater honor than has been accorded them. The results actually accom plishecl, ho,vever, were absolutely. insignificant in compari son with those ,vhich marked the period of development just described. Yet even the work of Watt and of his con temporaries ,vas but a 1nere prelude to the marvellous ad vances made in the succeeding period, to which ,ve are now come, and, in · extent and importance, was insignificant in co1nparison ,vith that accomplishecl by tl1eir successors in · the development of all mechanical industries by the appli cation of the steam-engine to the movement of every kind of machine. 'fhe firstof the two periods of application saw the steam engine adapted simply to tl1e elevation of water and t,he drainage of mines ; during the second period it ,vas adapted to every variety of use£ul ,vork, and introduced ,vherever the muscular strength of men and animals, or the power of ,vind and of falling ,vater, ,vl1ich had previously been the only motors, had found application.
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