The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated: With an Account of Its Invention and Progressive Improvement, and Its Application to Navigation and Railways; Including Also a Memoir of Watt

Portada
Taylor and Walton, 1840 - 535 páginas

Dentro del libro

Índice


Otras ediciones - Ver todo

Términos y frases comunes

Pasajes populares

Página 321 - Enlarged the resources of his country, Increased the power of man, And rose to an eminent place Among the most illustrious followers of science And the real benefactors of the world.
Página 25 - ... which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough ; for I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it...
Página 316 - This potent commander of the elements — this abridger of time and space — this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a change on the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are, perhaps, only now beginning to be felt — was not only the most profound man of science — the most successful combiner of powers, and calculator of numbers, as adapted to practical purposes — was not only one of the most generally wellinformed, but one of the best and kindest of human beings.
Página 319 - ... up almost to the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit, and the social gaiety which had illuminated his happiest days. His friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, never more delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit to Scotland in autumn, 1817.
Página 316 - By his admirable contrivance, it has become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its flexibility — for the prodigious power which it can exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility, with which that power can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it.
Página 319 - There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any more than of pride or levity, in his demeanour : and there was a finer expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for all sorts of forwardness, parade, and pretensions ; and, indeed, never failed to put all such impostors out of countenance, by the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and deportment.
Página 316 - His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One gentleman was a deep philologist, — he talked with him on the origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus ; another a celebrated critic, — you would have said the old man had studied political economy and belles-lettres all his life ; — of science it is unnecessary to speak, it was his own distinguished walk.
Página 316 - W"e have said that Mr. Watt was the great improver of the steam-engine ; but, in truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in its utility, he should rather be described as its inventor. It was by his inventions that its action was so regulated, as to make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, and its power so increased, as to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his admirable...
Página 315 - Afrite; commanding manufactures to arise, as the rod of the prophet produced water in the desert; affording the means of dispensing with that time and tide which wait for no man; and of sailing without that wind which defied the commands and threats of Xerxes himself.
Página 24 - An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the philosopher calleth it, infra spheeram activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough...

Información bibliográfica