Download Conversations on Chemistry [by J. Marcet]. by Mrs. Marcet Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 edition. Excerpt: ... carriages, or the various other purposes to which it is applied. If you comprehend the principle of its action, it is easy to conceive that it may be so modified, as to render it applicable to wheels, or any other mechanical power whatever. I cannot conclude this subject better than in the words of Mr. Stuart, in his descriptive history of the steam-engine: "We 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 invention 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 contrivances, it has become a thing alike stupendous for its force and its flexibility; for the prodigious powers which it can exert, and the ease, precision, and ductility with which they can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant that can pick up a pin, or rend an oak, is nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal like wax before it; draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as a gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bubble in the air. It can embroider muslin, forge anchors, cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves. "It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which these inventions have conferred upon the country. There is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and in all the most material, they have not only widened most magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a thousand-fold the amount...