THE STEAM ENGINE.
SECTION I.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE INVENTION AND PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT OF
THE STEAM ENGINE.
Art. 1. When an efficient mechanical power is produced by the generation, or
generation and condensation, of the steam or vapour of any liquid, the combination
of vessels and machinery for that purpose is called a Steam Engine. This engine
was for a considerable time after its invention called a Fire Engine, and not
improperly, for the active agent is heat or fire. The liquid almost universally
employed for obtaining steam is water, but it may be obtained from alcohol, ether,
and other fluids; fortunately, however, water, the most easily procured, is equal
if not superior to any other.
2. That the application of heat would generate steam from water, and that
the steam so generated would issue with much force from a small aperture in the
vessel employed to generate it in, must have been known at a very early period.
The eolipile, and some other similar instruments for illustrating natural pheno
mena, were well known among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Vitruvius,
who wrote during the reign of Augustus Cæsar, refers to the eolipile as an illus
tration of the effect of heat in producing winds ; 1 but he clearly had no idea of
steam being rendered useful as a mechanical power. Philibert de l’Orme pro
posed placing an eolipile over a fire as a means of impelling smoke up a chimney, 2
and several applications of this instrument are described in the works of Solomon de
Caus, Brancas, Van Drebbel, and various other writers, the greater part of whom
are mentioned by M. Montgéry, 3 an author who has been at considerable trouble
to show that the invention of the steam engine is not of English origin.
3. But unless it be shown that an engine had been actually invented, and was
undoubtedly applicable to some of the purposes for which the steam engine is now
1 Vitruvius, lib. i. cap. vi. 2 Traité d’Architecture, folio, Paris, 1567.
3 Notice Historique sur l’Invention des Machines à Vapeur.
A
