A DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY OF THE STEAM ENGINE. BY ROBERT STUART, ESQ. CIVIL ENGINEER. "It must be acknowledged that this is the most wonderful of all machines, and that nothing of the work of man approaches so near to animal life. Heat is the principle of its movements; there is in its tubes a circulation like that of the blood in the veins of animals, having valves which open and shut in proper periods; it feeds itself, evacuates such portions of its food as are useless, and draws from its own labours all which is necessary to its own subsistence."-Belidor. ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS OF FORTY-SEVEN ENGINES. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: JOHN KNIGHT AND HENRY LACEY, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCXXIV 1 |