THE
STEAM ENGINE
FAMILIARLY EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED;
WITH
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ITS INVENTION AND
PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT;
ITS APPLICATIONS TO
NAVIGATION AND RAILWAYS;
WITH
PLAIN MAXIMS FOR RAILWAY SPECULATORS.
BY THE
REV. DIONYSIUS LARDNER, LL. D., F. R. S.,
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH; OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY; OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY; OF THE CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY; OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS; OF THE LINNÆAN AND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETIES; OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING USEFUL ARTS IN SCOTLAND, ETC.
WITH ADDITIONS AND NOTES,
BY JAMES RENWICK, LL. D.,
PROFESSOR OF NATURAL EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND CHEMISTRY IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK.
ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS AND WOODCUTS.
SECOND AMERICAN, FROM THE FIFTH LONDON, EDITION, CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED.
PHILADELPHIA:
E. L. CAREY & A. HART.
1836
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by E. L.Carey & A. Hart, in the Clerk's office of the District Court for theEastern District of Pennsylvania.
(p. v) PREFACE
OF
THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
Several of the additions, which were made by the Editor to the firstAmerican edition, have been superseded by the great extension, whichthe original has from time to time received from its author. This ismore particularly the case, with the sections which had reference tothe character of steam at temperatures other than that of boilingwater, to the use of steam in navigation, and to its application tolocomotion. These sections have of course been omitted. A few newsections, and several notes have been added, illustrative of suchpoints as may be most interesting to the American reader.
Columbia College,
New York, March, 1836.
(p. vii) PREFACE
TO
THE FIFTH EDITION.
This volume should more properly be called a new work than a newedition of the former one. In fact the book has been almost rewritten.The change which has taken place, even in the short period which haselapsed since the publication of the first edition, in the relation ofthe steam engine to the useful arts, has been so considerable as torender this inevitable.
The great extension of railroads, and the increasing number ofprojects which have been brought forward for new lines connectingvarious points of the kingdom, as well as the extension of steamnavigation, not only through the seas and channels surrounding andintersecting these islands, and throughout other parts of Europe, butthrough the larger waters which are interposed between our dominionsin the East a