Applies him-
His estimate
Slide-valves, 229. That contrived by Mr. Murray, 229.
Smeaton, John, investigates the atmospheric engine, 76.
self to the improvement of wind and water mills, 181.
of the horse power of engines, 288.
Solomon De Caus, description of the apparatus of, 17. M. Arago claims
for him a share of the honour of the invention of the steam engine,
21. Republished, with additions, the work of Isaac De Caus, 22.
Somerset, Edward, Marquis of Worcester. Invention of the steam
engine ascribed to him, 23. Description of his contrivance, 23.
His "Century of Inventions," 24. Brief account of his engine
described in this work, 31. His contrivance compared with that of
De Caus, 33. Many of his inventions have been reproduced and
brought into general use, 34.
Steam cannot be applied immediately to any useful purpose, but requires
the interposition of mechanism, 11. Elastic force of, recognised by
the ancients only in vague and general terms, 14. The power of,
formerly made to minister to the objects of superstition, mentioned
by Arago, 15. Anecdote showing the knowledge which the ancients
had of the mechanical force of, 15. The discovery of the conden-
sation of, by Papin, 45. Mechanical power obtained from the direct
pressure of the elastic force of, suggested by De Caus and Lord Wor-
cester, 73.
Latent heat of, 107. The mechanical force of consi-
dered, 115. Watt's early experiments on, 87. Discovery of the
expansive action of, 157. Expansive action of stated by Watt in a
letter to Dr. Small, 157. Its principle explained, 158. Mechanical
effect resulting from it, 161. Properties of, 168. Common and
super-heated steam, 168. Pressure and temperature of, 171.
lation between the temperatures of common steam and its pressure
and density, 172. Effects of the expansion of common steam, 173.
Mechanical effects of, 173. Methods of equalising the varying force
of expanding steam, 174. Method of producing a vacuum by the
condensation of, discovered by Papin, 178. Applied to move ma-
chinery, 179. Steam guage, 270. Heating by steam brought for-
ward by Watt, 303. A machine for drying linen by, invented by
Watt, 303. Mode of escape of, from the engines on the Liverpool
Steam case or jacket, invented by Watt, 124.
Steam engine, a subject of popular interest, 3. The effects which it
has produced upon the well-being of the human race considered, 4.
Presents peculiar claims upon the attention of the people of Great
Britain, 5. The exclusive offspring of British genius, 5. The
virtues and powers which it has conferred upon coals, 6. Water the
means of calling these powers into activity, 6. Used in the drainage
of Cornish mines, 7. Comparison of its power with human labour, 8.
Investigation of the origin of, 10. A combination of a great variety of
contrivances and the production of several inventions, 12. Before
the discoveries of James Watt was of extremely limited power, 12.
Invention of, ascribed to the Marquis of Worcester, 23. Account of
Savery's, 49. Farey quoted, 58. Improvements made by Desa-
guliers, 58. Applied to the drainage of mines, 59. Humphrey
Potter's contrivance, 72. Advantages of the atmospheric engine over
that of Savery, 73. Progress of the atmospheric engine, 75. De-
scription of Papin's engine, 62. Smeaton's improvements, 76. First
experiments of Watt and subsequent improvements, 83. Watt's ex-
periments on the force of steam at high pressure, 83. Watt discovers
the great defects of the atmospheric engine, 85. Waste of heat in
atmospheric engine, 89. Dr. Black's theory of latent heat, 93. De-
scription of Watt's experimental engine at Kinneal, 131. Description
of his single-acting engine, 133. Disadvantages of the atmospheric com-
pared with the old engine, 150. Expedients to force the atmospheric
engines into use, 152. Watt's exertions to improve the manufacture
of, at Soho, 155. Efficiency of fuel in the new engines, 156. Horn-
blower's engine, 175. Woolf's engine, 176. Watt endeavours to bring
to perfection the application of, to the drainage of mines, 178.
Papin's projected application of, 178. Savery proposed to apply
his steam engine as a prime mover for all sorts of machinery, 180.
Jonathan Hull's application of, to water-wheels, 180. Steam engine
used for driving water wheels, 182. First attempt of this kind
made by Oxley, 182. Stewart's application of, to mill work, 182.
Wasbrough's application of the fly-wheel and crank, 183. Reasons
why Watt's single-acting engine was not adapted to produce con-
tinuous uniform motion of rotation, 184. Watt's second patent, 186.
Valves of double-acting engine, 189. Condensing jet, 191.
thods of connecting the piston-rod and beam in the double-acting
engine, 193. Rack and sector, 194. Parallel motion, 195. Con-
necting rod and crank, 202. Fly-wheel, 205. Throttle-valve, 207.
Adaptation of the governor, 209. Double-acting engine considered
as a whole, 216. Process of its operation investigated, 217. The
eccentric, 225. Cocks and valves, 227. Single clack-valve, 227.
Double clack-valve, 228. Conical steam-valves, 228. Slide-valves,
229. Murray's slide-valve, 229. D valve, 230. Seaward's slides,
235. Single cock, 238. Four-way cock, 239. Pistons, 242.
Gross effect and useful effect of engines, 285. Power and duty of,
287. Horse power of, 288. The means whereby mechanical power
is expended in working the engines enumerated, 290. Common
rules followed by engine makers, 292. Duty of engines, 294. Duty
distinguished from power, 295. Proportion of stroke to diameter of
cylinder, 295. Cornish system of inspection, 297. Improvement
of the Cornish engines, 298. Historical detail of the duty of
Cornish engines, 299. High-pressure engines, 321. Leupold's
engine described, 323. Construction of the first high-pressure
engine by Messrs. Trevethick and Vivian, 324. First application of
the steam engine to propel carriages on railroads, 328. Computation
of how much corn could be saved by the substitution of steam engines
for horse power, 332. Marine engines, form and arrangement of,
441. Difference between marine and land engines, 443. Mr.
Howard's patent engine described, 464. Humphrey's engine de-
scribed, 470.
Steam navigation to India, 483. First established in America, 487.
Circumstances which led to it, 488. Attempts of Fitch and Rumsey
to apply the single-acting engine to the propulsion of vessels, 489.
Stevens of Hoboken commences experiments in, 489. Experiments
of Livingstone and Fulton, 489. Fulton's first boat, 490. The
Hudson navigated by steam, 491. Extension and improvement of
river navigation, 492. American steamers, 494. Difference between
them and European steamers 494.
Sea-going American steamers, 496.
steamers, 497. Lake steamers, 499.
Steamers on the Hudson, 494.
Speed attained by American
Steam-boats on the Mississippi,
Steep inclinations, method of surmounting, 415.
Stephenson, his locomotive engine at Killingworth, 339. Defect of,
341. Constructed the driving wheels without flanges, 383.
Stevens, of Hoboken, commences experiments on steam navigation,
489.
Stewart, his application of the steam engine to mill work, 182.
Stoking, process of, 462.
Stuffing-box, contrivance of, 147.
Sun and planet wheels, method of producing rotatory motion, 187.
Thermometers, the process of filling described, 44.
Construction of mercurial thermometer, 98. Me-
thod of graduating, 99.
Thermometer gauge, 270.
Throttle-valve, description of, 207.
Tredgold, his remark relative to Newcomen's engine, 73.
Trevethick and Vivian's engine described, 325.
Vacuum, force obtained by a, 43. The pump an illustration of this,
43.
Valves of double-acting engine, 189.
Wasbrough, his application of the fly-wheel and crank, 183.
Water, a pint of, the mechanical force produced by its evaporation, 6.
The alternate decomposition and recomposition of, by magnetism and
electricity, analogous to vaporisation and condensation, 8. The fixed
temperature which it assumes in boiling subject to variation, 108.
Experiments to illustrate this, 109. Table to show the temperature
at which it will boil under different pressures of the atmosphere, 113.
Mechanical force of a cubic inch of, converted into steam, 118. Dis-
covery of the composition of, 303. The merit of this discovery
shared between Cavendish, Lavoisier, and Watt, 305. Latent heat
of, 101. Conversion of ice into, 103.
Water-wheels, steam engine used for turning, 182.
Watt (James), birth of, 77. His infancy, 78. Anecdotes respecting,
78. His boyhood, 79. Goes to London, 80. Returns to Glasgow,
80. Appointed mathematical instrument-maker to the university,
Adam Smith one of his earliest friends and patrons, 81. Also
Black and Robert Simson, 81. Extract from an unpublished manu-
script of Robison respecting the character of, 82.
His first expe-
riments on steam,
83. Observes defects of atmospheric engine, 84.
His first attempt to improve it, by using a wooden instead of an
iron cylinder, 85. His method to ascertain the temperatures at
which water would boil under pressures less than that of the atmo-
sphere, 86. His early experiments on steam, 87. His notice of the
waste of heat in atmospheric engines, 89. His experiments to deter-
mine the extent to which water enlarged its volume when it passed
into steam, 90. Discovers the latent heat of steam, 91. Learns the
theory of latent heat, 93. His letter to Dr. Brewster, explaining
the circumstances which led to the error that a large share of the
merit of his discoveries were due to Black, 93. Finds that conden-
sation in the cylinder is incompatible with a due economy of fuel,
120. Conceives the notion of condensing out of the cylinder, 120.
Discovers separate condensation, 121. Invents the air-pump, 122.
Substitutes steam pressure for atmospheric pressure, 123. Invents
the steam case or jacket, 124. His first experiments to realise
these inventions, 125. His experimental apparatus, 126. Difficul-
ties of bringing the improved engines into use, 128. Practises as a
civil engineer, 129. Makes a survey of the river Clyde, 129. His
partnership with Dr. Roebuck, 130. His first patent, 130. De-
scription of his experimental engine at Kinneal, 131. Removes to
Soho, 131. Abstract of the act of parliament for the extension of.
his patent, 132. Description of his single-acting engine, 133–144.
His condenser worked by an injection, 146. Objections attending
condensation by surface, 146. Improvements in construction of pis-
ton, 147. Effected by a contrivance called a stuffing-box, 147.
Method of packing, 148. Improved methods of boring the cylinder,
149. His letter to Smeaton on this subject, 149. Used black-lead
dust for the purpose of lubrication, 149. This found to wear the
cylinder, 149. Disadvantages of the atmospheric compared with the
old engines, 150. Greatly increased economy of fuel, 151. Expe-
dients to force the atmospheric engines into use, 152. His corre-
spondence with Boulton, 153. His correspondence with Smeaton,
154. Exertions to improve the manufacture of engines at Soho, 155.
Efficiency of fuel in the new engines, 156. Endeavours to bring to
perfection the application of the steam engine to the drainage of
mines, 178. The reasons why his single-acting engine was not
adapted to produce continuous uniform motion of rotation, 184. His
notes upon Dr. Robison's article on the steam engine, 184.
second patent, 186. His third patent, 189. His application of the
fly-wheel, 205. His application of the throttle-valve, 207. His
adaptation of the governor, 209. His double-acting engine considered
as a whole, 216. Investigation of the process of its operation, 217.
Eccentric, 225. Cocks and valves, 227. Single clack-valve, 227.
Double clack-valve, 228. Conical steam-valve, 228. Slide-valves,
229. The waggon boiler adopted by him, 225. Invents the
indicator, 274. The counter contrived by him, 278. The
Lunar Society in which Watt and Boulton were leading mem-
bers, 302. Invents the copying press, 302. His friends and
associates at Birmingham, 302. Method of heating by steam
brought forward by him, 303. His invention of a machine for
drying linen by steam, 303. His share in the discovery of the
composition of water, 303. His letter to Priestley on this subject,
307. Anecdote of his inventive genius, 309. Introduces the use
of chlorine in bleaching, 310. One of the founders of the Pneu-
matic institution at Clifton, 310. His first marriage, 310. Pri-
vate life of, 311. Death of his first wife, 311. His second mar-
riage, 311.
He retires from business, 311. Death of his younger
son, 311.
Extracts from his letters, 312. His death, 313. Cha-
racter of, by Lord Brougham, 313. By Sir Walter Scott, 314. By
Lord Jeffrey, 315. Occupation of his old age, 318. Invention of
machine for copying sculpture, 318. His last days, 318. Monu-
ments, 319. Inscription on the monument in Westminster Abbey
from the pen of Lord Brougham, 319. His application of tubular
condensers, 457. His expedient for coating boilers with felt, 463.
Wilkinson, his machine for accurately boring the insides of cylinders,
149.
Williams's method of consuming the unburned gases which escape
the grate, and are carried through the flues, 260.
Woolf's engine, 176. Woolf's piston, 243.
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