nishing the value of their work by means of his machinery. He took a curious mode of revenging himself, in constructing a machine with which an ass executed a piece of flowered stuff!

Another of his remarkable productions was an asp which he made for the representation of Marmontel's Cleopatra. It imitated all the movements of the living reptile, and hissed to the life. This gave rise to a bon-mot: some one, being asked his opinion of the merits of the tragedy, replied, "I am of the opinion of the asp!" Vaucanson also made a mechanism to imitate the circulation of the blood, in which Louis XV. took much interest; but he abandoned it, on account of the extreme slowness of the progress made by the royal workmen. Probably he was anxious to confine his attention to more profitable matters.

He had now justly obtained for himself great renown; and the celebrated Voltaire, sharing in the general feelings of admiration entertained for this really remarkable man, wrote some lines in his honour, in which he was compared to Prometheus, who snatched fire from heaven to animate the work of his hands.

In the latter years of Vaucanson's life, he was severely afflicted by long and painful disease; nevertheless, he preserved all his energy and spirit unimpaired. To the very last he employed himself diligently about the construction of a machine he had invented for making an interminable chain-" Lose no time," he cried to his workmen ; "perhaps I shall not live long enough to explain perfectly all my idea."

He expired in November, 1782. His valuable collection of machines at the Hôtel de Montagne, he bequeathed to the sovereign. It was at first proposed that this gift should be presented to the Academy of Sciences; but other claims were urged, disputes and difficulties arose, and the result was that the collection was dispersed.

We cannot help regretting that the great skill displayed by Vaucanson was not more usefully directed; for, however curious and ingenious the construction of such works as his automata, this species of labour turns to no serious account, and will never suffice to perpetuate a man's name in the grateful remembrance of his species; whereas, on the other hand, the inventor of a safety-lamp, or of a Jacquard-loom, will never be forgotten.

THE STEAM-ENGINE.

THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER-SOLOMON DE CAUS

NEWCOMEN-WATT.

"Whirled by the steam's impetuous breath,
I mark'd yon engine's mighty wheel-
How fast it forged the arms of death,
And moulded adamantine steel!

But soon-that lifelike scene to stop,-
The steam's impetuous breath to chill,
It needed but one single drop

Of water cold, and all was still!

"The engine of Watt has proved the very Hercules of modern mythology, the united steam-power of Great Britain being equal, it is estimated, to the manual labour of upwards of 400 millions of men, or more than double the number of males supposed to inhabit the globe."-QUARTERLY REVIEW.

It is scarcely

How startling are such statistics! possible to overrate the value of an invention by which distance is annihilated, trade rendered prosperous, and human labour saved, and which, within the course of a century, has wholly changed the condition of the mechanical arts in both worlds. To trace the progress of the discovery which, at the present day, works such marvels, is both a curious and interesting task.

There lived, in the time of the emperor Justinian, an architect and engineer named Anthemius, mention

of whom is made by Agathius, in the third book of his history. This man having lost a lawsuit, which he had instituted against one of his neighbours, called Tenon, conceived a most singular species of revenge. He filled several large vessels with water, and closed them very tight; several pipes were attached to the covers, which decreased in size as they reached upwards. Fire being placed underneath, the steam escaped through the pipes in the covers; and not finding a free vent above, shook the ceiling and the rafters of his own house, and that of Tenon, to such a degree, that the latter left it, from fright.

The power of steam was clearly known at that early period, but the application of it, for want of means, was never directed to useful purposes. We read, however, in an article by M. Arago, in the "Annuaire des Bureaux des Longitudes" for the year 1829, that 120 years before Christ, Hero, of Alexandria, called "the Old," invented an apparatus presenting the first application ever made of steam. It bore the name of spiritalia, seu pneumatica, and is called a reaction

machine.

It was reserved to recent times to conceive the project of making use of steam as a motive power on an extended scale. The idea was first published in England, by the Marquis of Worcester, in a remarkable volume, entitled "A Century of Inventions." He there says :- "This admirable method which I

propose for driving up water by fire, possesses illimitable power, if the vessel be strong enough; for I have

taken a cannon, which I sealed hermetically, after having filled the interior three-quarters full of water, and then submitted it to the action of fire for twentyfour hours, at the end of which time it blew up with a violent explosion. I subsequently obtained a constant jet of water more than 40 ft. high."

We are assured that the Marquis was indebted for this idea to an unhappy man of genius whom he found incarcerated in the Bicêtre at Paris. This man was a distinguished engineer and architect, born in Normandy, about the close of the sixteenth century. He was for some time in England, where he was attached to the service of the Prince of Wales, and published a work on Perspective; afterwards he went into Germany, and was engaged as engineer by the Elector of Bavaria, who intrusted him with the management of his buildings and gardens. At length he went to France, where he was desirous of obtaining the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu.

We have a glimpse of Solomon de Caus (for that was his name) in the following letter, which was addressed by a lady to Cinq Mars, the celebrated conspirator, who suffered death for his futile attempt to overthrow the power of the great Cardinal Minister :

"MY DEAR D'EFFIAT,-Whilst you are forgetting me at Marbonne, absorbed in the pleasures of the court and of opposing M. le Cardinal, I, according to your expressed wishes, am doing the honours of Paris to your English lord, the Marquis of Worcester. I