The Steam-Engine Displayed. 181 



tion of early Scottish records and literature. The notes are highly valu- 

 able. They comprise, among various matters, a collection of early docu- 

 ments illustrative of the localities of other metals besides gold, said to have 

 been found in Scotland. 



II. — The Steam-Engine Theoretically and Practically Displayed, By 

 George Birkbeck, M. D. F. A. S. M. A. S. &c. and Henry and James 

 Adcock, Civil Engineers. Illustrated by a series of splendid engravings 

 from working drawings made expressly for this publication. No. I. 4<to, 

 pp. 48. John Murray, Albemarle Street. 



Among the numerous works on the Steam-Engine which have lately issued 

 from the press, there are none which can bear any comparison with that 

 which is now before us, either in its excellence as a work of practical 

 science, or in the splendour of its embellishments. As this number con- 

 tains only a portion of the introductory dissertation on steam, we are not 

 able to judge of the manner in which the operation and construction of the 

 different steam engines will be described ; but judging from the perspi- 

 cuity with which this preliminary portion has been drawn up, we have 

 every reason to suppose that the remaining parts will be executed in a 

 manner worthy of Dr Birkbeck's reputation and talents. 



In the present number, Dr Birkbeck commences with an account of the 

 experiments of Dr Black and others on latent heat, and then proceeds 

 to give a detailed account of the experiments of Mr Watt, Mr Southern, 

 Mr Dalton, Dr lire, and Mr Taylor, on the elastic force of steam. The 

 results of these experiments are drawn up in a copious tabular synopsis, 

 which is suited to the scales of Fahrenheit, Reaumur, and the centigrade, 

 and extends from 32° to 343° of Fahrenheit. The author then proceeds, 

 with the aid of well engraved wooden cuts, to detail the methods by which 

 these philosophers conducted their respective experiments, and the num- 

 ber is concluded with an account of the formulae in which M. Biot has 

 expressed the result of Mr Dalton's experiments. 



Dr Birkbeck has not given any account of the ingenious paper on the 

 elastic force of steam at high temperatures, published by our distinguished 

 countryman Mr Ivory on the 1st of January 1827, but it is probable that 

 his dissertation was in the press before that date. 



The only criticism which we are disposed to make on this part of the 

 work relates to the introduction of mathematical formulae, and we would 

 strongly recommend it to Dr Birkbeck to separate all such formulae from 

 the text, and to throw them, along with discussions of a profound nature, 

 into notes or appendixes. There is not one reader out of an hundred, 

 however well he may have been educated, who is capable of following such 

 investigations, and even those who have successfully pursued mathematical 

 studies in their youth, are quite unable to apply them in their manhood. 



The present number, the price ot which is only six shillings, is illustra- 

 ted with no fewer than Six Quarto Plates, (two of which are double) con- 

 tairiing the following subjects. 



