38 Mr Hiissell on the Fallacies of' the 



dically wrong. I have also had the opportunity of examining 

 and working the most successful engines of this kind ever pro- 

 duced, and therefore conclude that had theory never led me to 

 any such result a priori, I must have been convinced that prac- 

 tical experience was opposed to the rotatory construction of the 

 steam-engine. In what follows I shall endeavour to adduce my 

 arguments in a form as little technical as is consistent with pre- 

 cision. 



1. It is first of all my wish to shew that the subject of the 

 rotatory steam-engine is not so neio and untried an invention 

 as some wlio attempt the problem for the first time may be led 

 to imagine ; — for this purpose I adduce the names of more 

 than ninety inventors, most of them patentees. 



2. By an arrangement of these inventions, I have endeavoured 

 to shew that Jive differeid classes comprehend them all, and 

 that the others are mere repetitions of the same principle, and 

 attended with the same failure ; so that an inventor may know 

 whether his invention contains an entirely new principle, and if 

 it do not, that it has already been tried and failed. 



3. By shewing, in one view, the names of inventors of unsuc- 

 cessful rotatory engines, I endeavour to convince the inventor 

 that the five classes already invented have not failed from want 

 of genius, sMll, or practical experience, in those who have made 

 the trial, for the list contains the names of eminent practical men. 



4. I endeavour to shew that the ordinary crank-engine does 

 not possess the defects attributed to it, and which it is the sole 

 object of the rotatory engine to remedy, — that the use of the 

 crank causes no loss of power. 



5. In a practical point of view, the rotatory engine is every 

 -loay inferior to the reciprocating engine ; — in simplicity, and 

 cheapness, and ease of construction, — in durability and economy 

 in use, — in uniformity of action and equable motion. 



6. The rotatory engine is peculiarly inapplicable to the great 

 purposes of terreptrial locomotion and steam navigation — ob- 

 jects to which it has been considered peculiarly suitable. 



7. That the present steam-engine is practically perfect as a 

 working machine, being within ten per cent, of mathematical 

 perfection. 



8. That the crank o( the common steam engine possesses cer- 



