Mr. Genet’s Reply to Dr. Jones. 317 
view. But if there is none, how can it abstract from its 
power? And again ton works in the vacuum, as 
Dr. Jones has told us it : Sillessnce can its levity or 
its weight make in its power, vacuo, according to New- 
ton, the gravitation of a as and of a ball of lead, com- 
pels them to obey, with the same speed, the ot iat force 
that draws them towards the center of the e 
While Prof. Jones ‘‘ views my reveries as Ti from 
their not containing any thing which could mislead an indi- 
vidual acquainted with the first principles of mechanical phi- 
losophy,” I will admit, that from the little he has communi-’ 
cated, in his remarks on my book, of the doctrine taught 
by him in his class, on the construction of steam-engines, 
and his sae of making them work in vacuo, with the light- 
est n and other moving parts, I do not see any 
panecy on that point, between him and what others have 
thought before him, namely, that the action of a steam-en- 
gine, is vastly diminished by friction and the difficulty of pro- 
curing a perfect vacuum. But that improvement, in vain 
attempted by several patented engineers, and, it is reported, 
tried. again lately by Mr. Perkins, has been, to this day, and 
will, | am afraid, continue to be, the stumbling stone of all 
the steam-engineers, because it is contrary to the nature of 
things in the process of rag gases A perfect vacuum 
cannot be procured ;—the air that remains, or is formed in 
the cylinder after the aa a or the air which enters the 
steam-vessels, with the condensing water, and the gas, air, or 
steam, which forces itself between the piston and the sides of 
the steam-vessels, let the collar through which the piston-rod 
must work be made ever so tight and close, caunot be drawn 
of the piston. . In fact, the vacuum so much talked of, (at 
least a perfect one,) is more a fiction than a reality ; but as it 
seems to be the main foundation of Prof. Janes’ mechanical 
philosophy, I will abstain from any further re on that 
subject, and content myself by observing, in my own de- 
fence, that, in as much as there is a new accession of atmos- 
air, and a recomposition* of water, occasioned essen- 
tially in the steam-vessels, by the injection of cold water and 
* Mr. Genet evidently intends not cal sense, from 
the elements of water, but a stants tome reconversion a a sexifanyy to 
the imelastic state alt 
