498 THE CENTURY, 



possibly disturb his claims, and what means could be 

 found more likely to set this doubt at rest, than a 

 bold appeal to that learned body ? And come of it 

 what might, there would still remain to him the ques 

 tion of improvements; supposing the grand claim to 

 originality to become a matter of dispute. But to 

 Savery s great satisfaction, if not to his greater surprise, 

 so far from a word of dissent being raised, there was 

 (contrary to all precedent) a certificate given in favour 

 of the invention at Savery s request. 



Savery s career may be taken as commencing in 

 1699, thirty-two years after the decease of the Marquis 

 of Worcester, thirty-six years from the date of the 

 44 Century of Inventions,&quot; or thirty-nine years after the 

 establishment of the Eoyal Society, and yet his opera 

 tions made slight impression on the public, and scarcely 

 any on scientific society. This circumstance removes 

 much of the surprise we might otherwise seriously en 

 tertain respecting the occasion of the Marquis of Wor 

 cester s own publications and personal labours, during 

 four arduous years of excessive mental and physical 

 activity, leaving little behind to attest the extent 

 of his operations and the precise nature of the difficul 

 ties with which he had to contend. Great strides must 

 have been made in arts, manufactures and trade, during 

 the intervening thirty-two years, all in favour of Savery s 

 progress, and yet, with the exception of Dr. Papin, scien 

 tific men were not attracted by the remarkable results 

 which Savery prominently placed before the public; 

 and Savery s own exposition before the Eoyal Society is 

 abridged to a single copper-plate engraving, and the 

 shortest possible printed reference to its several details. 

 Thus was this true mechanical prodigy of the age 

 treated as though it were of little or no interest. 



When we compare this long continued apathetic feel- 



