JAMES WATT. 



the water will rise in proportion to its temperature. The 

 only limits of the ascending movement will be the resist 

 ance of the walls of the apparatus. 



For our bomb let us substitute a thick metal caldron, 

 of vast capacity, and nothing will prevent our carrying 

 large quantities of fluid to indefinite heights by the sim- 

 ple action of steam ; we shall have constructed, in the full 

 meaning of the word, a steam-engine capable of emptying 

 or exhausting. 



You now know the invention which France and Eng 

 land have disputed upon, as formerly seven towns of 

 Greece claimed respectively the honour of having been 

 the cradle of Homer. On the other side of the Chan 

 nel the honour is assigned to the Marquis of Worcester, 

 of the illustrious house of Somerset. On this side of the 

 Straits, we feel that it belongs to a humble engineer,* 

 almost entirely forgotten in biographical works ; to Solo 

 mon de Caus, born at Dieppe, or in its environs. Let us 

 cast an impartial glance on the claims of these two com 

 petitors. 



Worcester, deeply implicated in the political intrigues 

 of the latter years of the reigns of the Stuarts, was con 

 fined in the tower of London. 



&quot; Que faire en pareil gite, a moins que Ton ne songe? &quot; 

 What could we do in such a bed but dream? 



* The term &quot; un humble inge&quot;nieur&quot; is hardly applicable, for De 

 Caus was, before the year 1612, engineer and architect to Louis XIII., 

 King of France; he then entered the service of the Elector Palatine, 

 who married the daughter of James I., with whom he came to Eno-- 

 land, and was employed by the Prince of Wales in ornamenting Rich 

 mond Gardens. His work was entitled Les Raisons des Forces Mou- 

 vantes, avec diverse* Machines tant utiles que plaisantes. In Partington s 

 Lectures on the Steam Engine, he quotes a book by Isaac De Caus, 

 &quot; natif de Dieppe ; &quot; it is named Nouvelfe Invention de lever P Eau plus 

 haut que sa source, avec queries Machines mouvantes par le moyen de 

 VEau; it is a folio volume without date or place. Translator. 



