1 82 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



ON THE UTILISATION OF HEAT AND OTHER 

 NATURAL FORCES. 



A Lecture delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow, on Thursday, 



\tth March, 1878, under the. auspices of the. 



Glasgow Science Lectures Association, 



BY C. WILLIAM SIEMENS, D.C.L., F.R.S., C.E * 



THE supremacy which man enjoys over the animate and 

 inanimate creation, and for which Divine Authority may be 

 quoted, cannot be said to be the result of his superior muscular 

 development, for amongst the members of the animal kingdom 

 there are many which are his superiors in strength, agility, swift- 

 ness, and in natural aptitude to provide themselves against the 

 vicissitudes of cold and hunger. Who has not looked with a 

 feeling akin to envy upon the deer in watching its swift progress 

 to the mountain top, or on the eagle soaring majestically aloft, 

 while feeling his own insufficiency of power to play lightly with 

 the force of gravity. 



The compensating advantage in our favour is the intelligence 

 with which we are enabled to call forces of nature not our own 

 into requisition to do our behests. Man in his most primitive 

 condition already commences to exercise his mastery over nature, 

 by having recourse to the sling and the arrow for reaching his 

 prey, by taking advantage of animal power to draw the plough, 

 and when in exchanging his commodities for those of neighbour- 

 ing people, both his merchandise and himself are carried by beasts 

 of burthen, who tamely submit their superior muscular energy to 

 his will. 



At another stage we find man utilising the inanimate forces of 

 nature by causing the falling stream to give motion to the mill- 

 stone, or by calling into requisition the force of the wind for 

 propelling him along the surface of the waters ; and following his 

 progress step by step, we finally arrive at our own condition of 

 social existence, in which we are dependent upon the power of 



* Reprinted by permission of Messrs. William. Collins, Sons, and Company. 



