STEAM ENGINE 



5539 



STEAM ENGINE 



WATT DISCOVERING THE POWER OF STEAM 

 From the painting by David Neal. 



the toilers riding to and from their work in 

 cars moved by the force once known to man 

 only in the lightning, but now generated for 

 his service by the all-powerful steam. And 

 he would learn that in its short life the steam 

 engine had transformed not merely his own 

 island and the neighboring countries, but even 

 lands which at his day no white man had seen. 



The principle of the steam engine is simple. 

 Energy is never lost; it may be changed from 

 one kind of energy to another, or it may re- 

 main latent, or sleeping, for countless ages, but 

 it is still capable of doing work. So man takes 

 coal, in which energy has been stored by na- 

 ture, burns it to bring out its energy in the 

 form of heat, and places over the fire a boiler 



