» ON THE HISTORY OF MECHANICS. HSl 



clopedie began to appear at Paris, and its premiums and publications have, 

 witliout doubt, excited a degree of attention to the subjects of practical me- 

 chanics, and agricultural, as well as commercial improvements, which must 

 have been beneficial both to individuals and to the public. The academy 

 of Paris began to print, in 17<52, a collection of the descriptions of arts and 

 trades of all kinds, on a still more extended scale than had been attempted 

 in the Encyclopedic; the work was carried to a very considerable length, 

 but it by no means comprehends all the articles which were intended to 

 compose it. 



The construction of watches has been so much improved, by the artists both 

 of this country and of France, that they have been rendered capable of afford- 

 ing very essential service to navigation, especially since the astronomical 

 methods of determining a ship's place have been brought to such a degree 

 of perfection, as greatly to facilitate the frequent correction of the accidental 

 errors of the timekeeper. The first artist that constructed watches, suffici- 

 ently accurate for the determination of the longitude, was William Harrison, 

 who was indebted to himself alone for his education and his inventions; in 

 1765 he received for his labours, from the Board of Longitude, the promised- 

 reward often thousand pounds. 



There has scarcely been a period, in any age of the world, in which the 

 sciences, and literature in general, have been so rapidly promoted, and so uni- 

 versally disseminated, as within the last forty years. This advancement has 

 partly been the cause, and partly the effect, of the great multiplication of scien- 

 tific journals, cyclopaedias, and encyclopaedias, which have been annually in- 

 creasing since the beginning of the Journal de Physique in 1773; supported by 

 the interest which they have derived, in great measure, from the new and amus- 

 ing discoveries and improvements, which have been made in chemistry and na- 

 tural history: some of the most copious of these works have had a sale, un- 

 precedented even for books of more moderate extent. 



The charter of the Royal Institution is dated in 1799; its foundation Avill 

 not perhaps make an era in the history of the refinements of science; but if 

 it be hereafter found to have given notoriety to what is useful, and popularity 

 to what is elegant, the purposes of those who established it will not have been 

 frustrated., 



