EARLY USE OF STEAM. 371 



All this may be true, without having the least impor- 

 tance in the history that now occupies us. I have not 

 even insisted, I acknowledge, so much on these slight 

 lineaments of ancient science relative to the power of 

 steam, but in order to live at peace, if possible, with the 

 Daciers of both sexes, with the Dutens of our own 

 epoch.* 



Both natural and artificial powers, before becoming 

 really subservient to the use of man, have almost always 

 been adopted for objects of superstition. Nor will the 

 steam of water be an exception to the general rule. 



The chronicles informed us that on the banks of the 

 Weser, the god of the ancient Teutones sometimes indi- 

 cated his displeasure to them by a sort of thunder-clap, 

 which was immediately followed by a cloud that filled 

 the sacred area. The image of their god Busterich, 

 found, it is said, in some excavations, clearly reveals the 

 way in which the pretended prodigy was obtained. 



The statue was of metal. The hollow head contained 

 an amphora of water. Wooden plugs closed the mouth 

 and a hole above the forehead. Some charcoal, adroitly 

 placed in the cavity of the cranium, gradually warmed 



* For the same reason, I cannot dispense with here relating an 

 anecdote, which, notwithstanding its romantic style, and containing 

 what we now know to be contrary to the way in which steam acts, 

 still shows the high opinion that the ancients had formed of this me- 

 chanical agent. It is related that Anthemius, Justinian's architect, 

 occupied a house next door to that of Zeno, and to annoy that ora- 

 tor, who was his declared enemy, he placed in the ground floor of his 

 own house several cauldrons containing water; that from an opening 

 made in the lid of each of these there proceeded a flexible tube, which 

 was conducted into the party-wall and up to the beams that supported 

 the floors in Zeno's house; in short, that those floors heaved as if 

 there had been a violent earthquake, as soon as fire was applied to 

 the boilers. 



