MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. 379 







Notwithstanding the incompleteness of Savary's prac- 

 tical success, this engineer's name deserves to hold a very 

 distinguished place in the history of the steam-engine. 

 Those persons whose life has been devoted to speculative 

 exertions, are little aware of the distance there is between 

 the project, apparently the most studied, and its reali- 

 zation. Not that I presume to say, with a celebrated 

 German Professor, that Nature always exclaims no, no ! 

 when we wish to raise a corner of the veil with which she 

 covers herself; but, in following up the same metaphor, 

 it may be permitted to assert that the enterprise increases 

 in difficulty, in delicacy, and in uncertainty, in proportion 

 as it requires the united efforts of more artists, and the 

 employment of more material elements ; in these various 

 respects, and considering the nature of the epoch, no one 

 can have felt himself more unfavourably situated than 

 Savery. 



MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. 



I have spoken hitherto of steam-engines, the resem- 

 blance of which to those that now bear that name may 

 be more or less contested. We shall now treat of the 

 modern steam-engine, of that which is in use in our man- 

 ufactories, in our. boats, at the entrance of nearly all our 

 wells and mines. We shall see it created, then enlarge 

 and develop itself, sometimes by the inspiration of clever 

 men, sometimes by the prickings of necessity, for neces- 

 sity is the mother of genius. 



The first name that we shall meet in this new period 

 is that of Denis Papin. It is to Papin that France will 

 owe the honourable rank that she may claim in the his- 

 tory of the steam-engine. Still the highly legitimate 

 pride, which these successes inspire us with, will not be 

 unmixed. We shall find the claims of our countrymen 



