— ae ee 
MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. 879 
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 
