68 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



far lowered that the engine revolved very slowly, and then, 

 on a little bisulphide being injected into the boiler, the 

 pressure would at once rise, and the engine would work 

 with great rapidity. This seemed almost like magic. 



The same experiment was tried on an engine of twelve 

 horse-power, and with a like result. When the steam 

 pressure had fallen so far that the engine began to move 

 quite slowly, a quantity of the bisulphide would be injected 

 into the boiler and the pressure would at once rise, the 

 engine would move with renewed vigor, and the fly-wheel 

 would revolve with startling velocity. All this was seen 

 over and over again by myself and others. At that time 

 the writer, then quite a young man, had just recovered 

 from a very severe illness and was making a living by 

 teaching mechanical drawing and making drawings for in- 

 ventors and others, and in the course of business he was 

 brought into contact with some parties who thought of in- 

 vesting in the new and apparently wonderful invention. 

 They employed him to examine it and give an opinion as 

 to its value. After careful consideration and as thorough 

 a calculation as the data then at command would allow, he 

 showed his clients that the tests which had been exhibited 

 to them proved nothing, and that if a clear proof of the 

 value of the invention was to be given, it must be after a 

 run of many hours and not of a few minutes, and against 

 a properly adjusted load, the amount of which had been 

 carefully ascertained. This test was never made, or if 

 made the results were not communicated to the prospec- 

 tive purchasers ; the negotiations fell through, and the in- 

 vention which was to have revolutionized our mechanical 

 industries fell into " innocuous desuetude." 



That the inventors were honest I have no doubt. They 



