i8 Manufactures, &c., due to discovery. 



discovery of some physical law or property of steam." 

 " The first step in the invention of the steam-engine 

 was the experimental research and the discoveries of 

 the properties of steam by Hooke, Boyle, and 

 Papin."* Had not the steam-engine been developed, 

 it is clear that railways, steamships, machinery, and 

 all the other numerous uses to which that instrument 

 is now applied, would have been almost unknown. 

 The introduction of the steam-engine enabled aban- 

 doned Cornish mines to be relieved of water, and to 

 be worked to much greater depths. The discoveries 

 of nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, oil of vitriol, and 

 washing soda, by the alchemists and early chemists 

 in their researches, led to the erection of the 

 numerous great manufactories of those substances 

 which now exist in England and in other civilized 

 countries. There is probably not an art, manufacture, 

 or process, which is not largely due to scientific dis- 

 covery, and if we trace them back to their source 

 we nearly always find them originate in scientific 

 research. 



So far has scientific discovery, and its practical 

 applications to human benefit by invention, now 

 progressed, that every one considers this to be, par 

 excellence, the scientific age. And as discovery and 

 invention continue to progress with accelerated speed, 

 we are encouraged to hope, not only that scientific 

 principles will ultimately be universally recognised as 



* Essays and Addresses, Owen's College, 1874, pp. 172-182. 



