62 Great loss of heat in the steam engine. 



engines only about one-seventh (or less) of the 

 mechanical power producible by the combustion of 

 the coal, the remainder being lost in various ways. 

 And this occurs simply because we have not yet 

 discovered a method of wholly converting heat into 

 mechanical power. In some other instances we are 

 able to convert one force wholly into another without 

 loss, as for example : the chemical action of a voltaic 

 cell into electricity ; and by means of research we 

 shall probably be enabled to effect a similar complete 

 conversion of other powers into each other. The 

 effect of converting heat wholly into mechanical 

 power would be equal to increasing our stock of 

 coals for that purpose to seven times its present 

 amount. This instance is only one of the many 

 thousand possible ways in which research may yet 

 prove of value to mankind. 



It is true that a very large amount of original 

 research in physics and chemistry has been done in 

 this country; the contents of our scientific journals and 

 of the publications of our various Learned Societies 

 prove this. It is also true that the English nation 

 has been pre-eminently active in applying scientific 

 knowledge to practical uses by means of inventions 

 and has been generally the first in carrying out in- 

 ventions on a large scale. We have been either the 

 first, or nearly so, in developing steam-engines, rail- 

 ways, locomotives, rapid trains, gas works, flour 

 mills, blast-furnaces, cotton machinery, cheap post- 

 age, light-houses, electro-plating, lucifer-matches 



