or THE 



UNIVERSITY 



or 



PREFACE. 



MECHANICS is the science which inquires into the laws of 

 equilibrium and the motion of bodies, whether solid or fluid. 

 The term originally applied only to the doctrine of EQUILIBRIUM, 

 and in this volume it is used in its primitive signification. The 

 adjunct by which this work has been designated, is meant to 

 convey the idea of a book that is self-instructing, and which, 

 in its details, may furnish those who have not had the benefit of 

 a regular academic education, with expeditious and practical 

 methods of operation, in applying the principles of hydrostatic 

 science to the general and every-day business of mechanics. 



The volume is therefore a manual of principles combining the 

 twofold properties of precept and example, and exhibiting in 

 a comprehensive view whatever is generally and particularly 

 applicable to the mechanics of practical men. But the same 

 construction will render it available in any course of public or 

 private tuition, in which it may be desired to illustrate by 

 examples those operations which, in practical science, are go- 

 verned by the laws of fluid equilibrium, pressure, and support : 

 for it is hoped that these laws have been demonstrated and 

 illustrated with sufficient expansion to suit the progress of 

 modern discoveries, and to remove some part of that uncertainty 

 which has hitherto prevailed in the opinions of scientific men. 



