Preface 



tions of the modern engineer. In such, an ex- 

 periment as that of Count Rumford we observe 

 how the cornerstone was laid of the knowledge 

 that heat is motion, and that motion under what- 

 ever guise, as light, electricity, or what not, is 

 equally beyond creation or annihilation, however 

 elusively it may glide from phase to phase and 

 vanish from view. In the mastery of Flame for 

 the superseding of muscle, of breeze and wa- 

 ter-fall, the chief credit rests with James Watt, 

 the inventor of the steam engine. Beside him 

 stands George Stephenson, who devised the loco- 

 motive w^hich by abridging space has lengthened 

 life and added to its highest pleasures. Our 

 volume closes by narrating the competition 

 which decided that Stephenson's " Rocket" 

 was much superior to its rivals, and thus opened 

 a new chapter in the history of mankind. 



GEORGE ILES. 



