STE 6 



STATE. 1. A narrow piece of wood of 



which casks, &c. are made. 2. In mu- 



tic, the five horizontal and parallel lines 

 on which the notes of tunes are written 

 or printed : written now more commonly 

 staff. 



STAY. In the riyging of a ship, a long 

 strong rope, employed to support the 

 mast, by being extended from its upper 

 end to the stern of the ship. The fore- 

 stay reaches from the foremast -head to- 

 wards the bowsprit-end ; the main-stay 

 extends to the ship's stem ; the mizzen- 

 stay is stretched to a collar on the main- 

 mast, above the quarter-deck, &c. Stays, 

 in seamanship, also implies the operation 

 of going about, or changing the course of 

 a ship, with a shifting of the sails. To be 

 in stays, is to lie with the head to the 

 wind, and the sails so arranged as to check 

 her progress. 



STEAM. In a general sense, this word 

 is used to signify the visible cloudiness 

 arising from the condensation of aqueous 

 vapour, expelled by heat; but in a stricter 

 sense, it is the aqueous vapour arising 

 from water when heated to 212" and up- 

 wards. To account for the force of steam, 

 it must be observed, that water is com- 

 posed, like other bodies, of particles or 

 atoms held together by the force of cohe- 

 sive attraction, which heat has the power 

 of decreasing ; or, rather, of imparting a 

 repulsive force, which is intense in pro- 

 portion to the degree of heat applied. 

 Thus the pressure of steam from water at 

 212 is equal to a column of mercury of 

 30 inches; from water at 320, it is 

 equal to a column of 135 : the first is 

 141bs. 11 oz., the latter 661bs. loz. 



STEAM'-BOAT, 1 A vessel propelled by 



STEAM'-VES'SEL. j the force of steam. 

 Perhaps the first vessel of this sort was 

 that of the Marquis de Jouffrey, upon the 

 Saftne, at Lyons, in 1782; the next was 

 that of Mr. Miller, upon the Forth and 

 Clyde canal, in 1789 ; but the first steam- 

 vessel which ran as a regular packet- 

 boat was that of Mr. Rob. Fulton, the 

 Vermont, launched at New York in 1807, 

 and plied between that and the city of 

 Albany, a distance of 150 miles. 



STEAM BOIL'ER. A vessel in which 

 water is converted into steam for the 

 supply of steam-engines or for other uses. 



STEAM CAR'RIAGE. A locomotive engine 

 adapted to run upon a common road. 



STEAM'-EN'GIXE. An engine worked by 

 the power obtained from the expansion 

 and contraction of steam from boiling 

 water; that is, by the property which 

 water possesses of expanding to vapour 

 under the force of heat, and the sudden- 

 ness with which the expanded water 

 returns to its original bulk, on the appli- 

 cation of cold. These properties of water 

 were known to the ancients, but i' was 



) STE 



not till the early part of the 17th century 

 that this power was made available for 

 the working of machines. A mining en- 

 gineer, named Savery, is said to have 

 been the first who constructed and pub- 

 licly exhibited an engine, acting by the 

 expansive force and subsequent conden- 

 sation of steam, and which he applied tc 

 the raising of water in 1699; but it is 

 certain that the Marquis of Worcester 

 preceded him in doing this. Dr. Papin 

 next introduced the safety-valve to an 

 engine of his contrivance in 1707, and 

 Mr. Newcomen, in the same year, made 

 various improvements and modifications, 

 producing what are known by the name 

 of atmospheric engines, subsequently ren- 

 dered more efficient by Messrs. Breigh- 

 ton and Smeaton. Mr. James "Watt fol- 

 lowed next, and introduced the condenser 

 one vessel placed in another of cold water, 

 and exhausted of air and other fluids, and 

 connected with the steam cylinder by a 

 pipe through which the whole of tlit- 

 steam from the cylinder escapes, and i, 

 thus speedily condensed. He introduced 

 various other improvements, and may be 

 said to have perfected this most perfect 

 and valuable of all engines. He found it 

 only the " miner's friend," he left it ap- 

 plicable to every kind of work and the 

 never-tiring friend of the human race. 



STEAM'-GACGE. A contrivance con- 

 nected with the boilers of steam-engines, 

 and employed to indicate the pressure of 

 the steam. It usually consists of a bent 

 tube, with one end secured to the boiler, 

 and the other open to the atmosphere. It 

 contains a sufficient quantity of mercury 

 to counteract the pressure of the steam, 

 and the level of the mercury, varying as> 

 the steam pressure, shows at all times the 

 elastic force upon the boiler. 



STEAM'-GUN. A contrivance for project- 

 ing balls by means of steam. It bears 

 some analogy to the air-gun, but requires 

 too much extraneous apparatus ever to 

 be conveniently movable. It is barely 

 probable that it will at some future time 

 be rendered available aboard of ships, but 

 it seems to be highly available for forts 

 and other similar defensive works. 



STEAM NAVIGA'TION. The art of apply- 

 ing steam power to the propulsion of ves- 

 sels in general, whether in inland waters 

 or on the open sea. 



STEAM-PIPE. The pipe communicating 

 with the upper part of the boiler through 

 which the steam passes in its way ii- 

 the cylinders. 



STEAM'-WHEEL. Another name for a 

 rotatory steam-engine. 



STEAM'- WHIS'TLE. A device, attached to 

 locomotives, for giving warning to thr 

 passengers and others when the engim i- 

 starting. It consists of a pipe situated at 

 the top of the boiler, with a cock t a tiit 



