THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



this last defect, and at last the mechanism, which 

 hitherto had been only a curiosity, became a practical 

 working machine. 



In the case of the steam engine, it might be said that 

 even a smaller feat than this remained to be accom- 

 plished when Watt came upon the scene; since the 

 Newcomen engine was actually a practical working 

 apparatus. But the all-essential thing to remember 

 is that this Newcomen engine was used for a single 

 purpose. It supplied power for pumping water, and for 

 nothing else. Neither did it have possibilities much 

 beyond this, until the all-essential modification was 

 suggested by Watt, of exhausting its steam into ex- 

 terior space. 



This modification is in one sense a mere detail, yet 

 it illustrates once more the force of Michelangelo's 

 famous declaration that trifles make perfect; for when 

 once it was tested, the whole practical character of the 

 steam engine was changed. From a wasteful con- 

 sumer of fuel, capable of running a pump at great ex- 

 pense, it became at once a relatively economical user of 

 energy, capable of performing almost any manner of 

 work. 



Needless to say, its possibilities in this direction were 

 not immediately realized, in theory or in practise; yet 

 the conquest that it made of almost the entire field of 

 labor resulted in the most rapid transformation of in- 

 dustrial conditions that the world has ever experienced. 

 After all, then, there is but little injustice in that public 

 verdict which remembers James Watt as the inventor, 

 rather than as the mere perfecter, of the steam engine. 



[106] 



