PREFACE. 



IN presenting to the American public the collection of sci- 

 entific miscellanies which forms the contents of these volumes, 

 it may be proper to explain the circumstances which gave 

 occasion to them in their original form of oral discourses, the 

 character of the audiences to which they were addressed, and 

 of the readers to whose information and amusement it is hoped 

 they may contribute in their present more permanent state. 



Engaged for a large portion of my life in the practical ap- 

 plication of the physical sciences to the uses of life, and more 

 especially to those scientific industries which derive their effi- 

 cacy from the agency of steam, I had always looked forward 

 with the liveliest interest to a time when I might be enabled 

 to visit a country which had taken so prominent a part in the 

 advancement of these arts, and which had formed from an 

 early period so grand a theatre for their development, as the 

 United States. To the claims which that country presented 

 to the attention of every intelligent and inquiring tourist, ari- 

 sing from its important commercial relations with the old 



