182 TuAXSACTioys of the American Institute. 



the second was the only one hirgelj useful. The application of water 

 power to industry was certainly an inestimable benefit. It is easily 

 computed that a sheet of water which furnishes only thirty cubic 

 feet per second with a fall of fifteen feet, will exert an aggregate force 

 more than equal to the. work of five hundred men ; and as this force 

 can work incessantly, while man is capable of a sustained labor of 

 hardly greater duration than eight hours in the twenty-four, it may 

 be said that the water-power in th« case supposed, is equivalent, for 

 every practical purpose, to that of at least fifteen hundred men. If 

 this water were expended upon an over shot wheel, perhaps one- 

 fifth or more of its useful efiect might be lost; but making every 

 allowance, for this consideration, this simple example shows us the 

 power of an individual man multiplied more than one thousand 

 times. But the force of falling water is as nothing to that which in 

 our day, is derived from the application of steam to the movement of 

 machinery. There are steam engines constructed at present, which 

 are rated at from twelve to fifteen hundred horse power. And it 

 should here be understood that a technical horse power is nearly 

 double that which a horse of average strength can really exert in 

 actual work, while as in the former example, the engine can work 

 .constantly, though the horse naust rest two-thirds of the time. An 

 engine of 1,500 horse-power will therefore perform in twenty -foiir 

 hours the work of nearly nine thousand horses, or say of fifty thous- 

 and men. We see, then, to what an immense extent the productive 

 power of modern industry has been increased, by the introduction of 

 the steam engine. 



The speaker further illustrated this branch of his subject by 

 remarks which it is to be regretted were not reported, and in a bril- 

 liant peroration described some of the grand results which are sure 

 to follow from the untiring energy and skill evinced by American 

 inventorSj mechanicians and artisans. 



