TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 179 
work done, in the energy of nearly a thousand horses’ power, at fifty miles an hour. 
How wonderful and yet how effective are the powers of this comparatively small 
machine! It is perfectly docile, and obeys the hand of its director with almost 
mathematical precision, and by the touch of a simple lever it regulates its move- 
ments to the nicety of an inch, or it bounds forward with a momentum, regardless 
of time or distance, and careers on its iron track like a dream of the Arabian Nights. 
Tn fact, we may almost regard them as realized, when we consider the smallness 
of the space and the organisms by which these wonderful results are attained. 
Apart from the flight of fancy, we arrive at the conclusion that these are facts 
already accomplished with a degree of certainty that ceases to be wonderful, ex- 
cept only to the uninitiated, who stares at what he is unable to comprehend. The 
general principles of the steam-engine and the locomotive are, however, easil 
acquired ; and in this age of steam it should, in my opinion, form a separate branc 
of education for the benefit of both sexes, to whom it would be highly advantageous. 
It is a branch of knowledge of deep importance to the present and rising genera- 
tion ; and as steam and its application to the varied purposes of civilized life becomes 
every day more apparent, a knowledge of its powers and properties is much 
wanted, and ought not to be neglected. 
Iam the more desirous that instruction of this kind should be imparted to the 
rising generation in our public schools, as it would lead to practical acquaintance 
with instruments and machines in daily use, and would familiarize the more intel- 
ligent classes with objects on which, at the present day, we almost exclusively de- 
pend for the comforts and enjoyments of life. I do not mean that we should make 
scholars engineers; but they ought to be taught the general principles of the arts, 
in order to appreciate their value and to apply them to the useful purposes by which 
we are surrounded. It is by the acquisition of this Inowledge that we shall over- 
come ignorance, so often fatal in the use of steam, and not unfrequently attended 
with danger to life and property. We might quote numerous examples of fatal 
boiler explosions and other casualties arising from this cause; and this want of 
Imowledge is not only productive of danger, but it leaves important matters to be 
directed by the hands of incompetency, instead of being guided by the arm of intel- ~ 
ligence. The introduction of steam and its < pe ceon to such a variety of pur- 
poses was shortly followed by that of gas, and this brilliant discovery we owe to 
the untutored mind of ome of our first working mechanics, William Murdock of 
Soho, the assistant and contemporary of Watt. Mr. Murdock lighted up his own 
house and Soho about the year 1802 or 1803, and in 1804 gas was first applied to 
light Messrs. Philip and Lee’s cotton-mills at Manchester. For some year's it made 
little or no progress, but it was, in 1814, employed for lighting the streets of towns ; 
and we are, therefore, indebted to William Murdock and carburetted hydrogen 
for the enjoyment of a pure and brilliant light in our streets and public buildings, 
and in almost every house and town in the empire. 
Next to gas came steam-navigation, railways, and locomotion, and subsequently 
the electric telegraph. I will not, however, tire you with any detailed notice of 
these discoveries, however important they may be in a scientific point of view, but 
simply advert to those departments of science with which the members of this 
Section are more immediately interested. In taking even a cursory view of the 
machinery of the two annexes of the International Exhibition, we cannot be other- 
wise than struck with the multiplicity of the objects, the perfection of the execu- 
tion, and the accuracy of the tools, together with the numerous devices by which 
these are attained. A very casual glance at this Exhibition when compared with 
that of 1851, and that of Paris in 1855, shows with what intensity and alacrity the 
public mind has been at work since the people of all nations were first called upon 
to compete with each other in the peaceful rivalry of mechanical art. 
Taking the Exhibition as a whole, there is no very great nor very important 
discovery in mechanical science ; but there is a great deal to be seen of a character 
both interesting and instructive. In land steam-engines there is nothing particularly 
attractive, if we except the growing importance of the horizontal, iat is rapidly 
Sesame that of the beam or vertical engine. To the horizontal system may be 
applied economy in the first cost, and nearly equal efficiency in its application to 
mills and for manufacturing purposes, Another important feature in thea engines 
ia 
