IxXXiV REPORT — 1875. 



early as 173S, after which time their use was gradually extended, until it 

 became general in mining-districts. 



By the beginning of this century the great ports of England were connected 

 by a system of canals ; and new harbour works became necessary and were 

 provided to accommodate the increase of commerce and trade, which improved 

 means of internal transport had rendered possible. It was in the construction 

 of these works that our Brindley and Smeaton, Telford and Rennie, and other 

 engineers of their time did so much. 



But it was not until the steam-engine, improved and almost created by 

 the illustrious Watt, became such a potent instrument, that engineering works 

 to the extent they have since been carried out became possible or necessary. 

 It gave mankind no new faculty ; but it at once set his other faculties on an 

 eminence, from which the extent of his future operations became almost 

 unlimited. 



Water-mills, wind-mills, and horse-machines were in most cases super- 

 seded. Deep mines, before only accessible by adits and water-levels, could at 

 once be reached with ease and economy. Lakes and fens which, but for the 

 steam-engine, would have been left untouched, Avere drained and culti- 

 vated. 



The slow and laborious toil of hands and fingers, bone and sinew, was turned 

 to other employments, where, aided by ingenious mechanical contrivances, 

 the produce of one pair of hands was multiplied a thousandfold, and their 

 cunning extended until results maiTelloTis, if you consider them, were attained. 

 Since the time of Watt the steam-engine has exerted a power, made conquests, 

 and increased and multiplied the material interests of this globe to an extent 

 which it is scarcely possible to realize. 



But while Watt has gained a world-wide, well-earned fame, the names of 

 those men who have provided the machines to utilize the energies of the steam- 

 engine are too often forgotten. Of their inventions the majority of mankind 

 know little. They worked silently at home, i)i the mill, or in the factory, 

 observed by few. Indeed, in most cases, these silent workers had no wish to 

 expose their work to public gaze. AVere it not so, the factory and the mill 

 are not places where people go to take the air. How long in the silent night 

 fhe inventors of these machines sat and pondered ; how often they had to cast 

 aside some long-sought mechanical movement and seek another and a better 

 . arrangement of parts, none but themselves could ever know. They were un- 

 seen workers, who succeeded by rare genius, long patience, and indomitable 

 perseverance. 



More ingenuity and creative mechanical genius is perhaps displayed in 

 machines used for the manufacture of textile fabrics than by those used in any 

 other industry. It was not until late in historical times that the manufacture 

 of such fabrics became established on a large scale in Europe. Although in 



