112 Description of Mr. Perkins' JVezo Steam-Engine, 



as capable of improvement ; and, notwithstanding all thai 

 has been done by Mr. Woolff, and other eminent engineers, 

 the undoubted merit of their engines has scarcely yet been 

 admitted by the public. Under such circumstances, Mr. 

 Perkins' claims were likely to meet with various kinds of 

 opposition. Instead of hailing it as an invention which was 

 to do honour to the age in which we live, and to add a new 

 and powerful arm to British industry, imperfect experi- 

 ments and confined views were urged against the principle 

 of its construction, the jealousies of rival traders were ar- 

 rayed against it, imaginary apprehensions of danger were 

 excited, and short sighted politicians sounded the alarm, 

 that such an invention would precipitate our country from 

 its lofty pre-eminence among the manufacturing nations of 

 the world. 



Most of these grounds of opposition have been now re- 

 moved by direct experiment. Mr. Perkins' engine is ac- 

 tually at work. Its operations have been witnessed, and 

 minutely examined by engineers and philosophers of all 

 kinds ; and the most unreasonable sceptics have been com- 

 pelled to acknowledge the justness of its principles, as well 

 as the energy of its operations. The active and inventive 

 mind of Mr. Perkins, however, did not remain satisfied with 

 this experiment. He has discovered a method, which we 

 consider equal in value to his new engine, by which he can 

 convey the benefit of his original principle to steam-engines 

 of the old construction J and this has been recently suc- 

 ceeded, we are told, by a most extraordinary discovery, 

 that the same heat may be made to perform its part more 

 than once, in the aclive operations of the engine. 



In order to convey to our readers some idea of these 

 great inventions, we have obtained a drawing, made by 

 M. Montgolfier, jun, and given in plate IV. Fig 16.* which, 

 though it does not represent the actual machine, yet con- 

 tains such a view of its parts as is necessary for understand- 

 ing its principle. 



The generator, which supplies the place of the boiler in 

 ordinary steam-engines, is a cylinder ABCD, made of gun- 

 metal, which is more tenacious, and less liable to oxidation, 

 than any other. The metal is about three inches thick; 

 and the vessel, containing eight gallons of water, is closed 



^* See Plate V. 



