September 12, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



407 



reach into departments still unknown and 

 undreamt of by even scientific men. As en- 

 gineering is systematizing- and correlating 

 all the industries and making even agricul- 

 ture a branch of chemical and mechanical 

 engineering, so science is gradually com- 

 ing to comprehend all worlds and it may 

 even be confidently hoped that what 

 have been the speculative philosophies 

 may, in time, become admittedly depart- 

 ments of positive science and subject of 

 fruitful research. 



These fields will imdoubtedly continue 

 to be simply extensions of the old and long- , 

 cultivated areas first discovered in the ear- 

 liest times of which history preserves the 

 records. Astronomy, astrology, the de- 

 partment of alchemistry, mechanics, phys- 

 ics, all the Alexandrian learning, all the 

 later acquisitions of the Saracens and of 

 the later ages in Europe, remain still incom- 

 plete as sciences and still afford opportuni- 

 ties of still increasing extent to every in- 

 vestigator. The nineteenth century saw 

 developed the whole thermodynamic theory 

 of the heat-engines and of energy transfor- 

 mation. The improvement of these prime 

 movers— the Archimedean levers which 

 move the world — in their construction and 

 the revelation of the scientific principles of 

 their action, the progress of invention and 

 of science, the sole guide toward perfection, 

 the sole competent judge of approxima- 

 tion to perfection and of the perfect work, 

 through all that century went hand in hand, 

 and once the thermodynamic theory of the 

 engines became fully supplemented by a 

 theory of wastes by extra-thermodynamic 

 processes and by a financial theory of ap- 

 plication, the work of Watt and Carnot 

 may be said to have been completed. The 

 commencement of the twentieth century 

 sees the whole theory of the steam-engine 

 practically completed and the structure of 

 the machine, either as a reciprocating en- 

 gine or as a steam-turbine, substantially 



perfected; while the engineer is now tak- 

 ing up the gas engine, also a century old, 

 and reducing its theory and its mechanism 

 to similar pei'fection. Henceforth we must 

 expect exceedingly slow progress in this 

 field and, as the outlook now appears, early 

 and complete interruption— unless, indeed, 

 the inventor and the man of science can 

 find ways of entrance into a new field. 

 And why should they not ? 



During the nineteenth century the en- 

 gineer made steady progress by increas- 

 ing his steam pressure from one atmosphere 

 to fifteen, and, experimentally, to a hun- 

 dred atmospheres by increasing piston 

 speeds from 100 to 1,000 feet per minute 

 and by placing his engine-cylinders in 

 series to intercept still unconquered wastes. 

 Now he is still moving forward, though 

 cautiously, in the same lines, and is increas- 

 ing the thermodynamic temperature-range 

 by superheating steam and the ratio of 

 expansion by adopting the steam-turbine; 

 thus, also, evading the heavy tax of so- 

 called 'cylinder condensation.' External 

 conduction and radiation and friction are 

 minimized and we still gain, though the ap- 

 proximation of the real to the now per- 

 fectly defined ideal has come to be fairly 

 close in our best work.* A new path must 

 be sought, and it is for the engineer and 

 man of science together, or both in one, to 

 show us the way. 



Among all the problems of the twentieth 

 century, none are more seductive, more 

 glorious in aspect, more fruitful of good 

 to the race, than those assigned the man of 

 science in this field and to his partners, the 

 engineer, the inventor, the mechanician. 



* ' Manual of the Steam Engine,' New York, 

 J. Wiley & Sons, R. H. Thurston. See Chap. 

 VII., Vol. I., for the ' Financial Theory ' and 

 Chap. VIII. for a summary of thermodynamic and 

 applied theory of the steam-engine; Chap. VII., 

 Vol. II., for the ultimate commercial outcome of 

 theory and art, conspiring. 



