THE GAM GEE PERPETUAL MOTION. 89 



Stations on the farthest shores, while the United States possesses neither, and 

 would consequently, in naval warfare, be at great disadvantage for want of coal 

 — its navy, as a rule, having to render service within a reasonable distance of its 

 own coasts the sole base of supplies. If coal, however, can be dispensed with, 

 we are at once placed on an equality in this respect, and our cruisers enabled to 

 penetrate the remotest seas as easily as those belonging to countries having pos- 

 sessions there. 



The enormous importance of a motor capable of superseding the steam engine 

 and furnishing power without the combustion of coal can be estimated from the 

 fact that it would produce an industrial and consequently social and political rev- 

 olution equal to what was effected by the introduction of the steam engine. The 

 whole of modern society is based on the steam engine which mainly has made the 

 difference between the ancient and the present world, for our civilization would 

 be impossible without it. It is the inanimate slave which performs the labor of 

 mankind, freeing them from the greater part of their drudgery and giving them 

 the time and means for culture. 



I have ventured these few remarks to show the nature and scope of Prof. 

 Gamgee's invention, which is not that of a machine for the application of power, 

 but for the immensely more important purpose of generating power itself, so that, 

 strictly speaking, it includes as a basis all other machines. I have wished to 

 show this in order to make clear how different is his invention from those of others 

 who may ask to have their apparatus tested in a Navy Yard, and to bespeak for 

 it the most favorable consideration of the Department. 



Professor Gamgee and able assistants — among whom is Mr. W. E. Sudlow, 

 an accomplished mechanical engineer, thoroughly versed in the the theory and 

 practice of his profession — are well acquainted with the difficulties to be over- 

 come. They are quite aware of all the objections that can be raised, and have 

 well considered the means of obviating them. The subject has been carefully 

 studied, and there are brought to bear upon it the requisite scientific and engineer- 

 ing information necessary to give it an exhaustive treatment. His engine, like 

 the steam engine, is a heat engine, and produces power by the conversion of heat 

 into mechanical work, the same quantity of work consuming in both cases the 

 same quantity of heat, but with this immense practical difference, that the heat 

 for his zeromotor is freely furnished to hand by nature, while for the steam engine 

 it has to be excavated from the depth of earth and afterward handled and trans- 

 ported by expensive manual labor. 



What is now mainly desired is that Professor Gamgee may be permitted to 

 prosecute his experiments at the Washington Navy Yard to a conclusion, and 

 there bring his engine to a practical test with as little delay as possible. Should 

 the Department be able to grant this, the favor will be well and properly be- 

 stowed in the interest of the Navy and of the world. — Scientific American. 



