538 Animadversions on Mr. Genet's Memorial, tyc. 



to garble, I do not understand the meaning of the word, i 

 certainly might misinterpret, when an opinion is obscurely 

 expressed ; in which case, I should wish to be corrected. The 

 following is the paragraph in question. " How does the 

 steam engine perform that operation, how does it create that 

 vis motrix, that moving force, which is the mechanical life of 

 the machine ? By the alternate increase and decrease of tem- 

 perature, which produces in the cylinder, two kinds of fluids, 

 the one gaseous, the other atmospheric, by means of which 

 the piston rises and falls.' 1 Now it so happens that when the 

 engine is in operation, there is a vacuum on one side of its 

 piston, and steam on the other ; it follows, therefore, that if 

 Mr. Genet does not call a vacuum a gas and the vapour of 

 water, atmospheric, he, of course, calls the vacuum, atmospher- 

 ic, and the vapour of water, a gas ; and from his explanation, 

 the latter appears to have been his meaning ; but as I was 

 not aware, that he supposed all steam engines to be atmos- 

 pheric, I was unable to construe him correctly. It is certainly 

 very " clear, that atmospheric air itself, is a gas ;" and as- 

 suredly, I would not suspect, that he who has had Condorcet, 

 Bailly, Lavoisier, Sage and Brisson, for his masters in Chem- 

 istry, Mineralogy, and Philosophy, and who was the intimate 

 of Watt, and of Priestley, would consider it as a simple gas ; 

 but what are Mr. Genet's peculiar views respecting its com- 

 pound nature, he has not informed us. 



It may be thought that I have extended my remarks, on the 

 errors in Philosophy, and the want of information on the na- 

 ture of the steam engine, which Mr. Genet so constantly 

 exhibits, beyond the requisite limits ; but this prolixity, has 

 appeared to me to be necessary, in consequence of the confi- 

 dence with which that gentleman has pronounced his opin- 

 ions ; it has also, I think, been imperiously called for, by the 

 charge of ignorance which he prefers against me ; whilst, for 

 himself he claims a competent knowledge, obtained " by fre- 

 quent observations, made on board of our steam boats, and 

 in our steam engine manufactories, on the origin, progress^ 

 and improvements of the steam power, and the theory of aeri- 

 form fluids," and declares, (p. 315,) that he obtained " from 

 Messrs. Watt and Boulton, and particularly from the first, not 

 only the most extensive information, on the great improve- 

 ments which had been made, in applying the gigantic power 

 of steam, to almost all the arts ; but also on its beginning, and 

 history, all which is perfectly present to my memory." Here 



