10 Prime Movers. 



immature that will be the monument — of which he was himseL 

 the founder — to that noble Prince whose blameless life was 

 endowed with the genius of active goodness ; as it will vindi- 

 cate, in the face of the world, the famous motto of Lord Bacon, 

 <c The true end of science is to enrich human life with useful 

 arts and inventions." 



SHIELEY HIBBEED. 



PEIME MOVEES. 



BY J. W. M f GAULEY, 

 Author of " Lectures on Natural Philosophy," etc. 



We shall briefly examine the most important of those sources 

 of motion which have been either adopted or proposed, and shall 

 compare their respective advantages and defects. The subject 

 is one of great interest ; since the cost of every industrial product 

 is affected by the expense of the power which is employed in 

 obtaining it. And, within the memory of many of us, the prices 

 of nearly all the articles in general consumption have been 

 greatly diminished, because the prime movers used in their 

 manufacture have been either changed or improved. Some 

 consequences, which are both interesting and instructive, will 

 follow from our reflections on the subject ; ingenuity will be 

 prevented from wasting its energy on contrivances that have 

 been already tried, and have been proved either impracticable 

 or worthless ; and the capitalist may decide for himself as ta 

 the feasibility of any invention designed to generate motion, so 

 that neither shall his liberality be abused, nor he himself be de- 

 terred from lending his aid to the progress of science, through 

 an indiscriminating dread of all new discoveries. 



At first, every laborious process was performed by man 

 himself. In the infancy of society, when his wants were few, 

 his subsistence easily obtained, and the calls on his exertions 

 not very numerous, this was attended with but little incon- 

 venience. But, as civilization progressed, he called to his aid 

 the horse, the ox, and other animals \ next, he used water- 

 power, afterwards the wind, and finally steam : until at length 

 his occupation was reduced to little more than the superin- 

 tendence of those gigantic powers which he had pressed into his 

 service. But man is never content with what he has done — 

 and it is well that he is not ; for this is the source of progress, 

 the origin of every improvement. As long as the human race 

 shall exist on earth, it shall advance in knowledge, and therefore 



