1865.] The Life of the Second Marquis of Worcester. 545 



it converted into steam, and the height to which the piston was raised 

 carefully noted ; by comparing the capacity of the cylinder below the 

 piston with that of the elopile, the volume of air produced from a 

 known volume of water could be readily calculated. 



In 1630, a patent was granted to one David Kamsay, for an in- 

 vention capable of being applied " to raise water from low pits by 

 fire ; " unfortunately, no description has been left of the invention. 



We come now to the engine of the Marquis of Worcester, which 

 appears (as far as one can judge from his very meagre and obscure 

 description), to have raised water by a means similar to that employed 

 by De Caus, viz. by the pressure of steam on the surface of water ; 

 but the Marquis had two water vessels, and perhaps a separate boiler 

 for generating the steam employed : moreover, he obtained continuous 

 action, and could raise large volumes of water. To him, therefore, 

 belongs the merit of first applying steam to practical purposes on a 

 large scale. Mr. Dircks has written much to prove that Savery's 

 engine for raising water (a model of which was exhibited before the 

 Eoyal Society in 1698) was the same as that of the Marquis ; but we 

 think he has pressed the point too far, for the Marquis, as we have 

 seen above, expressly states that his engine raises water " not by 

 drawing or sucking it upwards," whereas Savery raised water the first 

 30 feet by atmospheric pressure (the vacuum being produced by the 

 condensation of steam), and then forced it higher by the pressure of 

 steam. We do not think the engine of the Marquis was a perfect 

 success, or it would have been more generally employed during the 

 period intervening between its invention and the introduction of 

 Savery's engine. 



Mr. Dircks consummates all he has said of the ' Century of Inven- 

 tions,' in the following sentence : — " The ' Century ' stands alone in 

 the languages of the civilized world, the strange monument of a 

 strong mind, seeking its full development in a prejudiced age, striking 

 into new paths which society could not comprehend, and which it 

 therefore would not patronize." We would remind Mr. Dircks that 

 in the 17th century it was not customary to describe scientific disco- 

 veries in obscure and unintelligible language; it was necessary to 

 do so during the Middle Ages, when every kind of rank superstition 

 was dominant, when a man who made a great discovery was believed 

 to be in communication with the powers of darkness, and ran the 

 risk of excommunication, or of being burned as a wizard, but there 

 was no need for it now. The '- Century ' is far more obscure than the 

 " XLveoyMrmx. " of Hero, published 1800 years earlier ; it is more ob- 

 scure than Porta's ' Magise Naturalis ' (both of which works it resem- 

 bles in certain respects) : we know of no scientific work published in 

 the 17th century of like obscurity, it reminds us most forcibly of 

 some of the less intelligible of the writings of Eoger Bacon. Com- 

 pare it with the ' Sylva Syl varum,' or, better, with the writings of 

 Boyle and Hooke, and the contrast becomes striking : it would be un- 

 just to compare it, either for its diction or for the inventions described 

 in it, with the ' Micrographia ; ' the author of the latter work we do not 

 hesitate to affirm did more to benefit the human race than the Mar- 

 vol. n. 2 P 



