THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1864. 



78 ON THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES "WHICH FORM 



us when they are past ; and we can scarcely call it Directive. It is of 

 the greatest importance, however, to industrialism, in its purely obser- 

 vational character, as dealing with the globe as a great store-house of 

 mineral matters of the highest value. I need but name building stones, 

 metallic ores, the constituents of glass and porcelain, coal, and lastly 

 water. 



Next to Chemistry, as ah experimental science, wielding immense 

 transformative power, stands Mechanics. I include under this term the 

 science of force, not only as determining the rest and sensible motion of 

 masses or particles of matter, but also as determining all structural or 

 molecular changes in bodies, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, which are 

 not produced by chemical alterations, or by the vital agencies at work 

 in plants and animals. Were this identity between mechanical force, 

 and all molecular force which is not certainly either chemical or vital, 

 made the ground of positive deductions in natural philosophy, it would 

 be liable to the gravest objections. But, regarded simply as an assump- 

 tion, awaiting refutation, verification, or correction, as knowledge pro- 

 gresses, it will involve us in no speculative error, whilst it greatly 

 simplifies our study of many of the practical applications of science. 

 There are few technical processes, for example, more important than the 

 tempering of steel, the annealing of glass, and the crystallization of 

 salts ; yet how far the structural or molecular changes which it is the 

 object of those processes to produce imply only a mechanical, or, as is 

 most probable, also a chemical change in the relative arrangement of 

 their particles, is unknown. As, however, no loss or gain of element or 

 ingredient, or any other sensible chemical change occurs, whilst a very 

 appreciable mechanical alteration happens, it is convenient to disregard 

 in technological discussions the possibility of the former kind of trans- 

 formation occurring, and to recognise the occurrence only of the latter. 

 The relation of vital to mechanical force will be considered hereafter. 



The transformative power of mechanics over matter comes before us 

 as industrialists in a threefold way. First : As furnishing a motive 

 power which can be directed on masses both large and small, so as to 

 throw them into motion. Second : As furnishing a means of inducing 

 change by alterations in the external configuration of bodies. Third : 

 As furnishing a means of inducing molecular change in a mass without 

 alteration of its external configuration or production of sensible motion. 



So far as the first is concerned, I need scarcely remind you that there 

 is scarcely an industrial art which does not in some of its departments 

 require a motive pow r er. A steam-engine is scarcely wanting from a 

 single utilitarian establishment. Places so unlike each other as a farm, 

 a dye-work, a cotton factory, a stone-cutter's yard, and a wood-cutter's 

 shop, have alike this indispensable engine, or some substitute. This 

 necessity is curiously illustrated by the same word mill being applied to 

 industrial establishments of the most opposite character. We speak, for 

 example, of a flour-mill, a cotton-mill, a gunpowder-mill, and a saw- 



