CENTENARY OF THE STEAM ENGINE. 



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CENTENAEY OF THE STEAM ENGINE. 



ABSTRACT OF MR. R. OXLAND'S LECTURE. 



The year 1769 was noteworthy for the births of the two greatest 

 soldiers of modern times, but much more so for the publication of 

 the improvements of the Steam Engine by James Watt, and of 

 Arkwright's Patent for the Spinning Jenny. 



The present year will be memorable for the accomplishment of 

 two very important enterprises — the Great Pacific Railway, tra- 

 versing the continent of North America — opening a daily route 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and the opening last week 

 of the great ship canal, uniting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, 

 and reducing the voyage to the East Indies to one-half of the time 

 hitherto required. 



As the Steam Engine has been the great agent in producing 

 these results, a sketch of its history during the past hundred years 

 has been made the subject of this paper. 



As early as 124 B.C., Hero invented an engine in which motion 

 was produced by the elastic force of steam issuing from the ex- 

 tremities of radial arms fixed on an axis. 



In 1629, Rranca caused a wheel to rotate by the force of a 

 jet of steam striking on vanes fixed on its peripliery. 



In 1663, tlie Marquis of Worcester described the receiving of 

 water into a close vessel, and then forcing it up to a higher level 

 by steam conveyed into the vessel from a separate boiler. 



In 1698, Savery describes the use of steam for producing a 

 vacuum in such a manner that the pressure of the atmosphere 

 would lift it about 20 feet, and then by the further admission 

 of steam on the surface of the water, it would drive it up to a 

 height of about 40 feet, making a total elevation of 60 feet. This 

 was the first practical application of steam power. 



Newcomen and Cawley are said to have obtained a patent in 

 1707 for the use of steam in a cylinder, with a moveable piston 

 attached by a rod to the vibrating beam of a pump, for lifting 

 water out of mines. 



The steam was used for the production of a vacuum, so that the 

 atmosplieric pressure on the piston at the top of the cylinder made 

 the piston descend, and witli it the end of the beam to which it 



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