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introduced at Newcastle in 1845, and is patented by Mr. W. 
G. Armstrong, C.E., of the Elswick Engine Works, New- 
castle on-Tyne. It has for its objects the transmission of 
force from any central prime-mover, as a steam-engine or 
water-wheel, to any distance, in the most convenient manner ; 
the application of this force to work different kinds of 
machines at any point or points on its passage; and also 
the multiplication of the force by machinery constructed 
upon hydrostatic principles, in the manner formerly effected 
by trains of wheelwork, or by pulleys, &c. The properties 
and principles of liquids employed in this machinery are 
the same as those taken advantage of in the hydrostatic 
press, being chiefly incompressibility and equality of pressure 
in every direction, with the resulting law, that the aggregate 
pressure upon any surface is as the size of that surface. 
Before proceeding to describe the machinery at Grimsby, 
in which no rotatory movement is required, I may mention 
that the pressure of water has been applied with great 
success by Mr. Armstrong to the production of a con- 
tinuous rotatory motion, and that he has thereby put us 
in possession of a machine capable of being used with 
nearly the economy of a steam-engine, in situations where 
the latter could not be used. This is the case in the 
galleries of mines, and similar confined and inconvenient 
situations. The great objection to all the older machines 
of this kind, namely, the violent concussions to which they 
were subjected at every stroke, has been entirely obviated in 
those erected by Mr. Armstrong. The machinery I am 
about to describe consists essentially of three parts — the 
prime-mover, which generates the force, the reservoir of 
that force, and the means by which the force is multiplied 
and applied to the performance of the required work. The 
prime-mover is usually a steam-engine, furnished with force 
pumps, which supply the water to the reservoir of the force, 
