Steam Engine. 
motion^ one of the most ingenious and most perfect con- 
trivances in mechanics. 
To prevent irregularities in the speed of the engine^ 
arising from variations in the quantum of power used at 
different intervals in the works to which it was applied, he 
made an application of the centrifugal force of what is called 
tlie governor^ (before used in the wind and water mills) to 
regulate the admission of the steam ; by this means keep-^ 
ing the engine always at an uniform velocity, and dimin- 
ishing the consumption of steam in proportion to the pow- 
er exerted ; thus giving the finishing stroke to the per- 
fection of the motion of this machine, and rendering its 
regularity nearly correspondent with that of the pendulum 
©f a clock. 
These inventions are detailed amongst many other con- 
trivances, both relative to steam engines, and the applica- 
tions of their pov/er in two patents, dated 1782 and 1784» 
Some of these are highly ingenious : a few may have been 
first ideas, not yet reduced to practice ; and others were 
no doubt inserted for the purpose of guarding against eva- 
sion. 
Such is the general outline of the improvements intro- 
duced by Mr. W att into the steam engine ; but it would 
lead us too far, to go into the detail of the applications of 
this power, or to enumerate the advantages which the 
country has derived from it. We shall content ourselves 
with observing, that by means of it, many of the princi- 
pal mines in the kingdom have been kept open, and ren- 
dered productive, when otherwise they must have ceased 
to work. By the construction of the rotative engine, a 
new era has been introduced into the manufactures of 
the kingdom ; and it has been in a great measure owing 
to it, tliat those manufactures have been carried to an ex- 
tent unprecedented in the history of nations. The merit 
and success of these improvements, however, created (as 
Vol. IL N 
