The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-01-06
From the Liverpool Times.
TIE TRIUMPHS OF SCIENCE AND
- ART

whether the carlcature which represents a
steam engine as flying like balloon through
the air, shall ever become any thing more
than acarlcature, may be doubted but such
have been the achievements of science and
art within the last three quarters of a CEN
fury, that it is really difficult to fix any lin
! its to their future conquests. To Justify us
in pronouncing any thing impossible in me-
chanics, it ought to be in opposition to some
J law OF nature and not merely requiring an
| immense extent of difficult application of
power. And so marvellous have been the
inventions and discoveries in every branch
of science, and in all the arts, since the be-
ginning of the last reign, that if they could
have been predicted in the year 1850, most
men would have thought that the prophesy
deserved to rank with the Arabian story of
the erection of Aladdin's palace in single
night.
When the pack horse with his bell was
the only means of conveying merchandise
through the land, and when the carrier con-
Quoted his string of horses along tracks al
ways made to pass over the summit of the
very highest hills, the vision of modern
mail coach glancing through our valleys, on
roads nearly as smooth and level as a bow
ing green, and conveying goods and pas
sengers at the rate of eleven or twelve miles
an hour, would have been regarded as the
work of some supernatural beings, not clog
ged with the incumbrance of mortal clay.
A man who should then have imagined that
distance of four hundred miles could have
been performed by carriage in forty hours,
without difficulty or danger, would have
been thought worthy of place amongst the
philosophers of Laputa.
A spinner at his wheel, twisting and Twill
ing the live long day to make some paltry
hanks OF yarn, would have gazed at the in
terror OF modern spinning mill, where thou
sands of spindles are whirling with incredi-
bic velocity, moved by no power visible to
the spectator-with a superstitions convic-
ton that the whole was the work of UNLESS
ed power. To tell him that the force that
moved the mighty apparatus of the factory
was earthly, yet that it was neither the force
OF men nor horses; neither the strength of
torrent nor the piping winds of heaven,
but nothing more or less than the steam of
boiling water, would only have excited his
indignation at the holiness of the imposture
which it was attempted to palm upon him.
10 show to one of those disorderly per-
sons who return from taverns after the hour
of curfew, and who of old were wont to
grope through the Egyptian darkness of our
streets to their own homes, the splendidly
Illuminated streets of London or Liverpool,
he would be blinded with excess of light,
and fancy himself IN the hall of Pandemoni-
UNI u tg Of obK KBlhta ana Rq asphsio5s Rg
could understand that these brilliant stars
of light proceeded from an invisible vapor
which circulated for miles under the streets,
he would be only the more perfectly con-
WINGED that he had gone prematurely into
the lower world.
Since the invention of printing, the power
| of man to disseminate knowledge has been
increased almost beyond calculation. Even
within the last thirty years a prodigious
augmentation has taken place in this power.
Before the improvement of Earl Stanhope,
| from three to four hundred sheets might be
printed per hour at the press; but the steam
press which now works the Times newspa-
per, prints four thousand sheets per hour, or
more than sheet per second 1t may be
easily proved, that TO write by hand the
number of newspapers circulated by the
Times daily, would require million and a
half OF scrlbes: yet they are printed with
ease by about two dozen of men Such is
the effect of skilful division of labor, that
a debate OF eight or ten hours in duration,
IN the House OF Commons, may be fully and
ably reported, printed and published, SO as
to be read in London within three or four
hours after its termination, and at sixty
miles distance from the metropolis, before
the Speakers of the previous night have ris-
en- from their beds.
In navigation, as in printing, invention
slumbered for centuries, and then suddenly
awoke in the wondrous steam vessel. Steam
navigation is probably yet in its infancy, yet
it has already effected an astonishing ex-
tension of intercourse between all parts of
the British Isles, the widely separated towns
and territories of the United States, and
several of the countries of Europe. 1t was
not uncommon dozen years ago, to wait
in this port for days and even weeks before
a vessel could sail for Ireland and often
have vessels been detained in the channel
days and even weeks by Gains and adverse
I wiHis. Dv the steam puokvt= we pass easily
and with certainty in single night from
Liverpool to Dublin; and they operate as
bridges, connecting the sister island with
England. Gains do not retard their fight
over the waves; adverse tides and winds,
though they somewhat impede, cannot ar
rest their progress. Instinct with power,
they walk the waters like a thing of life."
By their aid the voyage to India will proba-
by be made, ere many more years have
elapsed, scarcely more formidable thing
than a journey from London to Scotland a
century ago.
Such are few of the more striking in
ventons and improvements of modern times.
Yet invention is not exhausted. These seem
to be but the commencement of an endless
series; and the late experiments of Loco
motive Carriages on our Railway, give us
quite new idea of what science and art
may yet do to quicken the transport of trav-
oilers and goods through the land. Though
the idea of moving carriage by a mechan-
lcal power within it, is not absolutely new,
yet it has never been successfully reduced
to practice till our own day animate power,