Sharp County record., 1882-07-13
A WONDERFUL CREATURE.

A WONDERFUL CREATURE.
One day lonely prisoner sat medita-
ting in his cell in the Tower of London.
He was a Marquis of Worcester, 4 no.
blems of high rank and large fortune,
who had been imprisoned for political
offense. But he had always been Il me-
chanic, and had passed the happiest
hours of his life in his workshop. AS
ne watched, sad and almost hopeless in
his prison, he noticed that the cover of
kettle that was boiling on the fire
was raised up, and that cloud of Yapor
escaped.
He examined the curious fact, and at
last asked himself-wha hat is it that lifts
the cover-what power is there hidden
in the boiling kettle? 1t was evidently
the white vapor; it was steam. The
MARQUIS of Worcester had made d Won
derful discovery, and when he was lib
Grated he gave much of his time to the
study of the new power. He felt the
great value of steam to mankind; and in
his work, ga Century of Inventions, "
thanked God that he had been permit
ted to discover one of the "secrets Of
nature"
No one before him seems ever to have
thought of making steam useful. The
white vapor had risen from every boil
inc vessel since the first use of fire. 1t
was familiar to the Jew, Assyrlan,
Greek and Roman. A Greek man OF
science was even acquainted with some
of its powers, and employed it to fright
en- one of his neighbOrs for whom he
had no good will. He placed a boiler in
his cellar, and drove the steam through
pipes around his neighbor' S house, shak-
inc it with loud noise.
But no one had thought of confining
the vapor in pipe, and making 1t
labor No one in Shakspeare's time
had fancied that there was a giant
strength in boxing water; no one fore.
saw in 1860 fkn 4aff the clief labors of
the future would be carried on by the
aid of boiling kettle. But soon the
idea suggested by the Marquis of
Worcester seems to have excited the
curiosity of other intelligent men. He
left no machine behind him, if he had
ever made one. His only object was to
force up water. He wrote an account
of his machine in 1868, and SOON after
died. In 1851, Morland used steam to
raise water. Its power began to be dis
covered; it would burst, it was said, q
gun, and inhict serious injuries.
Next, about 1857, Papin, a French
Huguenot exiled to London, almost in
vented a real steam-engine. He filled a
pipe, or cylinder half full OF water; a
piston or rod of iron rested on the
water. A fire was kindled underneath,
the water boiled, the steam drove the
piston to the top of the cylinder, where
it was secured by peg or latch. The
fire was then taken away, the cold
once more condensed the steam into
water, the latch was let loose, and the
piston descended to its former position.
Papin in this way raised weight OF
sixty rcInds. He was full of ardor,
believed that he could raise ten thou
sand pounds, and even suggested a
steamboat.
But as yet the rude machine consisted
only of pipe, piston and latch that
was reI1oved by an attendant. Soon
after, in 1896, Savery invented the first
real steam engine. 1t consisted Of two
boilers, cylinder, a stream Of cold
water to condense the steam, and was
intended to pump water into cities,
houses and ships. Savery addressed his
pamphlet, describing his engine, to
King William, who had examined his
machine with interest at Hampton
Court. In the year 100 the steam-en-
CINE was in it's infancy.
1t grew slowly. Savery's engine was
improved, but was still for nearly a
century imperfect and almost useless.
1t could only move a piston or rod up
and down. No one had yet discovered
a way to make it turn wheel. Until
the American Revolution and the age OF
Washington and Franklin, the imper-
feet machine seemed of little real value.
James Watt, a young Scotch me-
chanic, almost made it what it is. he
is the author of the modern steam-en-
CINE. He was the son of maker of
mathematical instruments. He was
sickly, studious and always fond of me-
chanical contrivances; at six years old
he is said to have worked out problems
in geometry in the sand; at fourteen he
made an electrical machine: and at ff=
teen, Arago tells us, studied the steam
that came from tea-kettle and planned
some of his future labors. He was born
in 1886.
His chief discovery was how to make
the piston turn a wheel, and this he did
by using the crank. His machines be-
came capable of turning mills, moving
spindles, and pumping out mines. He
founded a great factory of steam
engines that were sod all over the