The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-12-16

border of your town. filled with reptiles venomous
and poisonous weeds he has converted into beauti-
full playground, where you may find shelter from
the hot summer on it's velvet green beneath the
great shade trees and watch the little in their
frolic and laughter around it's sparkling fountains
Down into the bowels of the earth he has burrowed
brot forth fuel for fires, metals for your utensils
and beautiful and brilliant minerals and stones to
adorn your person and satisfy your vanity.
He has built the mighty repulsng fort against
the ever warning egions of mad and raging sea-
which laid your harbors to waste and ruin He has
forced the defying rock of mountain and cliff span
ned the deep and wide gorge changed the course of
the river, linked the lake with the gulf and the
ocean to the If time and space were allotted
might go and enumerate many more of the great
and lasting benefits this genius has DONE and doing
for mankind. However, will give only brief
outline of of the refined skill and valuable la
Dor which has been expended on the world by the
engineer
1t is evident that without the means of genera
ting power the achievements of modern industry
would have been impossible The force which man
is able to produce with his own muscular power
would not be atom toward moving the ponder
machines of great industries 1t is the men
him to harness the immense Of energy locked
up in nature and make them his obedient servant
Primitive man first learned that he could draw
greater load his first made vehicle crude cart
than he could carry upon his shoulders. This was
the first mechanical means of transport, being
the motive power. Later on it became evident to
him that by shifting the burden from his own shout
ders to that of more powerful animal, which he
could have at his command, he could draw still
greater load. For this reason he domescaed the
horse or the As the population of his kind in
creased. so with equal strides the demands for his
products increased, and likewise his load increased
Let us suppose for the first time he brot his mental
activity into real play he stood wondering at that
monster the wind, swayed the great tree of the
forest Taking his crude ak of stone be fell the
and out of it formed raft or bark and upon it
placed mast with a sail, thus for the first time
bringing of natures forces to his command La
he discovered that nature had also provided 9th
enormous stores of energy which if proper means
were employed could be converted into mechanical
notion and by bringing out the energy stored in
coal by of heat, and applying il to water he
could produce powerful moving force, and that it
only remained to harness this energy of steam and
turn it into work required to be done. Thus was
birth given to the first steam engine.
We all know the work generally required of a
steam engine is to transmit an up and down or to
and fro motion into circular motion. Strange to
say that the steam engine had beef in existence
some time for pumping water by All "up and dwon
notion" before any thot Of devisipg means by
which this kind of motion could be transmitted into
a circular motion by of crank. From this
whrrng, rafting, unreliable old engine of.the for
gotten ages has developed into almost human spe-
Gle of mechanism running with absolute certainty
and with such ease that the only sound which can
be detected is the soft and muAled puff of the ex-
haust.
For who is not familiar with the mechan-
ism Of steam engine to stand by and watch this
machine working enclosed in its housing can get
very little idea of what ingenuity and fine skill are
required to design and form lifeess piece of metal
into an almost humna machine. But stand by when
assembled, and have someone who has the knowledge
of engine design and building explain the operation
and duty of each part; then You will be convinced
that such is the work of genius only. Watch the
valves which regulate the admission of the steam to
one end of the cylinder and then the other auto
macaly performing its duty with greater accuracy
than the human hand can do, and at the prop
er intervals releasing to the atmosphere or to an
other engine working in conjunction with the main
one. and there performing second duty, and SO on
until it has lost all its energy and finally converted
by the same machine back into its former state
water. Examine all the devices for governing and