force within them, and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant fountain stream, forty feet high; one vessel of water, rarified by fire, driveth up forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold water, and so successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the self-same person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim, between the necessity of turning the said cocks." Vide Harleian MSS. No. 2428.

In 1683, a scheme for raising water by the agency of steam was offered to the notice of Louis XIV. by an ingenious English mechanic, of the name of Morland; this, however, was evidently formed upon the plan previously furnished by the Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions. Morland was presented to the French monarch in 1682, and in the course of the following year his apparatus is said to have been actually exhibited at St. Germain's.* The only notice of this plan

* Sir Samuel Morland was the son of a baronet of the same name, created by King Charles II. for his zealous services performed during the King's exile. The son was made Magister Mechanicorum by the King in 1681, and was justly celebrated at that period for a number of very ingenious inventions, among which we may enumerate the drum capstan for weighing anchors, the speaking trumpet, and fire engine. The celebrated John Evelyn gives the following account of a visit paid him at a very late period of his life :

"The Abp. and myselfe went to Hammersmith, to visite Sir

occurs in the collection of MSS. to which we have already alluded, and forms the latter part of a very beautiful volume, containing about thirtyeight pages, and entitled " Elevation des Eaux, par toute sorte de Machines, réduite a la mésure, au poids, et a la balance. Presentée a sa Majesté tres Chrestienne, par le Chevalier Morland, gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre privée, et maistre des méchaniques du Roy de la Grande Brétaigne, 1688."

The MS. is written upon vellum, richly illuminated, and the part which has reference to the steam engine occupies only four pages, commencing with a separate title, &c. It is also ac- companied by a table of the sizes of cylinders, and the amount of water to be raised by a given force of steam. This curious memoir forms an important link in the chain of historical evidence,

Sam. Morland, who was entirely blind, a very mortifying sight. He shewed us his invention of writing, which was very ingenious, also his wooden kalender, which instructed him all by feeling, and other pretty and useful inventions of mills, pumps, &c. and the pump he had erected that serves water to his garden and to passengers, with an inscription, and brings from a filthy part of the Thames neere it a most perfect and pure water. He had newly buried 2001. worth of music books six feet under ground, being, as he said, love songs and vanity. He plays himselfe psalms and religious hymns on the Theorbo." Diary, Qet. 25th, 1695.

About the year 1684, Sir Samuel purchased a house at Hammersinith, and it appears from the register of that parish, hę was buried Jan. 6th, 1696,

which tends to prove that the English, though not the actual inventors of the steam engine, were unquestionably the first to apply its stupendous powers to any useful practical purpose; we shall, therefore, offer no apology for presenting it entire to the notice of the reader.

"Les Principes de la nouvelle Force de Feu: inventée par le Chevalier Morland, l'an. 1682, et presentée a sa Majesté tres Chrestienne, 1683.

"L'eau etant evaporée par la force de feu, ces vapeurs demandent incontinent une plus grand'espace [environ deux mille fois] que l'eau n'occupoit auparavant, et plus lost que d'etre toujours emprisonnées, feroient crever une piece de canon. Mais etant bien gouvernées selon les regles de la statique, et par science réduites a la mésure, au poids et a la balance, alors elles portent paisiblement leurs fardeaux, [comme des bons chevaux,] et ainsi servoient elles du grand usage au gendre humain, particulierement pour l'elevation des eaux, selon la table suivante, qui marque les nombres des livres qui pourront etre levées 1800 fois par heure, a six pouces de louée, par de cylindres a moitié remplies d'eau, aussi bien que les divers diametres et profondeurs des dits cylindres,"

Table of the Diameter and Length of Steam Cylinders ; with the Number of Pounds Weight to be raised.

The invention of the atmospheric engine, though usually ascribed to Newcomen, or his coadjutor Savery, is unquestionably of French origin. An account of it having been published twelve years prior to the commencement of Newcomen's pa

tent.

In 1695, Papin, then resident at Cassel, published a work, describing a variety of methods for

raising water in which he enumerates the above invention. Being unable to procure this tract, we insert the following translation of that part which relates to the steam engine. It occurs in the Transactions of the Royal Society, for 1697. After alluding to the inconvenience of forming a vacuum by means of gunpowder, which was one of his early propositions, he recommends "the alternately turning a small surface of water into vapour, by fire applied to the bottom of the cylinder that contains it, which vapour forces up the plug in the cylinder to a considerable height, and which (as the vapour condenses, as the water cools when taken from the fire) descends again by the air's pressure, and is applied to raise the water out of the mine."

From this it will be evident that any practical mechanic would have suggested the further application of pumps and a working beam or lever similar to those in Newcomen's engine.

To experimentally illustrate the principle on which the steam or atmospheric engine acts, we have only to procure an hollow bulb of glass, connected with a tube of the same material, about four or five inches in length, and furnished with a piston or plug, sliding air-tight. A small quantity of water being placed in the vessel, must then be heated to the boiling point, and the vapour formed will speedily impel the piston to the open end. The bulb must now be withdrawn from the candle, and on being immersed in a vessel of cold