登陆注册
15401500000015

第15章

STEAM IN CAPTIVITY

For the beginnings of the enslavement of steam, that mighty giant whose work has changed the world we live in, we must return to the times of Benjamin Franklin.James Watt, the accredited father of the modern steam engine, was a contemporary of Franklin, and his engine was twenty-one years old when Franklin died.The discovery that steam could be harnessed and made to work is not, of course, credited to James Watt.The precise origin of that discovery is unknown.The ancient Greeks had steam engines of a sort, and steam engines of another sort were pumping water out of mines in England when James Watt was born.James Watt, however, invented and applied the first effective means by which steam came to serve mankind.And so the modern steam engine begins with him.

The story is old, of how this Scottish boy, James Watt, sat on the hearth in his mother's cottage, intently watching the steam rising from the mouth of the tea kettle, and of the great role which this boy afterwards assumed in the mechanical world.It was in 1763, when he was twenty-eight and had the appointment of mathematical-instrument maker to the University of Glasgow, that a model of Newcomen's steam pumping engine was brought into his shop for repairs.One can perhaps imagine the feelings with which James Watt, interested from his youth in mechanical and scientific instruments, particularly those which dealt with steam, regarded this Newcomen engine.Now his interest was vastly.quickened.He set up the model and operated it, noticed how the alternate heating and cooling of its cylinder wasted power, and concluded, after some weeks of experiment, that, in order to make the engine practicable, the cylinder must be kept hot, "always as hot as the steam which entered it." Yet in order to condense the steam there must be a cooling of the vessel.The problem was to reconcile these two conditions.

At length the pregnant idea occurred to him--the idea of the separate condenser.It came to him on a Sunday afternoon in 1765, as he walked across Glasgow Green.If the steam were condensed in a vessel separate from the cylinder, it would be quite possible to keep the condensing vessel cool and the cylinder hot at the same time.Next morning Watt began to put his scheme to the test and found it practicable.He developed other ideas and applied them.So at last was born a steam engine that would work and multiply man's energies a thousandfold.

After one or two disastrous business experiences, such as fall to the lot of many great inventors, perhaps to test their perseverance, Watt associated himself with Matthew Boulton, a man of capital and of enterprise, owner of the Soho Engineering Works, near Birmingham.The firm of Boulton and Watt became famous, and James Watt lived till August 19, 1819--lived to see his steam engine the greatest single factor in the new industrial era that had dawned for English-speaking folk.

Boulton and Watt, however, though they were the pioneers, were by no means alone in the development of the steam engine.Soon there were rivals in the field with new types of engines.One of these was Richard Trevithick in England; another was Oliver Evans of Philadelphia.Both Trevithick and Evans invented the high-pressure engine.Evans appears to have applied the high pressure principle before Trevithick, and it has been said that Trevithick borrowed it from Evans, but Evans himself never said so, and it is more likely that each of these inventors worked it out independently.Watt introduced his steam to the cylinder at only slightly more than atmospheric pressure and clung tenaciously to the low-pressure theory all his life.Boulton and Watt, indeed, aroused by Trevithick's experiments in high-pressure engines, sought to have Parliament pass an act forbidding high pressure on the ground that the lives of the public were endangered.Watt lived long enough, however, to see the high-pressure steam engine come into general favor, not only in America but even in his own conservative country.

Less sudden, less dramatic, than that of the cotton gin, was the entrance of the steam engine on the American industrial stage, but not less momentous.The actions and reactions of steam in America provide the theme for an Iliad which some American Homer may one day write.They include the epic of the coal in the Pennsylvania hills, the epic of the ore, the epic of the railroad, the epic of the great city; and, in general, the subjugation of a continental wilderness to the service of a vast civilization.

The vital need of better transportation was uppermost in the thoughts of many Americans.It was seen that there could be no national unity in a country so far flung without means of easy intercourse between one group of Americans and another.The highroads of the new country were, for the most part, difficult even for the man on horseback, and worse for those who must travel by coach or post-chaise.Inland from the coast and away from the great rivers there were no roads of any sort; nothing but trails.Highways were essential, not only for the permanent unity of the United States, but to make available the wonderful riches of the inland country, across the Appalachian barrier and around the Great Lakes, into which American pioneers had already made their way.

Those immemorial pathways, the great rivers, were the main avenues of traffic with the interior.So, of course, when men thought of improving transportation, they had in mind chiefly transportation by water; and that is why the earliest efforts of American inventors were applied to the means of improving traffic and travel by water and not by land.

同类推荐
  • 四分戒本

    四分戒本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 百千印陀罗尼经之二

    百千印陀罗尼经之二

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 同昌公主外传

    同昌公主外传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 韩碑

    韩碑

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 七祖院小山

    七祖院小山

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 超级系统1

    超级系统1

    萧峰在偶尔间获得系统,成为牛逼闪闪的修仙者!
  • 淏夜召唤

    淏夜召唤

    在未来漫长的淏夜时代里,他和他的伙伴们依然是永恒的传奇。看着前方的哈斯族舰队,他知道今天必将是他最辉煌的一战,因为今天过后他就再也没有一战的机会了。长刀向天,虽千万人吾往矣!!!
  • 校园王者传

    校园王者传

    追美斗殴,小事一桩。校园之内,唯我独尊。拳打校园恶霸,脚踢黑道流氓。隐藏世家以我为惧,上古门派以我为尊。
  • 下过雨的夏天傍晚

    下过雨的夏天傍晚

    这是一段传奇。最早的感觉,未知的人生……梅宇,一个聪明的“傻子”。贺兰柳,一个模糊的感觉。是什么,让黑暗里透出一点光?又是为什么,被这道光伤了眼?让我,给你答案……
  • 如果能倾听你的心

    如果能倾听你的心

    异能社,七界最有威胁力的军团。里面有人,神,魔,妖,灵兽,鬼,五行师……能进去的人,无没有一个不是精英中的精英!没有人敢背叛异能社,因为你就算跑到了哪里,异能社都会知道。而异能社里有一个精英战队,平均年龄15岁,他们到底在异能社是什么地位?
  • 花千骨之骨重生

    花千骨之骨重生

    花千骨重生后,会有怎样的遭遇呢?他和白子画是否能执子之手,与子偕老呢?尽请期待。
  • 流月清寒

    流月清寒

    他风度翩翩白衣俏儿郎,可是一遇到感情就变白痴。她侠骨柔肠红衣战四方,无奈一遇到感情就想退缩。傲娇情感白痴症碰上情感恐惧症,寒大人的追妻之路注定要悲剧。同生共死死皮赖脸,寒大人真是什么都用上了,奈何感情还是一路坎坷,还有一群狼崽子虎视眈眈的盯着,寒大人表示很忧桑。什么?白慕尘这家伙不知道从什么地方弄来一个小奶娃叫她娘亲?真是叔可忍婶都不能忍了,都让开,小爷要开挂了!
  • 武装倾国

    武装倾国

    《武装倾国》讲述了一个“不爱红装爱武装”的公主殿下,生于帝王家,却一心只想在疆场上杀敌立功,从一个无名小兵,一步一步登上镇国将军的位置,待她褪去一身戎装,倾覆天下,废除“女子不得为官、为将”的旧令,成为一代传奇,最终收获爱情的故事。
  • 精灵战神逍遥传

    精灵战神逍遥传

    他是雷神的契约者,也是一位敢于挑战的年轻人,没有多么的牛逼,但是却有一种奇特的力量在影响大家。我们是一个集体,一个大家庭,让我们一起去面对!
  • 穿越之庶女霸气归来

    穿越之庶女霸气归来

    白家宠女白檀,入学了一家名不经传的奇葩大学。刚好成了高级炼药师,跳级再跳级。临近毕业,被炼药的师傅骗去后山,进入了时空隧道。一朝醒来,异世魂!被派遣到乡下的庶女又如何,被追杀的情况下好运到爆遇到了疼爱自己的师傅,还有宠得无法无边的师兄。偷偷听到自己古代的娘亲给自己留了泼天财富,为了钱,当然离家出走啦,下山后就遇到了个二皇子,“原来是二皇子啊,难怪那么二~”(本故事纯属虚构,如有雷同,实属巧合。请勿模仿~)