Primitive Experiments with Steam.

391

Chap. 3.

steam alone, what may not be expected from it, and other aeriform fluids,in ages to come, when the progressive improvement of every art andevery Science shall have brought to light not only other agents of the kind,but more efficient means of employing them 1 There is no end to thebeneficial applications of the gases as motive agents, and no limits to thepower to be derived from them. As long as ram falls or rivers flow—while trees (for fuel) grow, or mineral coal is found, man can thus wielda power that renders him almost omnipotent.

The question may be asked, why was not the elastic force of steamearlier used as a source of motive power 1 Because, as we observed be-fore, men neglected to employ those powers of reflection and inventionwhich God had given them. It certainly formed no part of the Creator’splan of governing the world that they should have so long remained ig-norant of its application. He has placed man at the head of creation andfurnished him with powers appropriate to his position. Every object innature he can use for good or for evil. They are the materials fromwhich he may, as an expert machinist, fabricate at will all that his wantsrequire : he may prostitute them to the miseries of himself and his fel-lows ; or he may neglect them to the injury of all. It is the Order ofnature that her latent resources shall be discovered and applied by diligentresearch. Hence some of the finest specimens of the Creator’s wisdomcan only be appreciated after careful study, a fact which is itself a proofof his wisdom and beneficence, since their realization is thus held outas an inducement to investigate them.

Steam has of course been noticed ever since the heating of water andboiling of victuals were practiced. The daily occurrence implied by theexpression “ the pot boils over” was as common in antediluvian as in mo-dern times ; and hot water thus raised was one of the earliest observedfacts connected with the evolution of vapor. From allusions in the mostancient writings, we may gather that the phenomena exhibited by steamwere closely observed of old. Thus Job in describing Leviathan alludesto the puffs or volumes that issue from under the covers of boiling vessels.“ By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids ofthe morning; out of his nostrils goeth smoke [steam] as out of a seethingpot or cauldron.” In the early use of the vessels last named, and beforeexperience had rendered the management of them easy and safe, femaleswould naturally endeavour to prevent the savory contents of their potsfrom flying off in vapor ; hence attempts to confine it by covers; andwhen these did not fit sufficiently close, a cloth or some similar substanceinterposed between it and the edge of the vessel, would readily occur;and a stone or other weight placed upon the top to keep all tight wouldalso be very natural. Then as the fluid began again to escape, furtherefforts would be made to retain it by additional weights. In this manner,doubtless many a contest was kept up between a pot and its owner, tilione gained the victory ; and we need not the testimony of historians todetermine which this was. In those times it was not generally knownthat a boiling cauldron contained a spirit, impatient of control—that thevessel was the generator of an irresistible power, and the cover a safety-valve ; and that the preservation of the contents and the security ofthe operator depended upon letting the cover alone, or not overloadingit:—hence it no doubt often happened that the confined vapor threw outthe contents with violence, and then it was that primitive cooks began toperceive that there was death as well as life in a boiling pot. In thismanner, we suppose females were the first experimenters on steam, andthe earliest witnesses of steam boiler explosions.