The British Association. Section G. Engineering

Abstract

AT the middle of the last century the steam engine had attained to a high degree of perfection. Its development was, it is true, incomplete, but it had been successfully applied to all the great duties of the mine, the waterworks, the factory, the railway, and the steamship. The engines were mechanically excellent; the fuel economy was good, and they were built in units of thousands of horse-power. Steam power, in fact, was revolutionising the whole of the social and industrial conditions of the globe. Notwithstanding this great material and engineering success, the world was in complete darkness as to the connection between steam motive-power and heat. It was seen that motive-power of almost any magnitude could be obtained by the agency of heat; but how it was obtained and how much power was connected with a given quantity of heat was quite unknown. The fuel consumptions of existing engines were known, and certain modes of improving economy were evident, and engineers were busily engaged in testing these modes by the slow but sure methods of invention, design, construction, and operation in practical work; but in this they had but little aid from pure science.