Coming to the results of communication, I have one subject to bring before you, and as it has shown to such a large extent the benefits of international communication, I trust a few words on it may not be out of place. The subject is the great International Exhibitions that have been held in various countries in the last eighteen years. The first idea of holding such great exhibitions emanated from a man whose name cannot be held in too great estimation by all. Few men were gifted with such rare talents as he was, for there were few subjects, whether in science, literature, or art, that he was not intimately acquainted with. This man was the late Prince Consort. He conceived the idea that if the products of the various countries of the world could be brought together under one roof, the knowledge these would convey of the machinery, cultivation, science, literature, and arts practised in the various parts of the globe would tend to stimulate and advance the mind by showing that we had not only ourselves to look to, but that in a great measure we had to depend on others for the many blessings we now enjoy; and also lead us to see how needful to our prosperity and comfort is a constant communication with those who can communicate to us that knowledge which otherwise we could not obtain. Certainly the results have proved that he was right. Could anything have been more interesting or instructive to all than a visit to the Great Exhibitions of 1851 or 1862, or that of Paris in 1867. The public interest is at once shown when I tell you that 6,039,195 persons visited the latter, and the receipts in money were £506,100. There, all and every one had before him at a glance the subject most suited to his taste, with a full description of the country which produced it. From the largest machine, the heaviest ordnance, the most brilliant and precious stones, the finest silks, lace, furniture, carriages, the greatest luxuries for the table, and, in fact, everything needful for the use of man;—all were there, and all to be seen and studied by the inquiring mind, or to be regarded as very wonderful by those who went to the Exhibition as a sight. Few, I venture to say, ever left these buildings except wiser than when they entered. It could not fail to strike one, if one only gave it a moment's reflection, and asked himself, how has all this been brought about, but that it was the result of the communication of the minds of certain individuals with those of others, and by a concentration of the products of various countries to enlighten the mind as to the vast intelligence of the world at large.
In conclusion, I feel now that I have spoken long enough for any lecture, though I have not by any means exhausted the subject of communication of either past or present; but I should feel grieved if I exhausted your patience. All things, as we well know, must have an end, except that life to which we are looking forward and striving to gain, where we shall cease from our labours and be at rest. We have been endued by our Maker with thought and mind, talents to be used for our benefit, and not wrapped up in a napkin till our Lord's return, but to be placed out so as to bring in either the five or the ten talents. And, as you all know, we are answerable for the manner in which we employ them. May the result prove that we have used them aright.
The progress of means of communication of mind and body have been gradual but steady, and I think may be represented by human life from its childhood to manhood, as beautifully set forth in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians 11th verse, where it is said, "When I was a child, I spake as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Is not this very much in keeping with our growth in communication? At first it was small, and we were content to hear of what others were engaged in without regard to time, as one day earlier or later was of little consequence. But now we are not children, but are become men in our interests and thirst for communication with each other. What should we say if we found the Express, as was written on the boy's post-bag, busily engaged in a game of bowls on the road, regardless of the loss of time or money thereby occasioned? I think we should be inclined to write to the papers.
The results of communication are manifold, and day by day they are brought before us in a manner which shows the untiring wish of man for improvement both in social and commercial interests. These results are strikingly shown in the various subjects I have endeavoured to bring before you. Each and all of them are subjects for thought. What should we now be without, I may say, any one of them?
A well-regulated mind is the most desirable of all acquirements, and I know no better means of gaining this than by meetings of such institutions as this. Here you have intercourse with your friends, and you can gain from one another by friendly intercourse stores of knowledge, that to search for as individuals would take away much more time than you could by any means devote, and at the same time attend to the business of your calling. Here you have the means of amusement as well as of gaining sound information, and I trust no one here will ever have cause to regret the day when he came to associate with his friends, and hear what others could communicate, for "in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom."
THE STEAM-ENGINE.
The many varieties of the world's manufactures—one might almost call them wonders—are now so numerous, that to bring any particular one in a single form before this meeting is a matter of no easy nature. To-night, however, I have ventured to single out, and have the pleasure of bringing before you, the steam-engine, as the prime mover at present of our workshops and manufactories, as also the grand motive power of our railways, now so different from the time when the great Stephenson was said to be mad, because he thought it possible to drive a train at fifteen miles an hour. For the first serviceable use of this grand machine we are indebted to the great James Watt. He it was who first wrought it so as to be under the useful and entire control of man, from what it was in the time of Hero of Alexandria, about 120 years before Christ. Our engineers have, since Watt's time, improved upon it year by year, till at the present day, instead of having to go in a mail-coach from London to Edinburgh, which formerly took fifty hours, we now go in the express train in ten, a distance of 420 miles. If beyond this ten hours, we grumble, and ask guards, porters, &c., at the various stations, "What has made the train so late to-day?" forgetting that just before the railways were first opened, the great Stephenson was urged not to say too much as to the supposed power of the locomotive, in case the cause of railways might be damaged. This was only some forty years ago, and it shows us how times are changed, for in the present day we consider thirty miles an hour anything but a fast train.
The history of the steam-engine is a subject on which so much has been written in books and magazines now before the public, that what I am about to offer, though pretending nothing new, yet I hope may be looked upon as containing something useful as well as instructive, both to the practical and the amateur mechanic. I shall therefore, in as small a compass as possible, trace the steam-engine from its first and early stages up to its present perfect state as our grand motive power. The first mention made of the vapour of water, as formed by the action of heat upon it, is found to be as far back as 120 B.C., when one Hero of Alexandria employed this vapour for the purpose of driving a machine. It is a well-known fact that when water is brought up to a certain degree of heat, called the boiling-point, that it sends forth a vapour, the elastic properties of which, when in an open vessel, are not perceived—as, for instance, in a common pan—yet if the vessel is closed or shut up at the top, you will find that the vapour acquires such a degree of elastic force, that, if not allowed to escape by fair means, it would soon make a way or vent for itself by bursting whatever vessel it was contained in. Steam is thus highly elastic, but when separated from the fluid out of which it is generated, it does not possess a greater elastic force than the same quantity of air. If, for example, a vessel is filled with steam only at 212°, it may be brought to a red heat without fear of bursting; but if water is also in the vessel, each additional quantity of heat causes a fresh quantity of steam to be generated, which adds its elastic force to that of the steam already in the vessel, till the constantly accumulating force at last bursts the vessel.
This elastic vapour is called steam, and it is by this that that most beautiful machine, the steam-engine, is driven. As you all know, by this vapour or air—for it is invisible till it loses part of its heat—enormous power is obtained in a small compass, and the labour of man reduced to nothing compared with former ages. Many men laboured to perfect machinery to be worked by this vapour of water, and many came near the mark; but it remained for the great Watt, at the Soho Works, Birmingham, to bring the engine to its useful and working state, for though discovered as a motive power 120 B.C., it was yet reserved for this truly great man to be what may be termed the inventor of the steam-engine.