THE
CENTURY OF INVENTIONS,
WRITTEN IN 1655;
BY
EDWARD SOMERSET, MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
BEING
A VERBATIM REPRINT
OF
THE FIRST EDITION, PUBLISHED IN 1663.
“He was a man, take him for all in all,
We shall not look upon his like again.”
WITH
An Introduction and Commentary
BY HENRY DIRCKS, ESQ.,
CIVIL ENGINEER,
AUTHOR OF “PERPETUUM MOBILE, OR HISTORY OF THE SEARCH AFTER SELF-MOTIVE POWER;” “CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF ELECTRO-METALLURGY;” AND “THE LIFE OF SAMUEL HARTLIB;” ALSO INVENTOR OF THE “DIRCKSIAN PHANTASMAGORIA,” PRODUCING THE OPTICAL ILLUSIONS POPULARLY CALLED “THE GHOST!”
INTRODUCTION.
The Middle Ages are usually considered to have closed between 1490 and 1500, only one century previous to the birth of that Marquis of Worcester to whom posterity is indebted for his ever memorable publication, the “Century of Inventions,” of which a reprint is now before the reader. It records the earliest full, though brief, sketch of a practically working Steam-Engine; an invention which, whether in relation to the age in which it was produced, or the difficulties under which it was wrought out, cannot be considered otherwise than as a marvellous effort of ingenuity. The literature and science of that era, as compared with the progressive stages of improvement distinguishing the two succeeding centuries, were barren and meagre indeed. Hallam justly observes: “Learning, which is held pusillanimous by the soldier, unprofitable by the merchant, and pedantic by the courtier, stands in need of some countenance from the ruling powers before whom all three bow down.” But even at that early period Leonardo da Vinci, born 1452, had anticipated Lord Bacon in the universally accepted principle, that experiment and observation must ever be the only sure guides to the forming of just theories in the investigation of nature.