INTRODUCTORY
CONSIDERATIONS
“Whenever a full mind meets an empty one, it is a call to teach, not to scoff.”—Anon.
Orifices of Pipes, etc., Symbolical of Irrigation.
“He who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly answers and ceases when he has no more to say, is in possession of some of the best requisites of man.”—Levater.
PREFACE.
It should be a matter of thankfulness to author and reader, or rather to both instructor and student, for this is designed to be an educational work, that the Laws of Nature are unchangeable.
From age to age and co-extensive with the globe the immutable principles underlying and actuating the physical states of all matter remain steadfast; gaseous bodies expand by unchanging laws which are obeyed down to the merest atom, fluids flow by law and the earth to the smallest particle remains firm, all things at all times responsive to the mandates of the Author of Creation.
The silent, mighty, unanswering physical characteristics of Gravity, Cohesion, Tenacity, furnish an agreeable contrast to the din, discord and frequent argument, to the verge of hatred, that have too often accompanied the efforts of mankind to co-operate with the forces of Nature. But now, between author and reader, let it be hoped, that in the unfolding of the subject-matter of this work that kind consideration will be extended and that some of that peacefulness and trust which existed on the earth, when flints were the weapons and the gourds the only goblets, may prevail from beginning to the “finis” of the volumes.
The author in planning the outlines of this work has aimed to keep close to real things belonging to the practical side of hydraulics, pumps, pumping-engines, and to the simple explanation of the Natural Laws pertaining to their industrial application. A knowledge of the real things in the objective world about us and the laws that govern them in their inter-relations is of practical value to every man; all branches of science are simply branches of one great science and all phases of human activity are touched by it; man is so constituted that he must have something to be interested in, and if he has no resources within himself he looks elsewhere, and often to his own disadvantage.