CHAPTER VII.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE STEAM-ENGINE.
The History of its Growth; Energetics and Thermo-dynamics.
“Of all the features which characterize this progressive economical movement of civilized nations, that which first excites attention, through its intimate connection with the phenomena of production, is the perpetual and, so far as human foresight can extend, the unlimited growth of man’s power over Nature. Our knowledge of the properties and laws of physical objects shows no sign of approaching its ultimate boundaries; it is advancing more rapidly, and in a greater number of directions at once, than in any previous age or generation, and affording such frequent glimpses of unexplored fields beyond as to justify the belief that our acquaintance with Nature is still almost in its infancy.”—Mill.
The growth of the philosophy of the steam-engine presents as interesting a study as that of the successive changes which have occurred in its mechanism.
In the operation of the steam-engine we find illustrated many of the most important principles and facts which constitute the physical sciences. The steam-engine is an exceedingly ingenious, but, unfortunately, still very imperfect, machine for transforming the heat-energy obtained by the chemical combination of a combustible with the supporter of combustion into mechanical energy. But the original source of all this energy is found far back of its first appearance in the steam-boiler. It had its origin at the beginning, when all Nature came into existence. After the solar system had been formed from the nebulous chaos of creation, the glowing mass which is now called the sun was the depository of a vast store of heat-energy, which was thence radiated into space and showered upon the attendant worlds in inconceivable quantity and with unmeasured intensity. During the past life of the globe, the heat-energy received from the sun upon the earth’s surface was partly expended in the production of great forests, and the storage, in the trunks, branches, and leaves of the trees of which they were composed, of an immense quantity of carbon, which had previously existed in the atmosphere, combined with oxygen, as carbonic acid. The great geological changes which buried these forests under superincumbent strata of rock and earth resulted in the formation of coal-beds, and the storage, during many succeeding ages, of a vast amount of carbon, of which the affinity for oxygen remained unsatisfied until finally uncovered by the hand of man. Thus we owe to the heat and light of the sun, as was pointed out by George Stephenson, the incalculable store of potential energy upon which the human race is so dependent for life and all its necessaries, comforts, and luxuries.