James Watt

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Doubleday, Page, 1905 - 241 pages

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Page 115 - An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves : Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking linkhead bides, Till — hear that note? — the rod's return whings glimmerin' through the guides. They're all awa' ! True beat, full power, the clangin' chorus goes Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin
Page 220 - THOSE WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE, THE KING HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO JAMES WATT, WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS, EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE...
Page 114 - Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam ! To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime Whaurto — uplifted like the Just — the tail-rods mark the time. The crank-throws give the double-bass ; the feedpump sobs an' heaves: An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves. Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides, Till — hear that note? — the rod's return whings glimmerin
Page 237 - ... which wait for no man, and of sailing without that wind which defied the commands and threats of Xerxes himself. This potent commander of the elements...
Page 239 - Turn him to any cause of policy, The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, Familiar as his garter ; that, when he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences...
Page 235 - ... instructive in no ordinary degree ; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing than wise, and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or more kind and indulgent towards all who approached him. He rather liked to talk, at least in his latter years ; but though he took a considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested the topics on which it was to turn,...
Page 115 - But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand My seven thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord ! They're grand they're grand ! Uplift am I ? When first in store the new-made beasties stood, Were Ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin
Page 237 - ... his happiest days. His friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, never more delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit to Scotland in autumn, 1817. Indeed, it was after that time that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of sculpture and statuary, and distributed among his friends some of its earliest performances, as the productions...
Page 227 - It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it — draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in. the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors — cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.
Page 238 - His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One gentleman was a deep philologist — he talked with him on the origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus ; another a celebrated critic — you would have said the old man had studied political economy and belleslettres all his life : of science it is unnecessary to speak ; it was his own distinguished walk.

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