James Watt

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Doubleday, Page, 1905 - 241 pages
 

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Page 114 - I'd been doon that morn to see what ailed the throws, Manholin', on my back - the cranks three inches off my nose. Romance ! Those first-class passengers they like it very well, Printed an' bound in little books ; but why don't poets tell ? I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns - the loves an' doves they dream Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o
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 236 - ... to select from his inexhaustible stores what might be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their capacity, he gave himself no trouble; and indeed such was his singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and intelligible, that scarcely any one could be aware of such a deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, though overflowing with information, had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit and pleasantry.
Page 220 - ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY, INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN, AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD.
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 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 - ... the world the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt, was not only the most profound man of science, the most successful combiner of powers and calculator of numbers, as adapted to practical purposes, was not only one of the most generally well-informed, but one of the best and kindest of human beings.
Page 56 - I must get rid of the condensed steam and injection-water if I used a jet as in Newcomen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me. First, the water might be run off by a descending pipe, if an offlet could be got at the depth of thirtyfive or thirty-six feet, and any air might be extracted by a small pump.

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