TWO:Natur ist Sünde, Geist ist Teufel.An apprentice must guard against the too common impression that the engine, cylinder, piston, valves, and so on, are the main parts of steam machinery, and that the boiler and furnace are only auxiliaries. The boiler is, in fact, the base of the whole, that part where the power is generated, the engine being merely an agent for transmitting power from the boiler to work that is performed. This proposition would, of course, be reached by any one in reasoning about the matter and following it to a conclusion, but the fact should be fixed in the mind at the beginning.
TWO:1. The steam-engine is an agent for utilising the power of heat and applying it to useful purposes.
TWO:The general principles of hammer-action, so far as already explained, apply as well to hammers operated by direct steam; and a learner, in forming a conception of steam-hammers, must not fall into the common error of regarding them as machines distinct from other hammers, or as operating upon new principles. A steam-hammer is nothing more than the common hammer driven by a new medium, a hammer receiving power through the agency of steam instead of belts, shafts, and cranks. The steam-hammer in its most improved form is so perfectly adapted to fill the different conditions required in power-hammering, that there seems nothing left to be desired.A queer sort of fainting fit had been followed by a ghastly sense of fear. Intrigue had hitherto been the very air that this woman breathed. Now she was frightened, every ring of the bell sent her heart into her mouth.
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