Historic Inventions |
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airship Alfred Vail Anna Arkwright began Bell boat building built Chat Moss coal Company copies cotton cylinder Cyrus McCormick Davy decided discovery Dritzhn Edison electric electro-magnet Eli Whitney engine England experiments factory father Faust friends Fulton Galileo gave George Stephenson grain Gutenberg Hertz Hubbard improvements instrument invention inventor James Watt Killingworth knew labor lamp learned LENOX AND TILDEN letters LIBRARY ASTOR LENOX light locomotive looked machine manufacture McCormick Morse Palissy Palissy ware partners patent picture piston printing proved PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR railroad railway reaper Richard Arkwright Robert Fulton safety-lamp Schoeffer sent sewing-machine showed soon steam steam-engine telegraph telephone telescope thou thread TILDEN FOUNDATIONS tion took turned Vail wanted Watt waves Western Union Whitney wife Wilbur Wright wire wireless wireless telegraphy Wright wrote York young
Popular passages
Page 64 - I had entered the Green by the gate at the foot of Charlotte Street — had passed the old washing-house. I was thinking upon the engine at the time and had gone as far as the Herd's house when the idea came into my mind, that as steam was an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a communication was made between the cylinder and an exhausted vessel, it would rush into it, and might be there condensed without cooling the cylinder.
Page 109 - The moment arrived, in which the word was to be given for the vessel to move. My friends were in groups on the deck. There was anxiety mixed with fear among them.
Page 140 - Suppose, now, one of these engines to be going along a railroad at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour, and that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the way of the engine ; would not that, think you, be a very awkward circumstance ? "
Page 109 - They were silent, and sad, and weary. I read in their looks nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. The signal was given, and the boat moved on a short distance, and then stopped, and became immovable.
Page 110 - ... repented of my efforts. The signal was given and the boat moved on a short distance and then stopped and became immovable. To the silence of the preceding moment, now succeeded murmurs of discontent, and agitations, and whispers and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated — ' I told you it was so ; it is a foolish scheme : I wish we were well out of it.
Page 163 - My first instrument was made up of an old picture or canvas frame fastened to a table, the wheels of an old wooden clock moved by a weight to carry the paper forward, three wooden drums upon one of which the paper was wound and passed over the other two, a wooden pendulum suspended to the top piece of the picture or stretching frame...
Page 64 - I must get quit 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 35 or 36 feet, and any air might be extracted by a small pump; the second was to make the pump large enough to extract both water and air. ... I had not walked further than the Golf-house when the whole thing was arranged in my mind.
Page 125 - No ! my good friend, I never thought of such a thing : my sole object was to serve the cause of humanity ; and if I have succeeded, I am amply rewarded in the gratifying reflection of having done so.
Page 110 - I went below and examined the machinery, and discovered that the cause was a slight maladjustment of some of the work. In a short period it was obviated. The boat was again put in motion. She continued to move on. All were still incredulous. None seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses. We left the fair city of New York ; we passed through the romantic and ever-varying scenery of the Highlands ; we descried the...
Page 140 - ... any gale of wind which would affect the traffic on the Mersey would render it impossible to set off a locomotive engine, either by poking of the fire, or keeping up the pressure of the steam till the boiler was ready to burst.