Heroes of invention and discovery, selected by the editor of 'Risen by perseverance'.

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Page 8 - New Experiments Physico-mechanical, touching the spring of the air, and its effects ; (made for the most part in a new pneumatical engine) written .... by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esq* experiment xxxvi.
Page 21 - An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the philosopher calleth it, infra spheeram activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough ; for I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three...
Page 116 - ... there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will.
Page 99 - 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 75 - The manner of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery...
Page 107 - I said to my friends that there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, provided the works could be made to stand.
Page 42 - ... consumes none while idle ; it never tires, and wants no sleep ; it is not subject to malady when originally well made, and only refuses to work when worn out with age ; it is equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind ; it is a water-pumper, a miner, a sailor, a cotton-spinner, a weaver, a blacksmith, a miller, &c., &c.
Page 48 - ... skilled in chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical science, might, perhaps, have been conjectured ; but it could not have been inferred from his usual occupations, and, probably, is not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music, and law.
Page 108 - I was in education, and made up my mind that he should not labour under the same defect, but that I would put him to a good school, and give him a liberal training. I was, however, a poor man ; and how do you think I managed ? I betook myself to mending my neighbours...
Page 78 - Ravensworth and partners were the first to entrust me with money to make a locomotive engine. That engine was made thirtytwo years ago; and we called it ' My Lord." I said to my friends, there was no limit to the speed of such an engine, if the works could be made to stand it.

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