1831.—Schnebly.—Hussey.—McCormick, 1833-34.—Harvesters and Mowers at World's Fair, London, 1851.—Automatic Binders.—Wire and Twine.—Advances Shown at Centennial Exhibition, 1876.—Inventions Beyond the Wildest Dreams of Former Farmers.—One Invention Generates Another.—Lawn Mowers.—Hay Forks and Stackers.—Corn, Cotton, Potato, Flax Harvesters.—Threshing.—The Old Flail.—Egyptian and Roman Methods.—The First Modern Threshing Machine.—Menzies, Leckie, Meikle.—Combined Harvesters and Threshers.—Flax Threshers and Brakes.—Cotton Gins.—Eli Whitney.—Enormous Importance of this Machine in Cotton Products.—Displacement of Labour.

32 CHAPTER V.

AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS (continued). Harvest Ended, Comes the Preparation of Grain and Fruits for Food.—Cleaning.—Separating.—Grinding.—Fanning Mills and Sir Walter Scott.—The Rudimentary Mills.—Egyptian.—Hebrew, Grecian, and Roman Methods, Prevailed until Middle of Eighteenth Century.—The Upper and Nether Mill Stone in Modern Dress.—Modern Mills Invented at Close of Eighteenth Century.—Oliver Evans of America, 1755-1819.—Evans' System Prevailed for Three Quarters of a Century.—New System.—Middlings.—Low Milling.—High Milling.—Roller Mills.—Middlings Separators.—Dust Explosions and Prevention.—Vegetable Cutters.—Choppers.—Fruit Parers and Slicers.—Great Range of Mechanisms to Treat the Tenderest Pods and Smallest Seeds.—Crushing Sugar Cane.—Pressing and Baling.—Every Product has its own Proper Machine for Picking, Pressing, Packing, or Baling.—Cotton Compress.—Extensive and Enormous Cotton Crops of the World.—Cotton Presses of Various Kinds.—Hay and its Baling.—Bale Ties.—Fruits and Foods.—Machines for Gathering, Packing, Preserving, etc., all Modern.—Drying and Evaporating.—Sealing.—Transporting.—Tobacco.—Its Enormous Production.—The Interdict of James I., and of Popes, Kings, Sultans, etc.—Variety of Machines for its Treatment. 45 CHAPTER VI.

CHEMISTRY, MEDICINES, SURGERY, DENTISTRY. Chemistry among the Ancients.—Egyptians.—Phœnicians.—Israelites.—Greeks and Romans.—Chinese.—Became a Science in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.—Libavius.—Van Helmont.—Glauber—Tachenius.—Boyle.—Lémery.—Becher.—Stahl.—Boerhaave.—Black.—Cavendish.—Lavoisier.—Priestley.—Chemistry of Nineteenth Century a New World.—Atomic and Molecular Theories.—Light, Heat, and Electricity.—Correlation and Conservation of Forces.—Spectrum Analysis.—Laws of Chemical Changes.—John Dalton.—Wollaston.—Gay.—Lussac.—Berzelius.—Huygens' and Newton's Discoveries in Light in Seventeenth Century.—Unfolded and Developed by Fraunhofer, Kirchoff.—Bunsen in the Nineteenth.—Young of America.—Combination of Spectroscope and Telescope.—Huggins of England, Spectrum Analysis of the Stars.—Heat and other Forces.—Count Rumford.—Davy.—Mayer.—Helmholtz.—Colding.—Joule.—Grove.—Faraday.—Sir William Thomson.—Le Conte and Martin.—French Revolution and Agricultural Chemistry.—Lavoisier, Berthollet.—Guyton.—Fourcroy.—Napoleon.—Sir Humphry Davy.—Liebig.—Fermentation.—Alcohol.—Yeast.—Malt.—Wines.—Beer.—Huxley's Lecture on Yeast, 1871.—Protein.—Protoplasm.—Evolution from one all-pervading Force.—Alcohol and Pasteur.—Manufacture of Liquors.—Carbonating.—Soils and Fertilisers.—Liquids, Oils, Sugar and Fats.—Bleaching and Dyeing.—Aniline Colours.—Perfumes.—Electro-Chemical Methods.—Applied to the Production of Artificial Light.—Abradants.—Disinfectants.—Pigments.—Mineral Analysis.—Purification of Water and Sewage.—Electroplating Metals.—Chemicals and the Fine Arts.—Redemption of Waste Materials.—Medicines and Surgery.—Their Growth from Empiricism.—Anæsthetics.—Davy.—Morton.—Jackson.—Innumerable Medical Compounds.—Antiseptic Treatment of Wounds.—Vast Variety of Surgical Instruments Invented.—Four Thousand Patents in United States Alone.—Dentistry.—Its Ancient Origin.—Account of Herodotus.—Revolution in, during Nineteenth Century.—Instruments.—Artificial Teeth.—Vast Relief from Pain. 58 CHAPTER VII.

STEAM AND STEAM ENGINES. Prophecy of Dr. Darwin in Eighteenth Century.—Review of the Art from Hero to James Watt.—Pumping Engines.—Road Carriages.—Watt.—Cugnot.—Rumsey.—Fitch.—Oliver Evans.—Read.—Symington.—Trevithick.—Locomotives.—Blenkinsop.—Griffith.—Bramah.—Horse Engine.—Hancock.—Blackett.—George Stephenson.—Hackworth.—Braithwaite.—Ericsson.—Huskisson First Victim of Railroad Accident.—Seguin.—John C. Stevens.—Horatio Allen.—Peter Cooper.—Symington.—Lord Dundas.—Fulton and Livingston.—The First Successful Steamboat.—Transatlantic Steam Navigation.—Scarborough of Georgia.—Bell of Scotland.—Cunard Line; Paddle Wheels.—Screw Propellers.—The Age of Kinetic Energy.—Professor Thurston.—Variety of Engines and Boilers.—Corliss.—Bicycle and Automobile Engines.—Napoleon's Stage Trip and Present Locomotion.—Daniel Webster's Survey of the Art. 73 CHAPTER VIII.

ENGINEERING AND TRANSPORTATION. The Duties of a Civil Engineer.—Great Engineering of the Past.—The Divisions.—Steam.—Mining.—Hydraulic.—Electrical.—Marine.—Bridge Making, Its Development.—First Arched Iron Bridge.—Darby.—Telford.—Leading Bridges of the Century.—Suspension.—Tubular.—Tubular Arch.—Truss.—Cantilever.—Spider's Web and Suspension.—Sir Samuel Brown.—The Tweed.—Menai Straits and Telford.—M. Chaley and Fribourg.—J. K. Brunel and Isle of Bourbon.—British America and the United States united in 1855—Niagara.—John A. Roebling.—The Brooklyn Bridge.—Caissons and the Caisson Disease.—Tubular Bridge at Menai.—"The Grandest Lift in Engineering."—Robert Stephenson.—The Tubular Arch at Washington.—Captain Meigs and Captain Eads.—St. Louis Bridge.—Truss System and Vast Modern Bridges.—Cantilever Succeeded the Suspension.—New Niagara and River Forth.—Schneider.—Hayes.—Fowler and Baker.—Milton's Description.—Lighthouses.—Smeaton.—Douglass.—Bartholdi.—Eiffel.—Excavating, Dredging, Draining.—Road-making.—Railroads.—Canals.—Tunnels.—Excavating.—Desert Lands Reclaimed.—Holland and Florida Swamps.—The Tunnels of the Alps.—Suez Canal.—Engineering, as seen from a Pullman Car.—Cable Transportation.—Pneumatic Lock System.—Grain Elevators—Progress in Civilisation. 93 CHAPTER IX.

ELECTRICITY.