-one of them demonstrating the
means of finding the most economical rates of expansion in steam
engines, and the other describing a balanced rudder for screw steamers.
But he did not confine his contributions to one Institution, or even to
one medium of publication, for we find that he read a number of papers
before the Philosophical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and
the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, while he
wrote occasionally at the same time for the _Philosophical Magazine_,
the _Journal of the Royal United Service Institution_, and other leading
publications. His first appearance in the pages of the _Philosophical
Magazine_ was made in 1842, when he wrote a paper on an experimental
inquiry into the advantages attending the use of cylindrical wheels on,
with an explanation of the theory of adopting curves for these wheels,
and its application to practice, and an account of experiments showing
the easy draught and safety of carriages with cylindrical wheels. From
this time, until he made his _debut_ at the Royal Society of Edinburgh
in 1853, he had been working most assiduously at his theory of the
development of heat, and one of his first papers to the Royal Society
was entitled "A Review of the Fundamental Principles of the Mechanical
Theory of Heat, with Remarks on the Thermic Phenomena of Currents of
Elastic Fluids, as Illustrating those Principles." In 1858 he published
"A Manual of Applied Mechanics and other Prime Movers," in 1859 he
produced another masterly work on "Civil Engineering," and in 1866
"Useful Rules and Tables Relating to Mensuration" came from his prolific
pen. In 1865 he published, in conjunction with his friends Mr. James R.
Napier, Mr. Isaac Watts, C.B., and Mr. F. K. Barnes, of the
Constructors' Department of the Royal Navy, a treatise on "Shipbuilding,
Theoretical and Practical," which has since taken a foremost place among
the mechanical works of the day. Besides these, he wrote, in 1857, the
article on "Applied Mechanics" for the eighth edition of the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and in 1870 he published "A Manual of
Machinery and Mill work." From the time that Mr. Rankine's maiden
efforts at the literature of mechanical science appeared in the _London
Philosophical Magazine_, he has attracted the attention and commanded
the esteem of scientific men throughout the world. One of the most
remarkable features in his career is the rapid succession with which he