young Jefferson, into whose
youthful soul the proceedings of that day sank so deeply that resistance
to tyranny became a part of his nature. But Henry "carried all the young
members with him." That night, thinking his work done, he rode home, but
the next day, in his absence, an attempt was made to strike all the
resolutions off the journals, and the fifth, and the fifth only, was
blotted out. The Lieutenant-Governor, though he did not believe new
elections would fall on what he esteemed cool, reasonable men, dissolved
the assembly; but the four resolutions which remained on the journals,
and the two others, on which no vote had been taken, were published in
the newspapers throughout America, and by men of all parties, by
royalists in office, not less than by public bodies in the colonies,
were received without dispute as the avowed sentiment of the "Old
Dominion."

This is the "way the fire began in Virginia." Of the American colonies,
"Virginia rang the alarum bell. Virginia gave the signal for the
continent."

WATT IMPROVES THE STEAM-ENGINE

A.D. 1769

FRANCOIS ARAGO

No greater service has been rendered to the world through mechanical
invention than that performed by James Watt in his improvement of
the steam-engine. Watt was born at Greenock, Scotland, in 1736.
During the eighty-three years of his life much progress was made in
mechanics and engineering in different countries, but the name of
Watt remains the most brilliant among contemporary workers in these
departments of practical science.

The first contriver of a working steam-engine is supposed to have
been Edward, second Marquis of Worcester (1601-1667). No complete
description of his engine is known to exist, and conjectures about
it disagree; but it is not questioned that he made important
contributions to the great invention, upon which others at the same
time were engaged. The construction of the first actual working
steam-engine is usually credited to Thomas Savery, born in England
about 1650. He devised a "fire-engine," as he called it, for the
raising of water, but, owing to the want of strong boilers and a
suitable form of condenser, it imperfectly served its purpose, and
was soon superseded by the better engine of Thomas Newcomen, here
referred to by Arago.

Newcomen was an English inventor, born in 1663. With Savery and
Cawley, he invented and in 170