d Mr. Tolman, pausing to shift the gear of
the car. "Before the steam engine, as we know it, saw the light, there
had to be more experimenting and improving of the steam fountain. It was
not until 1705 that Thomas Newcomen and his partner, John Calley,
invented and patented the first real steam engine. Of course it was not
in the least like the engines we use now. Still, it was a steam device
with moving parts which would pump water, a tremendous advance over the
mechanisms of the past where all the power had been secured by the
alternate filling and emptying of a vacuum, or vacant receptacle,
attached to the pump. Now, with Newcomen's engine a complete revolution
took place. The engine with moving parts, the ancestor of our modern
exquisitely constructed machinery, speedily crowded out the primitive
steam fountain idea. The new device was very imperfect, there can be no
question about that; but just as the steam fountain furnished the
inspiration for the engine with moving parts, so this forward step
became the working hypothesis for the engines that followed."

"What engines did follow?" Doris persisted, "and who did invent our
steam engine?"

"Silly! And you in college," jeered Steve disdainfully.

"I am not taking a course in steam engines there," laughed his sister
teasingly. "Anyway, girls are not expected to know who invented all the
machines in the world, are they, Dad?"

Mr. Tolman waited a moment, then said soothingly:

"No, dear. Girls are not usually so much interested in scientific
subjects as boys are--although why they should not be I never could
quite understand. Nevertheless, I think it might be as well for even a
girl to know to whom we are indebted for such a significant invention as
the steam engine.

"It was James Watt," Stephen asserted triumphantly.

"It certainly was," his father agreed. "And since your brother has his
information at his tongue's end, suppose we get him to tell us more
about this remarkable person."

Stephen flushed.

"I'm afraid," began he lamely, "that I don't know much more. You see, I
studied about him quite a long time ago and I don't remember the
details. I should have to look it up. I do recall the name, though--"

His father looked amused.

"I don't know which of you children is the more blameworthy," remarked
he in a bantering tone. "Doris, who never heard of Watt; or Stephen, who
has forgotten all about him."

Both the boy and the girl chuckled good-humor