Project Gutenberg's A Catechism of the Steam Engine, by John Bourne

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Title: A Catechism of the Steam Engine

Author: John Bourne

Release Date: February 9, 2004 [EBook #10998]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CATECHISM OF THE STEAM ENGINE ***

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University Libraries.

A CATECHISM OF THE STEAM ENGINE

IN ITS VARIOUS APPLICATIONS TO MINES,
MILLS, STEAM NAVIGATION, RAILWAYS,
AND AGRICULTURE.

WITH

PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MANUFACTURE
AND MANAGEMENT OF ENGINES OF EVERY CLASS.

BY

JOHN BOURNE, C.E.

_NEW AND REVISED EDITION._

[Transcriber's Note: Inconsistencies in chapter headings and numbering
of paragraphs and illustrations have been retained in this edition.]

PREFACE

TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

For some years past a new edition of this work has been called for, but I
was unwilling to allow a new edition to go forth with all the original
faults of the work upon its head, and I have been too much engaged in the
practical construction of steam ships and steam engines to find time for
the thorough revision which I knew the work required. At length, however, I
have sufficiently disengaged myself from these onerous pursuits to
accomplish this necessary revision; and I now offer the work to the public,
with the confidence that it will be found better deserving of the favorable
acceptation and high praise it has already received. There are very few
errors, either of fact or of inference, in the early editions, which I have
had to correct; but there are many omissions which I have had to supply,
and faults of arrangement and classification which I have had to rectify. I
have also had to bring the information, which the work professes to afford,
up to the present time, so as to comprehend the latest improvements.

For the sake of greater distinctness the work is now divided into chapters.
Some of these chapters are altogether new, and the rest have received such
extensive additions and improvements as to make the book almost a new