The most recent application of this form of
energy has been in the propulsion of ships, which has already
produced so great an effect upon commerce, navigation, and the
spread of population over the world.
Equally important has been the influence of the Railway--now the
principal means of communication in all civilized countries.
This invention has started into full life within our own time.
The locomotive engine had for some years been employed in the
haulage of coals; but it was not until the opening of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, that the importance of
the invention came to be acknowledged. The locomotive railway
has since been everywhere adopted throughout Europe. In America,
Canada, and the Colonies, it has opened up the boundless
resources of the soil, bringing the country nearer to the towns,
and the towns to the country. It has enhanced the celerity of
time, and imparted a new series of conditions to every rank of
life.
The importance of steam navigation has been still more recently
ascertained. When it was first proposed, Sir Joseph Banks,
President of the Royal Society, said: "It is a pretty plan, but
there is just one point overlooked: that the steam-engine
requires a firm basis on which to work." Symington, the
practical mechanic, put this theory to the test by his successful
experiments, first on Dalswinton Lake, and then on the Forth and
Clyde Canal.
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