Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/361

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THE WONDERFUL LAMP.
313

is 120 feet. Its mass might be lifted from the level of the water to its present position by the combustion of four bushels of coal.[1] The reader will hardly require to be informed that the above illustrations show what might be done by the steam generated during the combustion of certain quantities of coal, provided its entire strength could be applied to the fulfilment of the required results.

Let us now briefly consider some of the real achievements of Steam, and other genii, over which man, as the holder of the lamp of science, has absolute control.

The Great Eastern, or Leviathan, that stupendous product of engineering daring, is a structure immeasurably more wonderful than Aladdin's palace. While this ship was in course of construction, the genii of the lamp had no rest, and their Cyclopean labours excited the wonder of all beholders. Although building in the midst of the largest collection of seafaring people in the world, the Leviathan was a puzzle to them all.

None of the old-accustomed sights and sounds of ship-building attended the growth of this monster of the deep. The visitor to the works of Scott Russell and Co., at Millwall, looked in vain for the merry ship-carpenters, caulking away with monotonous dead-sounding blows; for the artisans chipping with their adzes, rearing up huge ribs, or laying the massive keel; and for the bright augers gleaming in the sun as sturdy arms worked out the bolt-holes.

  1. Lardner, on the Steam Engine.