PREFACE.
The Steam Engine in one or other of its many forms is a sufficiently familiar object; not equally familiar, I venture to think, the knowledge of its manner of working, Yet surely in these days of scientific and technical education it would be well that at least the younger members of the community should have some clear perception of the method in which steam exerts the force which has become so necessary to the exigencies of daily modern life.
The want of some practical book on Model Engine-Making has during the last few years been made evident by the number of queries upon this subject which have appeared in various journals more or less devoted to the interests of mechanical science.
Much of the desired information might no doubt be gathered from the columns of these papers, notably, for instance, from the back
v
