Abstract
THE attempt here made to give a sketch of the mechanical side of progress in the last fifty years is necessarily slight. The year 1869 was the centenary of that in which Boulton and Watt took out their first patent for the steam engine. It is due to the application of steam-power to industrial operations, more than to anything else, that there has been so great an increase of population, of wealth, and of social prosperity, and indirectly also of scientific knowledge, during the last 150 years. Perhaps a review of some of the earlier advances already slipping out of knowledge, as well as of more recent and familiar discoveries, will be interesting.
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UNWIN, W. Developments of Mechanical Science. Nature 104, 241–243 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104241a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104241a0