The Steam - Engine, by HUGO REID, is a very admirable little
book—scientific, learned, and perfectly lucid, so that with a little attention anybody can understand fully the somewhat complicated matters of which it treats. The volume opens with an introduc- tory description of the chemical laws on which the action of the steam-engine depends ; which is not only necessary for a clear .comprehension of principles, but curious for the many facts and experiments by which it is illustrated. A brief history follows of the machines constructed or described at various time, in winch steam was the moving power; and which is not only sin- gular in itself, as showing how closely different minds have ap- proached the great discovery withiait making it, but useful as gradually introducing the reader to the subject. The engine of NEWCOMEN, the first that was applied to practical purposes, is next described ; then the improvements introduced by Warr; and the whole is wound up by an account of the diflerent engines for different purposes in contemporary action. There are nume- rous diagrams.
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