Page:A Letter on the Subject of the Cause (1797).djvu/36

 your Lordſhip, how little ſtreſs can be laid on their evidence. As the preceding remarks on the Specification, reſult from an attentive and impartial peruſal of it, diveſted of every idea derived from a knowledge of the plan on which the Plaintiffs work, I will now ſtate for your Lordſhip’s conſideration, ſome of the points which appear moſt precarious on a minute inſpection of various engines built by them; and in which even the ableſt men that ever conſtructed an Engine on Newcomen’s plan would fatally miſs their way.

The firſt thing which attracted my attention, when inſpecting an Engine built by Mr. Watt, was the ſteam cylinder; which I obſerved ſhut at both ends, contrary to that of Newcomen, which is always open at the upper end; whereby the atmoſphere acts upon the upper ſurface of the piſton, both in its aſcent and deſcent.

A ſlight pauſe on this circumſtance ſoon preſented to my view a total contradiction to the article in Mr. Watt’s Specification denominated fourthly, where he aſſerts, that he “intends in many caſes to employ the expanſive force of ſteam to preſs on the piſtons, or whatever may be uſed inſtead of them, in the ſame manner as the