Page:The Kinematics of Machinery.djvu/254

 its conditions than others; these, on the other hand, as if driven by ever new inner forces, have disputed with nature one department after another, and have found their reward in the growth of their capacities and in the magnitude of the work they have been able to perform.

§ 50. The growth of Modern Machinery.

. 174.

Modern machinery carne into existence with the invention of the Steam Engine, and with it and by it has developed itself with a rapidity not even approached in former times. This has not been, in my opinion, by any sudden leap, by any discontinuousness in the sequence of ideas; it is due rather to an acceleration in the rate at which one has followed the other. The curve has risen suddenly without any change occurring in the law according to which it is formed. We must here not forget how difficult it is in