done among
people not versed in engineering lore by the admirably written romance
of Smiles, who as Edward C. Knight, in his Mechanical Dictionary,
truly declares, has "pettifogged the whole case." If, as Prof. Renwick
intimates, "conflicting national pride" has led the major part of
British writers to suppress the truth as to the origin of the high
pressure steam engine, the locomotive, and the steam railway system,
surely true national pride should induce the countrymen of Oliver
Evans to assert it. In closing this paper the writer will say, for the
information of the so-called "practical" men of the country, or, in
other words, those men whose judgment of an invention is mainly guided
by its money value, that Poor's Manual of Railroads in the United
States for 1886 puts their capital stock and their debts at over
$8,162,000,000. The value of the steamships and steamboats actuated by
the high pressure steam engine the writer has no means of
ascertaining. Neither can he appraise the factories and other plants
in the United States--to say nothing of the rest of the world--in
which the high pressure steam engine forms the motive power.

* * * * *

AUGUSTE'S ENDLESS STONE SAW.

It does not seem as if the band or endless saw should render the same
services in sawing stone as in working wood and metals, for the
reason that quite a great stress is necessary to cause the advance of
the stone (which is in most cases very heavy) against the blade. Mr.
A. Auguste, however, has not stopped at such a consideration, or,
better, he has got round the difficulty by holding the block
stationary and making the blade act horizontally. Fig. 1 gives a
general view of the apparatus; Fig. 2 gives a plan view; Fig. 3 is a
transverse section; Fig. 4 is an end view; Figs. 5, 6, and 7 show
details of the water and sand distributer; and Figs. 8, 9, and 10 show
the pulleys arranged for obtaining several slabs at once.

[Illustration: FIG. 1 AUGUSTE'S STONE SAW.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2 AUGUSTE'S STONE SAW.]

[Illustration: FIGS. 3 and 4 AUGUSTE'S STONE SAW.]

[Illustration: FIGS. 5 through 10 AUGUSTE'S STONE SAW.]

The machine is wholly of cast iron. The frame consists of four
columns, A, bolted to a rectangular bed plate, A', and connected above
by a frame, B, that forms a table for the support of the transmission
pieces, as well as the iron ladders, _a_, and the platform, _b_, that
supports the wa