CORN MILLS.-Figure 40 is a sketch of a corn mill erected in 1730, and clearly illustrates the condition of millwork and gearing at that time. Figs. 41 and 42 exhibit

day, it will be seen that the pairs of stones, twelve in number (a a a) are arranged in a single line, enclosed in iron cases, and supported on strong iron framing (bb). The power required to drive the mill is obtained from a steam-engine, the fly-wheel of which gears into the pinion c, and the motion is then distributed on each side to the stones by the bevel wheels d d d. the bevel wheels d d d. The wheat, as it is brought to the mill, is first delivered in its uncleaned state into the wheat garners g g, situated upon the machine flat. From these it is passed by means of Archimedean screw creepers to the wheat screen or smut machine h, whence it falls into an elevator through the spout, which raises it again to the upper story; it is thence distributed by another creeper into the clean wheat garners k k k; from these it passes by the feed pipes 111, to the feed hoppers of the stones 7, and after being ground to flour is raised again by a creeper and elevator to the machine floor, where it passes through the dressing and bolting machinery. Fig. 42 is a section of a pair of stones with its driving and feeding apparatus, stone case (a), rhind (m), bed stone (n), and running stone (p). Such a mill as this will grind 70 to 90 bushels of wheat per hour, according to the dryness of the grain employed.

RAILWAYS.-In tracing a faint outline of the progress of practical science and industrial art, we have yet to notice one of the most important improvements that has ever occurred in ancient or modern times. The railway system, combined with the locomotive engine, is both a discovery and an invention, and the introduction of these developments, contemporaneously with the progress of steam navigation, has changed the destinies of nations, and brought the most distant and barbarous races within the reach of civilisation.

Railways are of comparatively remote origin, having been in use for upwards of two hundred years, as may be

seen from records of the collieries of Northumberland, dating from the time of Charles the Second. I still retain a distinct recollection of being employed, in 1807, at the Percy Main Colliery, in making patterns for cast-iron fish-bellied rails and these were amongst the first, if not the first, iron rails introduced as a substitute for wood. For many years after this cast-iron was employed, and it was not until the locomotive rendered a tougher material requisite that wrought-iron was substituted for cast. The form of section of these rails was at first defective in the extreme, but they have since been constructed on sounder principles, and of stronger and heavier proportions.

Iron roads, however, are of little value without the locomotive engine, and the latter we owe exclusively to the marvellous developments of the last forty years. Imperfect and premature attempts were made to introduce steam as a motive power for carriages more than a hundred years ago; and Mr. Murdock, of Soho, made a working model of a locomotive-engine at the close of the last century, which I have myself seen travelling on a circular railway at the rate of five miles an hour. Mr. Trevietheck also made a locomotive-engine in 1804, which was mounted on a carriage with four wheels, and worked on an iron tramway at Merthyr Tydvil, dragging waggons loaded with fifteen tons of iron for a distance of nine miles in rather less than two hours. Mr. Blenkinsop, however, introduced the first really successful engine at Leeds in 1812. This engine worked for many years, and in order to prevent the wheels from slipping, racks were introduced upon the rails with large hollow cogs, into which the corresponding teeth on the wheels worked. This contrivance, however, was soon abandoned, the adhesion of the wheels to the rails being found sufficient to prevent slipping.

The success of Blenkinsop's engine induced the coalowners of Newcastle to make a similar experiment on their tramways, with a view of dragging the empty waggons up the inclines in this way. It was in these and subsequent experiments that George Stephenson first became known, whose skill and exertions have since so deservedly earned for him the title of the "Father of Railways." He was one of the most courageous and persevering engineers this country has produced. Endowed by nature with great powers, although comparatively uncultivated and uninstructed, he never lost sight of the object of his pursuit, and his never tiring energy of character carried him successfully through difficulties which would have crushed more ordinary men. George Stephenson was never afraid of work, and by the constant exercise of a sound judgment, combined with indomitable perseverance, he was led to the honourable accomplishment of the great work he had to perform. Such was his character when I first worked an engine for him on the Tyne, and such was the man when I last parted with him a few weeks before his death.

Time will not permit me to enter into detail on the progress of the locomotive engine, in all the changes and transformations through which it has passed. Suffice it to observe, that Mr. Jonathan Foster, of Wylam, near Newcastle, was among its first improvers; he connected all the four wheels by spur gear, first dispensing with the tooth work on the wheels and rails. Stephenson then altered the positions of the cylinders and wheels, improved the flues and furnaces of the boiler, and introduced the blast into the chimney, one of the most important elements in the success of the locomotive. A long and angry contest has been carried on in the journals as to the priority of the invention of the blast, but I have every reason to think it belongs to Stephenson, as I have heard him claim