In the accounts given of this engine, great stress is laid upon the supposed important advantage here offered, by the introduction of the surface-condenser, of permitting the employment of a working-fluid other than steam--as, for example, alcohol, which is too valuable to be lost. It was proposed to use the engine in connection with a still, and thus to effect great economy by making the fuel do double duty. The only part of the plan which proved both novel and valuable was the metallic packing and piston, which has not yet been superseded. The engine itself never came into use. At this point, the history of the steam-engine becomes the story of its applications in several different directions, the most important of which are the raising of water--which had hitherto been its only application--the locomotive-engine, the driving of mill-machinery, and steam-navigation. Here we take leave of James Watt and of his contemporaries, of the former of whom a French author[43] says: "The part which he played in the mechanical applications of the power of steam can only be compared to that of Newton in astronomy and of Shakespeare in poetry." Since the time of Watt, improvements have been made principally in matters of mere detail, and in the extension of the range of application of the steam-engine. [43] Bataille. "Traité des Machines à Vapeur," Paris, 1847. [Illustration] CHAPTER IV. _THE MODERN STEAM-ENGINE._ "Those projects which abridge distance have done most for the civilization and happiness of our species."--MACAULAY. THE SECOND PERIOD OF APPLICATION--1800-'40. STEAM-LOCOMOTION ON RAILROADS. [Illustration: FIG. 40.--The First Railroad-Car, 1825.] Introductory.--The commencement of the nineteenth century found the modern steam-engine fully developed in all its principal features, and fairly at work in many departments of industry. The genius of Worcester, and Morland, and Savery, and Desaguliers, had, in the first period of the application of the power of steam to useful work, effected a beginning which, looked upon from a point of view which exhibits its importance as the first step toward the wonderful results to-day familiar to every one, appears in its true light, and entitles those great men to even greater honor than has been accorded them. The results actually accomplished, however, were absolutely insignificant in comparison with those which marked the period of development just described. Yet even the work of Watt and of his contemporaries was but a mere prelude to the marvellous advances made in the succeeding period, to which we are now come, and, in extent and importance, was insignificant in comparison with that accomplished by their successors in the development of all mechanical industries by the application of the steam-engine to the movement of every kind of machine.