Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter is superscripted (example: y^e). If two or more letters are superscripted they are enclosed in curly brackets (example: heerew^{th}). * * * * * THE CENTURY OF INVENTIONS. "A practical mathematician, who has quickness to seize a hint, and sagacity to apply it, might avail himself greatly of these scantlings. It is extremely probable, that Savery took from the Marquis the hint of the Steam Engine, for raising water with a power made by fire, which invention alone would entitle the author to immortality."--_Granger's Biog. Hist._ vol. v. p. 278. "Here it may not be amiss to recommend to the attention of every mechanic the little work entitled a 'Century of Inventions,' by the Marquis of Worcester, which, on account of the seeming improbability of discovering many things mentioned therein, has been too much neglected; but when it is considered that some of the contrivances apparently not the least abstruse, have, by close application been found to answer all that the Marquis says of them, and that the first hint of that most powerful machine, the Steam Engine, is given in that work, it is unnecessary to enlarge on the utility of it."--_Trans. of the Society of Arts_, vol. iii. p. 6. LONDON: PRINTED BY C. ROWORTH, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR. THE CENTURY OF INVENTIONS OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. FROM THE ORIGINAL MS. WITH HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES AND A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. BY CHARLES F. PARTINGTON, AUTHOR OF A DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE STEAM ENGINE, AND LECTURER AT THE LONDON, RUSSEL, SURREY, AND METROPOLITAN INSTITUTIONS, MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, &c. &c. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. MDCCCXXV. TO DOCTOR GEORGE BIRKBECK, PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION AND OF THE CHEMICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETIES, FOUNDER AND PATRON OF THE GLASGOW MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, &c. &c. &c. DEAR SIR, As a connecting link in the History of the STEAM ENGINE, I know that your attention has been directed to the Marquis of Worcester's CENTURY OF INVENTIONS, and that its merits were duly appreciated by you at a very early period of Life.--That these Illustrations of one of the most valuable scientific productions of the seventeenth century, may deserve your favourable notice, and prove an acceptable present to the extensive class of Readers which your patriotic exertions are now so rapidly adding to the Scientific World, is the sincere wish of, Dear Sir, Your faithful and obliged humble Servant, CHARLES F. PARTINGTON. London Institution, Feb. 6th, 1825. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF EDWARD MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. * * * * * BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF EDWARD