It should be a matter of thankfulness to author and reader, or
rather to both instructor and student, for this is designed to be an
educational work, that the Laws of Nature are unchangeable.
From age to age and co-extensive with the globe the immutable
principles underlying and actuating the physical states of all matter
remain steadfast; gaseous bodies expand by unchanging laws which are
obeyed down to the merest atom, fluids flow by law and the earth to the
smallest particle remains firm, all things at all times responsive to
the mandates of the Author of Creation.
The silent, mighty, unanswering physical characteristics of Gravity,
Cohesion, Tenacity, furnish an agreeable contrast to the din, discord
and frequent argument, to the verge of hatred, that have too often
accompanied the efforts of mankind to co-operate with the forces
of Nature. But now, between author and reader, let it be hoped,
that in the unfolding of the subject-matter of this work that kind
consideration will be extended and that some of that peacefulness and
trust which existed on the earth, when flints were the weapons and the
gourds the only goblets, may prevail from beginning to the “finis” of
the volumes.
The author in planning the outlines of this work has aimed to keep
close to real things belonging to the practical side of hydraulics,
pumps, pumping-engines, and to the simple explanation of the Natural
Laws pertaining to their industrial application. A knowledge of the
real things in the objective world about us and the laws that govern
them in their inter-relations is of practical value to every man; all
branches of science are simply branches of one great science and all
phases of human activity are touched by it; man is so constituted that
he must have something to be interested in, and if he has no resources
within himself he looks elsewhere, and often to his own disadvantage.
And so, the author has aimed to make the subjects of this book
interesting as well as useful; 1, by their self-help arrangement; 2, by
the illustrations, and 3, by leaving very much to the further research
and investigation of the reader, as, in a well-told story, many things
are left to the imagination of the listeners.
It should be borne in mind by the reader, that the work is designed
to be seriously Educational in its plan and scope, and Progressive in
the presentation of its subject-matter; nothing has been withheld that
might add to its lasting value.
This is said in the way of an introduction to the _Table of Contents_
to which the student is referred as showing the method of treatment, in
the wide range of the theory and practice, of this important branch of
Industrial Science.
In the back of the volume may be found a _Ready Reference Index_ which
by its admirable method of arrangement affords a speedy key to the
contents of the book when occasion requires.