It was Newcomen, not Watt, who gave us the train of mechanism that we
now call the steam engine. It is to Newcomen, rather than Watt, that
we owe the highest honors as an inventor in this series of the most
important of all the products of the inventive genius of mankind.
Newcomen brought into existence a new, the modern, type of engine, and
effected the greatest revolution that has been recorded in the history
of the arts. Without Newcomen, there might have been no Watt; without
Watt, there very possibly may not even yet have been brought into
existence that giant of our time, whose mighty powers are employed
more effectively than ever those of Aladdin's genii, in building
palaces, in transporting men and material, in doing the work of the
whole world; promoting the welfare of the race, in a single century,
more than had all the forces of matter and mind together in the whole
previous history of the world. Newcomen laid down a foundation beneath
our whole economic system, out of sight, almost, but the essential
base, nevertheless, on which Watt and his successors have carried up
the great superstructure which seems to us to-day so imposing; which
is so tremendous in magnitude, importance, and result. If to any one
man could be assigned the credit, it is Newcomen who is to be
considered the inventor of the steam engine.
James Watt, indisputably the great inventor that he was, found the
steam engine ready to his hand, applied himself to its improvement,
and made it substantially what it is to-day.
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