And now this strange thing of iron was in full life.

From its serpent chimney issued the thick rapid smoke, and the groan of its travail was heard within.
"And what propose you to yourself and to the kingdom in all this, Master Adam ?" asked Edward, curiously bending his tall person over the tortured iron.
"I propose to make Nature the labourer of man," answered Warner.

"When I was a child of some eight years old, I observed that water swelleth into vapour when fire is applied to it.

Twelve years afterwards, at the age of twenty, I observed that while undergoing this change it exerts a mighty mechanical force.

At twenty-five, constantly musing, I said, 'Why should not that force become subject to man's art ?' I then began the first rude model, of which this is the descendant.