I though this paean to the steam engine was work quoting in full. As well as including the metaphors to Genii and being the 'king of' machines, in places the text begins to anthropomorphise the engine (it has talents, and obeys, if it does not tire, sleep or get ill),
"In the present perfect state of the engine it appears a thing almost endowed with intelligence.
- It regulates with perfect accuracy and uniformity the number of its strokes in a given time, counting or recording them, moreover, to tell how much work it has done, as a clock records the beats of its pendulum;
- it regulates the quantity of steam admitted to work;-
- the briskness of the fire;
- the supply of water to the boiler;
- the supply of coals to the fire;
- it opens and shuts its valves with absolute precision as to time and manner;
- it oils it joints;
- it takes out any air which may accidentally enter into parts which should be vacuous;
- and when anything goes wrong which it cannot of itself rectify, it warns its attendants by ringing a bell;
yet with all these talents and qualities, and even when exerting the power of six hundred horses,
- it is obedient to the hand of a child;
- its aliment is coal, wood, charcoal, or other combustible,
- it consumes none while idle,
- it never tires, and wants no sleep;
- it is not subject go malady when originally made well, and only refuses to work when worn out with age;
- it is equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind;
- it is a water-pump, a miner, a sailor, a cotton-spinner, a weaver, a blacksmith, a miller, &c. &c.;
and a small engine, in the character of a steam pony, may be seen dragging after it on a railroad a hundred tons of merchandise, or a regiment of soldiers, with greater speed than that of our fleetest coaches. It is the king of machines, and a permanent realisation of the Genii of Eastern fable, whose supernatural powers were occasionally at the command of man."
A 'recent writer' quoted by George L. Craik (1830), James Watt, in Cochrane, R. (Ed.). (1897). Heroes of Invention and Discovery. Lives of eminent inventors and pioneers in science. W. P. Nimmo, Hay, & Mitchell.
One would hope that the reporting of the engine obeying the hand of a child was no more than a deduction (if not hyperbole), but given widespread child labour and the absence of health and safety considerations at the time, it may be an observation!
"The Arkwright spinning technology used in mills in the Eastern United States were primarily operated by children. Samuel Slater was one of the first cotton spinning entrepreneurs who helped spread the employment of Arkwright spinning technology throughout New England. Slater and his cotton spinning technology not only established a new system of production, the Rhode Island system, but also sought to use children as the primary operators of Arkwright and steam driven spinning technology."
Stanzione, M. S. (2000) The Diffusion of British Steam Technology and the First Creation of America's First Urban Proletariat, M.A. dissertation, Skidmore College.
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
