persons proposing to follow the business of an engineer desire to possess.
My business has, therefore, been the rough business of a pioneer; and while
hewing a road through the trackless forest, along which all might hereafter
travel with ease, I had no time to attend to those minute graces of
composition and petty perfection of arrangement and collocation, which are
the attribute of the academic grove, or the literary parterre. I am,
nevertheless, not insensible to the advantages of method and clear
arrangement in any work professing to instruct mankind in the principles
and practice of any art; and many of the changes introduced into the
present edition of this work are designed to render it less exceptionable
in this respect. The woodcuts now introduced into the work for the first
time will, I believe, much increase its interest and utility; and upon the
whole I am content to dismiss it into circulation, in the belief that those
who peruse it attentively will obtain a more rapid and more practical
acquaintance with the steam engine in its various applications, than they
would be likely otherwise to acquire.

I have only to add that I have prepared a sequel to the present work, in
the shape of a Hand-Book of the Steam Engine, containing the whole of the
rules given in the present work, illustrated by examples worked out at
length, and also containing such useful tables and other data, as the
engineer requires to refer to constantly in the course of his practice.
This work may be bound up with the "Catechism," if desired, to which it is
in fact a Key.

I shall thankfully receive from engineers, either abroad or at home,
accounts of any engines or other machinery, with which they may become
familiar in their several localities; and I shall be happy, in my turn, to
answer any inquiries on engineering subjects which fall within the compass
of my information. If young engineers meet with any difficulty in their