in writing it, and if this end is fulfilled, I have nothing further to
desire.

I regret that circumstances have prevented me from yet issuing the
"Hand-Book" which I have had for some time in preparation, and to which, in
my Preface of the last year, I referred. I hope to have sufficient leisure
shortly, to give that and some other of my literary designs the necessary
attention. Whatever may have been the other impediments to a more prolific
authorship, certainly one of them has not been the coldness of the
approbation with which my efforts have been received, since my past
performances seem to me to have met with an appreciation far exceeding
their deserts.

JOHN BOURNE.

_February 2d, 1857_.




PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.


In offering to the American public a reprint of a work on the Steam Engine
so deservedly successful, and so long considered standard, the publishers
have not thought it necessary that it should be an exact copy of the
English edition; there were some details in which they thought it could be
improved, and better adapted to the use of American engineers. On this
account, the size of the page has been increased to a full 12mo, to admit
of larger illustrations, which in the English edition are often on too