of cure by medicine, that drugs actually _cure_, is existent to
this day as a remnant of the Middle Ages. A man's death-offense might be
that he knew more than he could make others understand about the then
secrets of nature. Yet he himself might believe more or less in magic.
No one was untouched; all intellect was more or less enslaved.

And when experiments at last began to be made in the mechanisms by which
steam might be utilized they were such as boys now make for amusement;
such as throwing a steam-jet against the vanes of a paddle-wheel. Such
was Branca's engine, made nine years after the landing of our
forefathers at Plymouth, and thought worthy of a description and record.
The next attempt was much more practical, but cannot be accurately
assigned. It consisted of two chambers, from each of which alternately
water was forced by steam, and which were filled again by cooling off
and the forming of a vacuum where the steam had been. One chamber worked
while the other cooled. It was an immense advance in the direction of
utility.

About 1698, we begin to encounter the names that are familiar to us in
connection with the history of the steam-engine. In that year Thomas
Savery obtained a patent for raising water by steam. His was a
modification of the idea described above. The boilers used would be of
no value now, nevertheless the machine came into considerable use, and
the world that learned so gradually became possessed with the idea that
there was a utility in the pressure of steam. Savery's engine is said to
have grown out of the accident of his throwing a flask containing a
little wine on the fire at a tavern. Concluding immediately afterwards
that he wanted it, he snatched it off of the fender and plunged it into
a basin of water to cool it. The steam inside instantly condensing, the
water rushed in and filled it as it cooled.