James Watt and the Application of Science to the Mechanical Arts - An Inaugural Address Delivered in the University of Glasgow, November 11th, 1889 #245707

Still the conditions of life to-day are vastly more in contrast with those of last century in the material environment of man, than in any other aspect.<br><br>Works which were produced ages ago still remain the grandest creations of the human mind and hand, in the realms of literature and of art, but few, if any, of the inventions of our forefathers remain in use. Even those connected with the most necessary processes in preparing clothing to cover, and food to nourish us, have entirely changed. The distaff and the spinning wheel alike are superseded, and the millstone, which may be regarded as the last relic of the age of stone, and which only ten years ago held its place as almost the only contrivance for the grinding of corn, may be looked upon to-day as a thing of the past, which must soon find its only place in historical collections.<br><br>Mechanical arts have necessarily been practised in all ages, and have developed and expanded through the centuries, but that which is the distinctive feature of the arts of the present is that those which have come down to us from ancient times have been entirely changed in method, and greatly extended in scope, by the aid which science has given to them; and the growth of scientific knowledge has given rise to new arts, which could not even have been dreamt of by our forefathers.