The Power That Preserves | My Web Site Page 110 Chapter 03 Page 02

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Well-born, ennobled by royalty, successful in both court and studio, Rubens lived brilliantly and his life was a series of triumphs. He painted enormous canvases, and the number of pictures, altar-pieces, mythological decorations, landscapes, portraits scattered throughout the galleries of Europe, and attributed to him, is simply amazing. He was undoubtedly helped in many of his canvases by his pupils, but the works painted by his own hand make a world of art in themselves. He was the greatest painter of the North, a full-rounded, complete genius, comparable to Titian in his universality. His precursors and masters, Van Noort (1562-1641) and Vaenius (1558-1629), gave no strong indication of the greatness of Ruben's art, and his many pupils, though echoing his methods, never rose to his height in mental or artistic grasp.

The method in which the feed water is introduced through the front drumhead of the boiler is clearly seen by reference to the illustration. From this point of introduction the water passes to the rear of the drum, downward through the rear circulating tubes to the sections, upward through the tubes of the sections to the front headers and through these headers and front circulating tubes again to the drum where such water as has not been formed into steam retraces its course. The steam formed in the passage through the tubes is liberated as the water reaches the front of the drum. The steam so formed is stored in the steam space above the water line, from which it is drawn through a so-called "dry pipe." The dry pipe in the Babcock & Wilcox boiler is misnamed, as in reality it fulfills none of the functions ordinarily attributed to such a device. This function is usually to restrict the flow of steam from a boiler with a view to avoid priming. In the Babcock & Wilcox boiler its function is simply that of a collecting pipe, and as the aggregate area of the holes in it is greatly in excess of the area of the steam outlet from the drum, it is plain that there can be no restriction through this collecting pipe. It extends nearly the length of the drum, and draws steam evenly from the whole length of the steam space.

There is a tendency, not by any means among the greater writers, but among what may be called the epigoni,--the satellites of literature, the men who would be great if they knew how,--to speak of the business of writing as if it were a sacred mystery, pontifically celebrated, something remote and secret, which must be guarded from the vulgar and the profane, and which requires an initiation to comprehend. I always feel rather suspicious of this attitude; it seems to me something of a pose, adopted in order to make other people envious and respectful. It is the same sort of precaution as the "properties" of the wizard, his gown and wand, the stuffed crocodile and the skeleton in the corner; for if there is a great fuss made about locking and double-locking a box, it creates a presumption of doubt as to whether there is anything particular in it. In my nursery days one of my brothers was fond of locking up his private treasures in a box, producing it in public, unfastening it, glancing into it with a smile, and then softly closing it and turning the key in a way calculated to provoke the most intense curiosity as to the contents; but upon investigation it proved to contain nothing but the wool of sheep, dried beans, and cases of exploded cartridges.

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