The Human Body, a Model Machine
The great Creator of the universe excels as a machinist. Professor Atwater, of Wesleyan University, after numerous experiments, says that the most economical engine built to-day utilizes, in the shape of work, only fifteen per cent. of the energy contained in the fuel supplied to it. The human power machine develops twenty per cent., without counting what is required to keep the internal mechanism of the body running, which is not less than twenty per cent. more. The professor adds this conclusion: “Thus the human engine runs with much less waste than any mechanical contrivance yet devised. Man stands to-day the model machine, and, with all his vaunted ingenuity, he can not construct an apparatus that comes near to equaling his own body as a work producer. Nor, indeed, will any other kind of engine, tho built of the best obtainable materials, run for anything like so long a period without wearing out, requiring in the same time so small an expenditure for repairs.” Verily, “the works of the Lord are great; sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.”