motive-power

She had no notion of utilising the motive-power at hand in the children.

The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius Sarah Grand

They saw only the results, without exactly perceiving the nature of the motive-power.

Forty-Six Years in the Army John M. Schofield

What a lot of motive-power is wasted by those who jolly other people along.

The Silly Syclopedia Noah [pseud.] Lott

Our illustration shows how and why the motive-power of the Expeditionary

The Illustrated War News, Number 21, Dec. 30, 1914 Various

From such a motive-power as this can come no parade of results.

The Underground Railroad A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-Breadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom, As Related by Themselves and Others, or Witnessed by the Author. William Still

The truth was he had at some time been temporarily in charge of a small portable or "donkey" engine, such as are used for hoisting purposes in stone quarries and in other out-of-door work, and he was incapable of recognizing the difference between the simple construction of such a machine and the complicated work in the great motive-power of the Tioga Iron Works.

Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 Various

"Surprising," because no motive-power can be presented to the eye of a citizen of the young republic without the corresponding thought of "Why not use it?"

Acadia or, A Month with the Blue Noses Frederic S. Cozzens

But in truth we are commonly very blind and foolish about this business of living; we lack wisdom, and we lack motive-power at the right place.

Problems of Conduct Durant Drake

The cockney who owns a snoring-privilege in the suburbs will be stimulated to a sense of latent beauty in clouds and fields; and the farmer who looks on the cosmic forces as mere motive-power for the wheels of his money-mill will find the truth of the proverb, that more water runs over the dam than the miller wots of, and learn that Nature is as lavish of

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 23, September, 1859 Various

The all that had been gone so long came back to her, and she felt almost the pang of first separation, when it seemed as if the end of her life had been extinguished and the motive-power for work had gone.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 097, January, 1876 Various