says: "I could break and grind three hundred bushels of plaster of paris,
or twelve tons, in twenty-four hours; and to show its operations more
fully to the public, I applied it to saw stone, on the side of Market
Street, where the driving of twelve saws in heavy frames, sawing at the
rate of one hundred feet of marble in twelve hours, made a great show and
excited much attention. I thought this was sufficient to convince the
thousands of spectators of the utility of my discovery, but I frequently
heard them inquire if the power could be applied to saw timber as well as
stone, to grind grain, propel boats, etc., and though I answered in the
affirmative, they still doubted. I therefore determined to apply my engine
to all new uses; to introduce it and them to the public. This experiment
completely tested the correctness of my principles. The power of my engine
rises in a geometrical proportion, while the consumption of the fuel has
only an arithmetical ratio; in such proportion that every time I added
one-fourth more to the consumption of the fuel, its powers were doubled;
and that twice the quantity of fuel required to drive one saw, would
drive sixteen saws at least; for when I drove two saws the consumption was
eight bushels of coal in twelve hours, but when twelve saws were driven,
the consumption was not more than ten bushels, so that the more we resist
the steam, the greater is the effect of the engine. On these principles
very light but powerful engines can be made suitable for propelling boats
and land carriages without the great encumbrance of their weight as
mentioned in Latrobe's demonstration."
In the year 1840, Evans, by order of the Board of Health of Philadelphia,
constructed at his works, situated a mile and a half from the water, a
machine for cleaning docks. It consisted of a large flat or scow, with a
steam engine of five horse-power on board, to work the machinery to raise
the mud into the scows. This was considered a fine opportunity to show the
public that his engine could propel both land and water conveyances. When
the machine was finished, he fixed, in a rough and temporary manner,
wheels with wooden axletrees, and, of course, under the influence of great
friction. Although the whole weight was equal to two hundred barrels of
flour, yet his small engine propelled it up Market Street and round the
circle to the waterworks, where it was launched into the Schuylkill River.
A paddle-wheel was then applied to its stern, and it thus moved down that
river to the Delaware, a distance of sixteen miles, leaving behind all
vessels that were under sail.
This demonstration was in the presence of thousands of spectators, which
he supposed would have convinced them of the practicability of steamboats
and steam carriages. But no allowance was made by the public for the
disproportion of the engine to its load, nor for the rough manner in which
the machinery was fixed, or the great friction and ill form of the boat,
and it was supposed that this was the utmost it could perform. Some
individuals undertook to ridicule the experiment of driving so great a
weight on land, because the motion was too slow to be useful. The inventor
silenced them by answering that he would make a carriage propelled by
steam, for a wager of three thousand dollars, to run upon a level road,
against the swiftest horse that could be produced. This machine Evans
named the Oructor Amphibolis.
On the 25th of September, 1804, Evans submitted to the consideration of
the Lancaster Turnpike Company a statement of the costs and profits of a
steam carriage to carry one hundred barrels of flour, fifty miles in
twenty-four hours; tending to show that one such steam carriage would make
more net profits than ten wagons, drawn by five horses each, on a good
turnpike road, and offering to build one at a very low price. His address
closed as follows: "It is too much for an individual to put in operation
every improvement which he may invent. I have no doubt but that my engines
will propel boats against the current of the Mississippi, and wagons on
turnpike roads, with great profit. I now call upon those whose interest it
is to carry this invention into effect. All of which is respectfully
submitted to your consideration." Little or no attention was paid to this
offer, for it was difficult at that day to interest anyone in steam
locomotion.
Evans' interest in the steam carriage forthwith ceased, but in his
writings, published about that time, he remarked: "The time will come when
people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city to
another, almost as fast as birds fly, fifteen or twenty miles an hour.
Passing through the air with such velocity, changing the scene in such
rapid succession, will be the most rapid exhilarating exercise. A carriage
(steam) will set out from Washington in the morning, the passengers will
breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York in the
same day." To accomplish this he suggested railways of wood or iron, or
smooth paths of broken stone or gravel, and predicted that engines would
soon drive boats ten or twelve miles an hour. In the latter years of his
life, Evans established a large iron foundry in Philadelphia.
Although Evans' distinct contribution to the problem of steam locomotion
on the common roads was not particularly practical it was at least
important as being the first suggestion of anything of the kind in the
United States. Road conditions in this country at that time were worse
than they were in England and yet under more discouraging circumstances he
was as far advanced in ideas and plans as his great contemporaries,
Trevithick and others across the water. To Evans must be given the credit
of perfecting the high-pressure, non-condensing engine, and even
Trevithick, "the father of the locomotive," was largely indebted to him
for his progress in the lines he was working on in England, his plans and
specifications having been sent abroad for the English engineers to
inspect in 1784.
WILLIAM SYMINGTON
Born at Leadhills, Scotland, October, 1783. Died in London, March 22,
1831.
More fortunate than most of the English inventors of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, with whom he was associated, William Symington came
of a family that was able to give him a good education. His father was a
mechanic who had charge of the engines and machinery at the Warlockhead
lead mines, and the son gained his first knowledge of mechanics and
engineering in the shops with his father. Intended for the ministry, he
was sent to the University of Glasgow and the University of Dublin to
pursue his studies. But the ministry had slight attractions for him, and
when the time came for him to choose a profession, he adopted that of
civil engineering.
In 1786 he worked out a model for a steam road-car. This was regarded very
highly by all who saw it. It is said that Mr. Meason, manager of the lead
mines at Warlockhead, was so pleased with the model, the merit of which
principally belonged to young Symington, that he sent him into Edinburgh
for the purpose of exhibiting it before the professors of the University,
and other scientific gentlemen of the city, in the hope that it might lead
in some way to his future advancement in life. Mr. Meason became the
patron and friend of Symington, allowed the model to be exhibited at his
own house, and invited many persons of distinction to inspect it. The
carriage supported on four wheels had a locomotive behind, the front
wheels being arranged with steering-gear. A cylindrical boiler was used
for generating steam, which communicated by a steam-pipe with the two
horizontal cylinders, one on each side of the firebox of the boiler. When
steam was turned into the cylinder, the piston made an outward stroke; a
vacuum was then formed, the steam being condensed in a cold water tank
placed beneath the cylinders, and the piston was forced back by the
pressure of the atmosphere. The piston rods communicated their motion to
the driving-axle and wheels through rack rods, which worked toothed wheels
placed on the hind axle on both sides of the engine, and the alternate
action of the rack rods upon the tooth and ratchet wheels, with which the
drums were provided, produced the rotary motion. The boiler was fitted
with a lever and weight safety valve. Symington's locomotive was
abandoned, the inventor considering that the scheme of steam travel on the
common roads was impracticable.
Henceforth, Symington gave his attention to the study of boat propulsion
by steam. In 1787 he got out a patent for an improved form of steam
engine, in which he obtained rotary action by chains and ratchet-wheels.
This engine, with a four-inch cylinder, was used to work the paddles of a
pleasure boat on Dalswinton Loch, in 1788, the boat steaming at the rate
of five miles an hour. This boat is now in the South Kensington Museum,
and it has been termed "the parent engine of steam navigation." The
experiment with this method of boat propulsion was so successful that a
year later larger engines, with eighteen-inch cylinders, were fitted to
another boat, which attained a speed of seven miles an hour. In 1801,
Symington took out a patent for an engine with a piston rod guided by
rollers in a straight path and connected by a rod with a crank attached
directly to the paddle-wheel shaft--the system that has been in use ever
since. Although the perfect practicability of this method of boat
propulsion was fully demonstrated by a trial on the tugboat Charlotte
Dundas, in March, 1802, the plan for steam power on canals and lakes was
not carried further. The Forth and Clyde Company, and the Duke of
Bridgewater, who were backing Symington, gave up the project and he could
get help from no other sources. His inventions and experiments are
generally regarded as marking the beginning of steam navigation. It is
interesting to note that among those who were guests on the Charlotte
Dundas, on the occasion of this trial trip, was Robert Fulton, who wrote a
treatise on steam navigation in 1793, tried a small steamboat on the river
Seine, in France, in 1803, and in 1807 launched his famous steamship, the
Clermont, on the Hudson River.
Symington, disappointed and discouraged, gave up his work and went to
London. The rest of his life was for the most part thrown away, and he
became one of the waifs and strays of London. In 1825 he received a grant
of one hundred pounds from the privy purse, and later on fifty pounds
more, in recognition of his services for steam navigation. He died in
obscurity and although he was unquestionably the pioneer in his country of
the successful application of steam to navigation on inland waters his
name is only a bare memory.
NATHAN READ
Born in Warren, Mass., July 2, 1759. Died near Belfast, Me., January 20,
1849.
Graduated from Harvard College in 1781, Read was a tutor at Harvard for
four years. In 1788 he began experimenting to discover some way of
utilizing the steam engine for propelling boats and carriages. His efforts
were mainly directed toward devising lighter, more compact machinery than
then generally in use. His greatest invention at that time was a
substitute for the large working-beam. This was a cross-head beam which
ran in guides and had a connecting-rod with which motion was communicated.
The new cylinder that he invented to attach to this working-frame was
double-acting. In order to make the boiler more portable he invented a
multi-tubular form, and this he patented, together with the cylinder,
chain-wheel, and other appliances.
The boiler was cylindrical and was placed upright or horizontal, and the
furnace was carried within it. A double cylinder formed a water-jacket,
connected with a water and steam chamber above, and a water-chamber below.
Numerous small straight tubes connected these two chambers. Read also
invented another boiler in which the fire went through small spiral tubes,
very much as it does in the present-day locomotives, and this was a
smoke-consuming engine. For the purpose of acquiring motion he first used
paddle-wheels, but afterward adopted a chain-wheel of his own invention.
[Illustration: NATHAN READ]
Read planned a steam-car to be run with his tubular boiler, and it is said
that this vehicle, when laden with fifty tons weight, could make five
miles per hour. The model which was completed in 1790 had four wheels,
the front pair being pivoted at the center and controlled by a horizontal
sheave and rope. The sheave was located back near the boiler, and in
guiding the machine it was operated by a hand-wheel placed above the
platform, within easy reach of the engineer. A square boiler with Read's
multi-tubular system, overhung at the rear of the carriage. Two
driving-wheels were forward of the boiler, and in front of these were two
horizontal cylinders on each side of the engine. On the inside of each
wheel were ratched teeth that fitted into corresponding teeth on
horizontal racks above and below the hub. The piston, moving back and
forth from the cylinder, engaged these teeth and caused a revolution of
the wheel. There were two steam valves and two exhaust valves to each
cylinder, the exhaust being into the atmosphere. Although this was the
first conception of propulsion by steam on land in America, Read went no
further in creating this model, inasmuch as he received no encouragement
from financial sources.
In 1796, Read established at Salem, Mass., the Salem Iron Foundry, where
he manufactured anchors, chain cables, and other machinery. In January,
1798, he invented a machine to cut and head nails at one operation. He
also invented a method of equalizing the action of windmills by
accumulating the force of the wind through winding up a weight; and a plan
for harnessing the force of the tides by means of reservoirs which, by
being alternately filled up and emptied, created a constant stream of
water. Among his other inventions were a pumping engine and a threshing
machine.
RICHARD TREVITHICK
Born in Illogan, in the west of Cornwall, England, April 13, 1771. Died in
Dartford, Kent, April 22, 1833.
Richard Trevithick had meager educational advantages. His father was
manager of the Dolcoath and other mines, and shortly after the birth of
his son moved to Penponds, near Camborne, where the boy was sent to school
to learn reading, writing and arithmetic, which were the limits of his
attainments. Early in life he showed the dawning of remarkable inventive
genius, was quick at figures and clever in drawing. He developed into a
young man of notable physique, being six feet two inches high, and having
the frame and the strength of an athlete. He was one of the most powerful
wrestlers in the west country, and it is related of him that he could
easily lift a thousand-weight mandril.
At the age of eighteen young Trevithick began to assist his father as mine
manager, and at once proceeded to put his inventive faculty to practical
test. His initial success, in 1795, was an improvement upon an engine at
the Wheal Treasury mine, which accomplished a great saving in fuel and in
power, and won for him his first royalty. Before his father died, in 1797,
he had attained to the position of engineer at the Ding Dong mine, near
Penzance, and had already set up at the Herland mine the engine built by
William Bull, with improvements of his own. His earliest invention of
importance was in 1797, when he made an improved plunger pump, which, in
the following year, he developed into a double-acting water-pressure
engine. One of these engines, set up in 1804, at the Alport mine, in
Derbyshire, was run until 1850.
[Illustration: RICHARD TREVITHICK]
In 1780 he built a double-acting high-pressure engine with a crank, for
Cook's Kitchen mine. This was known as the Puffer, from the noise that it
made, and it soon came into general use in Cornwall and South Wales, a
successful rival of the low-pressure steam vacuum engine of Watt.
As early as 1796 Trevithick began to give attention to the subject of
steam locomotion, and a model constructed by him before 1800 is now in the
South Kensington Museum. He busied himself in designing and building a
steam vehicle to travel upon the common highways. The work was done in a
workshop at Camborne, and some of it in the shop of Captain Andrew Vivian.
It was Christmas Eve of 1801 when this steam locomotive was completed and
was brought out for trial.
The following account of the first trial was made by one who was present:
"I knew Captain Dick Trevithick very well. I was a cooper by trade, and
when Trevithick was making his steam carriage I used to go every day into
John Tyack's shop at the Weith, close by here, where they put her
together. In the year 1801, upon Christmas Eve, towards night, Trevithick
got up steam, out on the high road, just outside the shop. When we saw
that Trevithick was going to turn on steam, we jumped up, as many as
could, maybe seven or eight of us. 'Twas a stiffish hill going up to
Camborne Beacon, but she went off like a little bird. When she had gone
about a quarter of a mile there was a rough piece of road covered with
loose stones. She didn't go quite so fast, and as it was a flood of rain,
and we were very much squeezed together, I jumped off. She was going
faster than I could walk, and went up the hill about half a mile further,
when they turned her and came back again to the shop." The next day the
engine steamed to Captain Vivian's house, and a few days subsequently,
Trevithick and Vivian started off for Tehidy House, where Lord
Dedunstanville lived, some two or three miles from Camborne. On this
journey they met with an accident, the engine being overturned in going
around a curve; but they got back safely.
This carriage presented the appearance of an ordinary stage coach on four
wheels. The engine had one horizontal cylinder which, together with the
boiler and the furnace-box, was placed in the rear of the hind axle.
The-motion of the piston was transmitted to a separate crank-axle, from
which, through the medium of spur-gear, the axle of the driving-wheel,
which was mounted with a fly-wheel, derived its motion. The steam cocks
and the force-pump, as also the bellows used for the purpose of quickening
combustion in the furnace, were worked off the same crank axle. This was
one of the first successful high-pressure engines constructed on the
principle of moving a piston by the elasticity of steam against the
pressure only of the outside atmosphere.
In the following year Trevithick went to London with his cousin, Andrew
Vivian, and secured a patent. Early in 1803 he made his second steam
carriage. This was built at Camborne and taken to London, via Plymouth,
for exhibition. Its journey along the highways thoroughly alarmed the
country people. Coleridge relates that a toll-gate keeper was so
frightened at the appearance of the sputtering, smoke-spitting thing of
fearsome mien that, trembling in every limb and with teeth chattering, he
threw aside the toll-gate with the scared exclamation, "No--noth--nothing
to pay. My de--dear Mr. Devil, do drive on as fast as you can. Nothing to
pay!"
The engine in this carriage had a cylinder five and one-half inches in
diameter, with a stroke of two and one-half feet, and with thirty pounds
of steam it worked five strokes per minute. In every way it was superior
to its predecessor. It was not so heavy; and the horizontal cylinder,
instead of the vertical, added very much to its steadiness of motion;
while wheels of a larger diameter enabled it the more easily to pass over
rough roads which had brought the Camborne one to a standstill. The boiler
was made entirely of wrought iron, and the cylinder was inserted
horizontally, close behind the driving axle. A forked piston-rod was used,
the ends working in guides, so that the crank axle might be brought near
to the cylinder. Spur gearing and couplings were used on each side of the
carriage for communicating motion from the crank shaft to the main driving
axle. The driving-wheels were about ten feet diameter, and made of wood.
The framing was of wrought iron. The coach was intended to seat eight or
ten persons, and the greater part of the weight came on the driving axle.
The coach was suspended upon springs.
The London steam carriage was put together at Felton's carriage shop, in
Leather Lane, and after its completion, Vivian one day ran the locomotive
from Leather Lane, Gray's Inn Lane, on to Lords' Cricket Ground, to
Paddington, and home again by way of Islington, a journey of ten miles
through the streets of London. Several trips were made in Tottenham Court
Road and Euston Square, and only once did they meet with accident.
Finally, however, the frame of the carriage got twisted, and the engine
was detached and set to driving a mill.
Trevithick's next experiment was made in 1803-4, while he was engineer of
the Pen-y-darran iron works, near Merthyr Tydvil, where he built and ran
on a railway a locomotive that was fairly successful. In 1808 he built a
locomotive for a circular railway or steam circus that he and Andrew
Vivian set up in London, near Euston Square. This ran for several weeks,
carrying passengers at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour around
curves of fifty or one hundred feet radius. One day a rail broke and the
engine was overturned, which ended the exhibition.
Subsequently, Trevithick applied his high-pressure engine to rock-boring
and breaking, and dredging. He laid out a system of dredging the Thames
River, planned a tunnel under the Thames, invented a high-pressure steam
threshing engine in 1812, constructed iron tanks and buoys, and modeled an
iron ship. He was one of the first to conceive the practical use of steam
in agriculture, declaring that the use of the steam engine for this
purpose would "double the population of the kingdom and make our markets
the cheapest in the world."
In 1814, Trevithick became interested in a plan to work the silver mines
of Peru by Cornish methods, and nine of his high-pressure engines were
sent to South America in charge of Henry Vivian and other engineers. He
himself followed in 1816, and remained in that country ten years, making
and losing several fortunes during that time. Finally, in a revolution,
the mining plants were destroyed, and he was forced to leave the country,
penniless. For a time he was prospecting in Costa Rica, where he planned a
railroad across the Isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1827 he
returned to England, still a poor man, and settling in Dartford, Kent,
devoted himself to new inventions, unsuccessfully endeavoring to secure
the help of the government in his work. His later years were spent in
poverty, and when he died, the expense of his burial was borne by his
fellow-workmen of Dartford.
Undoubtedly, Trevithick was one of the foremost English engineers of his
day, a period that was rich with strong men of distinction in his
profession. By many he has been considered as having contributed more even
than James Watt to the development of the steam engine and its broader
adaptation to practical uses. In his early years he was restrained in
putting his ideas and experiments to practical test by the restrictions of
Watt's patents. Finally when that difficulty was removed he at once took a
leading position in his profession. Especially in the development of the
high pressure engine he is entitled to at least as much credit as any man
of his day. His genius was fully recognized in his generation and his
impoverished old age was the result of financial reverses in business
operations and not from the lack of substantial rewards for his inventive
achievements.
DAVID GORDON