In 1781, when the steam engine, only recently improved by Watt, was merely
applied to the more obvious purposes of mine drainage and the like, Darwin,
in his _Botanic Garden_, wrote--
"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd Steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car."
And in an appended note prophecies that the new agent might "in time be
applied to the rowing of barges, and the moving of carriages along the
road." The ingenious chronicler of the "loves of the plants," however, was
in no doubt, when he wrote, aware of the experiments of D'Auxiron, Perier,
and De Jouffroy; those prosecuted at Dalswinton and in America were some
years later, about 1787-8 I think. But in another and less widely known
poem by the same author, the _Temple of Nature_, published in 1802, there
occurs a very complete anticipation of one of the most important
applications of science to navigation, which may prove as novel and
striking to some of your readers as it did to me. It is, indeed, a
remarkable instance of scientific prevision. In a note to line 373, canto
ii. of the poem, the author sets out with, "The progressive motion of fish
beneath the water is produced principally by the undulation of their
tails;" and after giving the _rationale_ of the process, he goes on to say
that "this power seems to be better adapted to push forward a body in the
water than the oars of boats;" concluding with the query, "Might not some
machinery resembling the tails of fish be placed behind a boat so as to be
moved with greater effect than common oars, by the force of wind or steam?"