A correspondent of the New York _Times_, deeming that far too much
credit has been given to foreigners for the practical development of
the steam engine, contributes the following interesting _resume_:
Of all the inventions of ancient or modern times none have more
importantly and beneficently influenced the affairs of mankind than
the double acting high pressure steam engine, the locomotive, the
steam railway system, and the steamboat, all of which inventions are
of American origin. The first three are directly and the last
indirectly associated with a patent that was granted by the State of
Maryland, in 1787, being the very year of the framing of the
Constitution of the United States. In view of the momentous nature of
the services which these four inventions have rendered to the material
and national interests of the people of the United States, it is to be
hoped that neither they nor their origin will be forgotten in the
coming celebration of the centennial of the framing of the
Constitution.
The high pressure steam engine in its stationary form is almost
ubiquitous in America. In all great iron and steel works, in all
factories, in all plants for lighting cities with electricity, in
brief, wherever in the United States great power in compact form is
wanted, there will be found the high pressure steam engine furnishing
all the power that is required, and more, too, if more is demanded,
because it appears to be equal to every human requisition. But go
beyond America. Go to Great Britain, and the American steam
engine--although it is not termed American in Great Britain--will be
found fast superseding the English engine--in other words, James
Watt's condensing engine. It is the same the world over. On all the
earth there is not a steam locomotive that could turn a wheel but for
the fact that, in common with every locomotive from the earliest
introduction of that invention, it is simply the American steam engine
put on wheels, and it was first put on wheels by its American
inventor, Oliver Evans, being the same Oliver Evans to whom the State
of Maryland granted the before mentioned patent of 1787.
He is the same Oliver Evans whom Elijah Galloway, the British writer
on the steam engine, compared with James Watt as to the authorship of
the locomotive, or rather "steam carriage," as the locomotive was in
those days termed. After showing the unfitness of Mr. Watt's low
pressure steam engine for locomotive purposes, Mr. Galloway, more than
fifty years ago, wrote: "We have made these remarks in this place in
order to set at rest the title of Mr. Watt to the invention of steam
carriages. And, taking for our rule that the party who first attempted
them in practice by mechanical arrangements of his own is entitled to
the reputation of being their inventor, Mr. Oliver Evans, of America,
appears to us to be the person to whom that honor is due." He is the
same Oliver Evans whom the _Mechanics' Magazine_, of London, the
leading journal of its kind at that period, had in mind when, in its
number of September, 1830, it published the official report of the
competitive trial between the steam carriages Rocket, San Pariel,
Novelty, and others on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
In that trial the company's engines developed about 15 miles in an
hour, and spurts of still higher speed. The _Magazine_ points to the
results of the trial, and then, under the heading of "The First
Projector of Steam Traveling," it declares that all that had been
accomplished had been anticipated and its feasibility practically
exemplified over a quarter of a century before by Oliver Evans, an
American citizen. The _Magazine_ showed that many years before the
trial Mr. Evans had offered to furnish steam carriages that, on level
railways, should run at the rate of 300 miles in a day, or he would
not ask pay therefor. The writer will state that this offer by Mr.
Evans was made in November, 1812, at which date not a British steam
carriage had yet accomplished seven miles in an hour.
In 1809 Mr. Evans endeavored to establish a steam railway both for
freight and passenger traffic between New York and Philadelphia,
offering to invest $500 per mile in the enterprise. At the date of his
effort there was not a railway in the world over ten miles long, nor
does there appear to have been another human being who up to that date
had entertained even the thought of a steam railway for passenger and
freight traffic. In view of all this, is it at all surprising that the
British _Mechanics' Magazine_ declared Oliver Evans, an American, to
be the first projector of steam railway traveling? In 1804 Mr. Evans
made a most noteworthy demonstration, his object being to practically
exemplify that locomotion could be imparted by his high pressure steam
engine to both carriages and boats, and the reader will see that the
date of the demonstration was three years before Fulton moved a boat
by means of Watt's low pressure steam engine. The machine used
involved the original double acting high pressure steam engine, the
original steam locomotive, and the original high pressure steamboat.
The whole mass weighed over twenty tons.
Notwithstanding there was no railway, except a temporary one laid over
a slough in the path, Mr. Evans' engine moved this great weight with
ease from the southeast corner of Ninth and Market streets, in the
city of Philadelphia, one and a half miles, to the River Schuylkill.
There the machine was launched into the river, and the land wheels
being taken off and a paddle wheel attached to the stern and connected
with the engine, the now steamboat sped away down the river until it
emptied into the Delaware, whence it turned upward until it reached
Philadelphia. Although this strange craft was square both at bow and
stern, it nevertheless passed all the up-bound ships and other sailing
vessels in the river, the wind being to them ahead. The writer repeats
that this thorough demonstration by Oliver Evans of the possibility of
navigation by steam was made three years before Fulton. But for more
than a quarter of a century prior to this demonstration Mr. Evans had
time and again asserted that vessels could be thus navigated. He did
not contend with John Fitch, but on the contrary tried to aid him and
advised him to use other means than oars to propel his boat. But Fitch
was wedded to his own methods. In 1805 Mr. Evans published a book on
the steam engine, mainly devoted to his form thereof. In this book he
gives directions how to propel boats by means of his engine against
the current of the Mississippi. Prior to this publication he
associated himself with some citizens of Kentucky--one of whom was the
grandfather of the present Gen. Chauncey McKeever, United States
Army--the purpose being to build a steamboat to run on the
Mississippi. The boat was actually built in Kentucky and floated to
New Orleans. The engine was actually built in Philadelphia by Mr.
Evans and sent to New Orleans, but before the engine arrived out the
boat was destroyed by fire or hurricane. The engine was then put to
sawing timber, and it operated so successfully that Mr. Stackhouse,
the engineer who went out with it, reported on his return from the
South that for the 13 months prior to his leaving the engine had been
constantly at work, not having lost a single day!
The reader can thus see the high stage of efficiency which Oliver
Evans had imparted to his engine full 80 years ago. On this point Dr.
Ernst Alban, the German writer on the steam engine, when speaking of
the high pressure steam engine, writes: "Indeed, to such perfection
did he [Evans] bring it, that Trevithick and Vivian, who came after
him, followed but clumsily in his wake, and do not deserve the title
of either inventors or improvers of the high pressure engine, which
the English are so anxious to award to them.... When it is considered
under what unfavorable circumstances Oliver Evans worked, his merit
must be much enhanced; and all attempts made to lessen his fame only
show that he is neither understood nor equaled by his detractors."
The writer has already shown that there are bright exceptions to this
general charge brought by Dr. Alban against British writers, but the
overwhelming mass of them have acted more like envious children than
like men when speaking of the authorship of the double acting high
pressure steam engine, the locomotive, and the steam railway system.
Speaking of this class of British writers, Prof. Renwick, when
alluding to their treatment of Oliver Evans, writes: "Conflicting
national pride comes in aid of individual jealousy, and the writers of
one nation often claim for their own vain and inefficient projectors
the honors due to the successful enterprise of a foreigner." Many of
these writers totally ignore the very existence of Oliver Evans, and
all of them attribute to Trevithick and Vivian the authorship of the
high pressure steam engine and the locomotive. Yet, when doing so, all
of them substantially acknowledge the American origin of both
inventions, because it is morally certain that Trevithick and Vivian
got possession of the plans and specifications of his engine. Oliver
Evans sent them to England in 1794-5 by Mr. Joseph Stacy Sampson, of
Boston, with the hope that some British engineer would approve and
conjointly with him take out patents for the inventions. Mr. Sampson
died in England, but not until after he had extensively exhibited Mr.
Evans' plans, apparently, however, without success. After Mr.
Sampson's death Trevithick and Vivian took out a patent for a high
pressure steam engine. This could happen and yet the invention be
original with them.
But they introduced into Cornwall a form of boiler hitherto unknown in
Great Britain, namely, the cylindrical flue boiler, which Oliver Evans
had invented and used in America years before the names of Trevithick
and Vivian were associated with the steam engine. Hence, they were
charged over fifty years ago with having stolen the invention of Mr.
Evans, and the charge has never been refuted. Hence when British
writers ignore the just claims of Oliver Evans and assert for
Trevithick and Vivian the authorship of the high pressure steam engine
and the locomotive, they thereby substantially acknowledge the
American origin of both inventions. They are not only of American
origin, but their author, although born in 1755, was nevertheless an
American of the second generation, seeing that he was descended from
the Rev. Dr. Evans Evans, who in the earlier days of the colony of
Pennsylvania came out to take charge of the affairs of the Episcopal
Church in Pennsylvania.
The writer has thus shown that with the patent granted by the State of
Maryland to Oliver Evans in 1787 were associated--first, the double
acting high pressure steam engine, which to-day is the standard steam
engine of the world; second, the locomotive, that is in worldwide use;
third, the steam railway system, which pervades the world; fourth, the
high pressure steamboat, which term embraces all the great ocean
steamships that are actuated by the compound steam engine, as well as
all the steamships on the Mississippi and its branches.
The time and opportunity has now arrived to assert before all the
world the American origin of these universally beneficent inventions.
Such a demonstration should be made, if only for the instruction of
the rising generation. Not a school book has fallen into the hands of
the writer that correctly sets forth the origin of the subject matter
of this paper. He apprehends that it is the same with the books used
in colleges and universities, for otherwise how could that parody on
the history of the locomotive, called "The Life of George Stephenson,
Railway Engineer," by Samuel Smiles, have met such unbounded success?
To the amazement of the writer, a learned professor in one of the most
important institutions of learning in the country did, in a lecture,
quote Smiles as authority on a point bearing on the history of the
locomotive! It is true that he made amends by adding, when his lecture
was published, a counter statement; but that such a man should have
seriously cited such a work shows the widespread mischief done among
people not versed in engineering lore by the admirably written romance
of Smiles, who as Edward C. Knight, in his Mechanical Dictionary,
truly declares, has "pettifogged the whole case." If, as Prof. Renwick
intimates, "conflicting national pride" has led the major part of
British writers to suppress the truth as to the origin of the high
pressure steam engine, the locomotive, and the steam railway system,
surely true national pride should induce the countrymen of Oliver
Evans to assert it. In closing this paper the writer will say, for the
information of the so-called "practical" men of the country, or, in
other words, those men whose judgment of an invention is mainly guided
by its money value, that Poor's Manual of Railroads in the United
States for 1886 puts their capital stock and their debts at over
$8,162,000,000. The value of the steamships and steamboats actuated by
the high pressure steam engine the writer has no means of
ascertaining. Neither can he appraise the factories and other plants
in the United States--to say nothing of the rest of the world--in
which the high pressure steam engine forms the motive power.
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