A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine Part 17

"I will now mention some wonderful works of art and nature, in which there is nothing of magic, and which magic could not perform.

Instruments may be made by which the largest ships, with only one man guiding them, will be carried with greater velocity than if they were full of sailors," etc., etc.

Darwin's poetical prophecy was published long years before Watt's engine rendered its partial fulfillment a possibility; and thus, for many years before even the first promising effort had been made, the minds of the more intelligent had been prepared to appreciate the invention when it should finally be brought forward.

The earliest attempt to propel a vessel by steam is claimed by Spanish authorities, as has been stated, to have been made by Blasco de Garay, in the harbor of Barcelona, Spain, in 1543. The record, claimed as having been extracted from the Spanish archives at Simancas, states the vessel to have been of 200 tons burden, and to have been moved by paddle-wheels; and it is added that the spectators saw, although not allowed closely to inspect the apparatus, that one part of it was a "vessel of boiling water"; and it is also stated that objection was made to the use of this part of the machine, because of the danger of explosion.

The account seems somewhat apocryphal, and it certainly led to no useful results.

In an anonymous English pamphlet, published in 1651, which is supposed by Stuart to have been written by the Marquis of Worcester, an indefinite reference to what may probably have been the steam-engine is made, and it is there stated to be capable of successful application to propelling boats.

In 1690, Papin proposed to use his piston-engine to drive paddle-wheels to propel vessels; and in 1707 he applied the steam-engine, which he had proposed as a pumping-engine, to driving a model boat on the Fulda at Ca.s.sel. In this trial he used the arrangement of which a sketch has been shown, his pumping-engine forcing up water to turn a water-wheel, which, in turn, was made to drive the paddles. An account of his experiments is to be found in ma.n.u.script in the correspondence between Leibnitz and Papin, preserved in the Royal Library at Hanover. Professor Joy found there the following letter:[60]

"Dionysius Papin, Councillor and Physician to his Royal Highness the Elector of Ca.s.sel, also Professor of Mathematics at Marburg, is about to dispatch a vessel of singular construction down the river Weser to Bremen. As he learns that all ships coming from Ca.s.sel, or any point on the Fulda, are not permitted to enter the Weser, but are required to unload at Munden, and as he antic.i.p.ates some difficulty, although those vessels have a different object, his own not being intended for freight, he begs most humbly that a gracious order be granted that his ship may be allowed to pa.s.s unmolested through the Electoral domain; which pet.i.tion I most humbly support.

G. W. LEIBNITZ.

"HANOVER, _July 13, 1707_."

This letter was returned to Leibnitz, with the following indors.e.m.e.nt:

"The Electoral Councillors have found serious obstacles in the way of granting the above pet.i.tion, and, without giving their reasons, have directed me to inform you of their decision, and that, in consequence, the request is not granted by his Electoral Highness.

H. REICHE.

"HANOVER, _July 25, 1707_."

[60] _Scientific American_, February 24, 1877.

This failure of Papin's pet.i.tion was the death-blow to his effort to establish steam-navigation. A mob of boatmen, who thought they saw in the embryo steamship the ruin of their business, attacked the vessel at night, and utterly destroyed it. Papin narrowly escaped with his life, and fled to England.

In the year 1736, Jonathan Hulls took out an English patent for the use of a steam-engine for ship-propulsion, proposing to employ his steamboat in towing. In 1737 he published a well-written pamphlet, describing this apparatus, which is shown in Fig. 66, a reduced fac-simile of the plate accompanying his paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 66.--Hulls's Steamboat, 1736.]

He proposed using the Newcomen engine, fitted with a counterpoise-weight and a system of ropes and grooved wheels, which, by a peculiar ratchet-like action, gave a continuous rotary motion.

His vessel was to have been used as a tow-boat. He says, in his description: "In some convenient part of the Tow-boat there is placed a Vessel about two-3rds full of water, with the Top closed; and this Vessel being kept Boiling, rarifies the Water into a Steam, this Steam being convey'd thro' a large pipe into a cylindrical Vessel, and there condensed, makes a Vacuum, which causes the weight of the atmosphere to press down on this Vessel, and so presses down a Piston that is fitted into this Cylindrical Vessel, in the same manner as in Mr.

Newcomen's Engine, with which he raises Water by Fire.

"_P_, the Pipe coming from the Furnace to the Cylinder. _Q_, the Cylinder wherein the steam is condensed. _R_, the Valve that stops the Steam from coming into the Cylinder, whilst the Steam within the same is condensed. _S_, the Pipe to convey the condensing Water into the Cylinder. _T_, a c.o.c.k to let in the condensing Water when the Cylinder is full of Steam and the Valve, _P_, is shut. _U_, a Rope fixed to the Piston that slides up and down in the Cylinder.

"_Note._ This Rope, _U_, is the same Rope that goes round the wheel, _D_, in the machine."

In the large division of his plate, _A_ is the chimney; _B_ is the tow-boat; _C C_ is the frame carrying the engine; _Da_, _D_, and _Db_ are three wheels carrying the ropes _M_, _Fb_, and _Fa_, _M_ being the rope _U_ of his smaller figure, 30. _Ha_ and _Hb_ are two wheels on the paddle-shafts, _I I_, arranged with pawls so that the paddle-wheel, _I I_, always turns the same way, though the wheels _Ha_ and _Hb_ are given a reciprocating motion; _Fb_ is a rope connecting the wheels in the vessel, _Db_, with the wheels at the stern. Hulls says:

"When the Weight, _G_, is so raised, while the wheels _Da_, _D_, and _Db_ are moving backward, the Rope _Fa_ gives way, and the Power of the Weight, _G_, brings the Wheel _Ha_ forward, and the Fans with it, so that the Fans always keep going forward, notwithstanding the Wheels _Da_, _D_, and _Db_ move backward and forward as the Piston moves up and down in the Cylinder. _L L_ are Teeth for a Catch to drop in from the Axis, and are so contrived that they catch in an alternate manner, to cause the Fan to move always forward, for the Wheel _Ha_, by the power of the weight, _G_, is performing his Office while the other wheel, _Hb_, goes back in order to fetch another stroke.

"_Note._ The weight, _G_, must contain but half the weight of the Pillar of Air pressing on the Piston, because the weight, _G_, is raised at the same time as the Wheel _Hb_ performs its Office, so that it is in effect two Machines acting alternately, by the weight of one Pillar of Air, of such a Diameter as the Diameter of the Cylinder is."

The inventor suggests the use of timber guards to protect the wheels from injury, and, in shallow water, the attachment to the paddle-shafts of cranks "to strike a Shaft to the Bottom of the River, which will drive the Vessel forward with the greater Force." He concludes: "Thus I have endeavoured to give a clear and satisfactory Account of my New-invented Machine, for carrying Vessels out of and into any Port, Harbour, or River, against Wind and Tide, or in a Calm; and I doubt not but whoever shall give himself the Trouble to peruse this Essay, will be so candid as to excuse or overlook any Imperfections in the diction or manner of writing, considering the Hand it comes from, if what I have imagined may only appear as plain to others as it has done to me, viz., That the Scheme I now offer is Practicable, and if encouraged will be Useful."

There is no positive evidence that Hulls ever put his scheme to the test of experiment, although tradition does say that he made a model, which he tried with such ill success as to prevent his prosecution of the experiment further; and doggerel rhymes are still extant which were sung by his neighbors in derision of his folly, as they considered it.

A prize was awarded by the French Academy of Sciences, in 1752, for the best essay on the manner of impelling vessels without wind. It was given to Bernouilli, who, in his paper, proposed a set of vanes like those of a windmill--a screw, in fact--one to be placed on each side of the vessel, and two more behind. For a vessel of 100 tons, he proposed a shaft 14 feet long and 2 inches in diameter, carrying "eight wheels, for acting on the water, to each of which it" (the shaft) "is perpendicular, and forms an axis for them all; the wheels should be at equal distances from each other. Each wheel consists of 8 arms of iron, each 3 feet long, so that the whole diameter of the wheel is 6 feet. Each of these arms, at the distance of 20 inches from the centre, carries a sheet-iron plane (or paddle) 16 inches square, which is inclined so as to form an angle of 60 degrees, both with the arbor and keel of the vessel, to which the arbor is placed parallel.

To sustain this arbor and the wheels, two strong bars of iron, between 2 and 3 inches thick, proceed from the side of the vessel at right angles to it, about 2-1/2 feet below the surface of the water." He proposed similar screw-propellers at the stern, and suggested that they could be driven by animal or by steam-power.

But a more remarkable essay is quoted by Figuier[61]--the paper of l'Abbe Gauthier, published in the "Memoires de la Societe Royale des Sciences et Lettres de Nancy." Bernouilli had expressed the belief that the best steam-engine then known--that of Newcomen--was not superior to some other motors. Gauthier proposed to use that engine in the propulsion of paddle-wheels placed at the side of the vessel. His plan was not brought into use, but his paper embodied a glowing description of the advantages to be secured by its adoption. He states that a galley urged by 26 oars on a side made but 4,320 toises (8,420 meters), or about 5 miles, an hour, and required a crew of 260 men. A steam-engine, doing the same work, would be ready for action at all times, could be applied, when not driving the vessel, to raising the anchor, working the pumps, and to ventilating the ship, while the fire would also serve to cook with. The engine would occupy less s.p.a.ce and weight than the men, would require less aliment, and that of a less expensive kind, etc. He would make the boiler safe against explosions by bands of iron; would make the fire-box of iron, with a water-filled ash-pit and base-plate. His injection-water was to come from the sea, and return by a delivery-pipe placed above the water-line. The chains, usually leading from the end of the beam to the pump-rods, were to be carried around wheels on the paddle-shaft, which were to be provided with pawls entering a ratchet, and thus the paddles, having been given several revolutions by the descent of the piston and the unwinding of the chain, were to revolve freely while the return-stroke was made, the chain being hauled down and rewound by the wheel on the shaft, the latter being moved by a weight. The engine was proposed to be of 6 feet stroke, and to make 15 strokes per minute, with a force of 11,000 pounds.

[61] "Les Merveilles de la Science."

A little later (1760), a Swiss clergyman, J. A. Genevois, published in London a paper relating to the improvement of navigation,[62] in which his plan was proposed of compressing springs by steam or other power, and applying their effort while recovering their form to ship-propulsion.

[62] "Some New Enquiries tending to the Improvement of Navigation."

London, 1760.

It was at this time that the first attempts were made in the United States to solve this problem, which had begun to be recognized as one of the greatest which had presented itself to the mechanic and the engineer.

WILLIAM HENRY was a prominent citizen of the then little village of Lancaster, Pa., and was noted as an ingenious and successful mechanic.[63] He was still living at the beginning of the present century. Mr. Henry was the first to make the "rag" carpet, and was the inventor of the screw-auger. He was of a Scotch and North-of-Ireland family, his father, John Henry, and his two older brothers, Robert and James, having come to the United States about 1720. Robert settled, finally, in Virginia, and it is said that Patrick Henry, the patriot and orator, was of his family. The others remained in Chester County, Pa., where William was born, in 1729. He learned the trade of a gunsmith, and, driven from his home during the Indian war (1755 to 1760), settled in Lancaster.

[63] _Lancaster Daily Express_, December 10, 1872. This account is collated from various ma.n.u.scripts and letters in the possession of the author.

In the year 1760 he went to England on business, where his attention was attracted to the invention--then new, and the subject of discussion in every circle--of James Watt. He saw the possibility of its application to navigation and to driving carriages, and, on his return home, commenced the construction of a steam-engine, and finished it in 1763.

Placing it in a boat fitted with paddle-wheels, he made a trial of the new machine on the Conestoga River, near Lancaster, where the craft, by some accident, sank,[64] and was lost. He was not discouraged by this failure, but made a second model, adding some improvements. Among the records of the Pennsylvania Philosophical Society is, or was, a design, presented by Henry in 1782, of one of his steamboats. The German traveler Schopff visited the United States in 1783, and at Mr.

Henry's house, at Lancaster, was shown "a machine by Mr. Henry, intended for the propelling of boats, etc.; 'but,' said Mr. Henry, 'I am doubtful whether such a machine would find favor with the public, as every one considers it impracticable against wind and tide;' but that such a Boat _will_ come into use and navigate on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi, he had not the least doubt of, but the time had not yet arrived of its being appreciated and applied."

[64] Bowen's "Sketches," p. 56.

John Fitch, whose experiments will presently be referred to, was an acquaintance and frequent visitor to the house of Mr. Henry, and may probably have there received the earliest suggestions of the importance of this application of steam. About 1777, when Henry was engaged in making mathematical and philosophical instruments, and the screw-auger, which at that time could only be obtained of him, Robert Fulton, then twelve years old, visited him, to study the paintings of Benjamin West, who had long been a friend and protege of Henry. He, too, not improbably received there the first suggestion which afterward led him to desert the art to which he at first devoted himself, and which made of the young portrait-painter a successful inventor and engineer. West's acquaintance with Henry had no such result. The young painter was led by his patron and friend to attempt historical pictures,[65] and probably owes his fame greatly to the kindly and discerning mechanic. Says Galt, in his "Memoirs of Sir Benjamin West" (London, 1816): "Towards his old friend, William Henry, of Lancaster City, he always cherished the most grateful affection; he was the first who urged him to attempt historical composition."

[65] Some of West's portraits, including those of Mr. and Mrs.

Henry, were lately in the possession of Mr. John Jordan, of Philadelphia.

When, after the invention of Watt, the steam-engine had taken such shape that it could really work the propelling apparatus of a paddle or screw vessel, a new impetus was given to the work of its adaptation. In France, the Marquis de Jouffroy was one of the earliest to perceive that the improvements of Watt, rendering the engine more compact, more powerful, and, at the same time, more regular and positive in its action, had made it, at last, readily applicable to the propulsion of vessels. The brothers Perier had imported a Watt engine from Soho, and this was attentively studied by the marquis,[66]

and its application to the paddle-wheels of a steam-vessel seemed to him a simple problem. Comte d'Auxiron and Chevalier Charles Mounin, of Follenai, friends and companions of Jouffroy, were similarly interested, and the three are said to have often discussed the scheme together, and to have united in devising methods of applying the new motor.

[66] Figuier.

In the year 1770, D'Auxiron determined to attempt the realization of the plans which he had conceived. He resigned his position in the army, prepared his plans and drawings, and presented them to M.

Bertin, the Prime Minister, in the year 1771 or 1772. The Minister was favorably impressed, and the King (May 22, 1772) granted D'Auxiron a monopoly of the use of steam in river-navigation for 15 years, provided he should prove his plans practicable, and they should be so adjudged by the Academy.

A company had been formed, the day previous, consisting of D'Auxiron, Jouffroy, Comte de Dijon, the Marquis d'Yonne, and Follenai, which advanced the requisite funds. The first vessel was commenced in December, 1772. When nearly completed, in September, 1774, the boat sprung a leak, and, one night, foundered at the wharf. After some angry discussion, during which D'Auxiron was rudely, and probably unjustly, accused of bad faith, the company declined to advance the money needed to recover and complete the vessel. They were, however, compelled by the court to furnish it; but, meantime, D'Auxiron died of apoplexy, the matter dropped, and the company dissolved. The cost of the experiment had been something more than 15,000 francs.

The heirs of D'Auxiron turned the papers of the deceased inventor over to Jouffroy, and the King transferred to him the monopoly held by the former. Follenai retained all his interest in the project, and the two friends soon enlisted a powerful adherent and patron, the Marquis Ducrest, a well-known soldier, courtier, and member of the Academy, who took an active part in the prosecution of the scheme. M. Jacques Perier, the then distinguished mechanic, was consulted, and prepared plans, which were adopted in place of those of Jouffroy. The boat was built by Perier, and a trial took place in 1774, on the Seine. The result was unsatisfactory. The little craft could hardly stem the sluggish current of the river, and the failure caused the immediate abandonment of the scheme by Perier.

Still undiscouraged, Jouffroy retired to his country home, at Baume-les-Dames, on the river Doubs. There he carried on his experiments, getting his work done as best he could, with the rude tools and insufficient apparatus of a village blacksmith. A Watt engine and a chain carrying "duck-foot" paddles were his propelling apparatus. The boat, which was about 14 feet long and 6 wide, was started in June, 1776. The duck's-foot system of paddles proved unsatisfactory, and Jouffroy gave it up, and renewed his experiments with a new arrangement. He placed on the paddle-wheel shaft a ratchet-wheel, and on the piston-rod of his engine, which was placed horizontally in the boat, a double rack, into the upper and the lower parts of which the ratchet-wheel geared. Thus the wheels turned in the same direction, whichever way the piston was moving. The new engine was built at Lyons in 1780, by Messrs. Freres-Jean. The new boat was about 140 feet long and 14 feet wide; the wheels were 14 feet in diameter, their floats 6 feet long, and the "dip," or depth to which they reached, was about 2 feet. The boat drew 3 feet of water, and had a total weight of about 150 tons.

At a public trial of the vessel at Lyons, July 15, 1783, the little steamer was so successful as to justify the publication of the fact by a report and a proclamation. The fact that the experiment was not made at Paris was made an excuse on the part of the Academy for withholding its indors.e.m.e.nt, and on the part of the Government for declining to confirm to Jouffroy the guaranteed monopoly. Impoverished and discouraged, Jouffroy gave up all hope of prosecuting his plans successfully, and reentered the army. Thus France lost an honor which was already within her grasp, as she had already lost that of the introduction of the steam-engine, in the time of Papin.

About 1785, John Fitch and James Rumsey were engaged in experiments having in view the application of steam to navigation.