Captain Savery. I class the machine which that Great Machine was then in existence. In corroboration of this, he quotes from the translation of the Travels in England of Cosmo de Medicis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, published in 1821, (Mr. Stuart says, 1818,) that "on the 28th May 1699, his Highness saw at Vauxhall, an hydraulic machine, invented by my Lord Somerset, Marquess of Worcester. It raises water more than forty geometrical feet, by the power of one man only; and in a very short space of time will draw up four vessels of water, through a tube or channel not more than a span in width." Mr. Stuart thinks it clear, from different reasons which he assigns, that this hydraulic machine must have been some sort of steam-engine; and, from the remarkable coincidence of the description with that given by the Marquis, of the effects of his engine, probably the very identical "most stupenduous water-commanding engine." It is but fair to observe, that this author has elsewhere publicly defended a totally opposite conclusion. In his "History of the Steam-Engine," he says that the "Century of inventions" is called by Walpole, with much truth," an amazing piece of folly;" and he has no mercy on "the overwhelming quackery of the Marquis of Worcester, and the absurd extravagance of his pretensions." This inconsistency is perhaps not surprising in a writer whose statements are frequently not to be depended on. We have no desire to occupy our pages with an enumeration of the many palpable mistakes which occur in his works; but the present instance adds another to those which we have felt ourselves compelled to notice. If Mr. Stuart had been accurate in his quotation, the Vauxhall machine might possibly have been one of Savery's engines, some of which, as mentioned below, were erected before 1698, when their inventor obtained his patent. But the year of Cosmo's visit to England was not 1699, but 1669; and the argument for the Marquis' claims is greatly strengthened by the correction of this most material error. The two accounts of the performances of the engine, the one by the Marquis, and the other by the Duke, or his secretary (the celebrated Magalotti), who wrote the Journal, are, in the essential point of numerical appreciation of the power, almost verbatim the same; and it is not improbable that to ensure greater accuracy, the one might be copied from the other. This, however, we have been led to imagine solely from their extraordinary similarity, and from our not having met with a description of the Marquis' engine in any other contemporary work. Desaguliers, who engineer made in 1698,* along with those of his two predecessors, although he introduced into it some essential modifications; among others, that of forming the steam in a separate vessel. If it matters little, in so far as the principle is concerned, whether the steam, which is to be the moving power, is generated from the water which is to be raised, and within the same boiler where it is to operate, or whether it is made in a separate vessel, and, by means of a connecting tube with a cock, is admitted at pleasure above the water which it is required to discharge; it certainly is not the same in a practical point of view. Another change of still more importance, well worthy of being specially mentioned, and of which the credit is equally due to Savery, will find a more appropriate place in the section which I shall immediately devote to the labours of Papin and Newcomen.† has shewn every wish to detract from the reputation of Savery, was evidently not aware of any grounds for believing the Marquis to have constructed an engine, excepting the words of the noble inventor himself.-TR. * Mr. Robert Stuart, at p. 34 of his "History of the steam-engine," published in 1824, says, quoting from Robison, "The fact is, Savery obtained his patent in 1698, after a hearing of objections; ** but, besides this, he had erected several of his engines before he obtained his patent;" "and," continues Mr. Stuart, "published an account of his engine in 1696, under the title of The Miner's Friend, and a Dialogue by way of answer to the objections which had been made against it, in 1699; both were printed in one volume in 1702." We have not seen the publication of 1696; but we observe that in that of 1702, he says he worked a small model before some members of the Royal Society, on the 14th of June 1699.-TR. + We do not find, however, that further mention is made under the head referred to, of any other improvements by Savery. But the fact is, that Savery's engine consisted of two distinct principles: Savery had entitled his work "The Miner's raising water, in the first place, by the pressure of the atmosphere forcing it into a vacuum formed by the condensation of steam; and, in the second, by the expansive power of steam. The steam from the detached boiler was let into a vessel called a receiver, and, having driven out the air, was condensed by the affusion of cold water, and a partial vacuum formed. A communication being then opened with a suction pipe, twenty-four feet in height, the lower end of which was placed in a cistern or reservoir of water, that water was forced upwards, by the pressure of the atmosphere, into the receiver. When this was nearly filled, the communication with the suctionpipe was shut off, the steam was re-admitted into the receiver, and by its expansive power forced the water contained in it up an ascending, or, as he called it, a force-pipe. This second operation is similar to that indicated by Solomon de Caus, and not only indicated, but perhaps practised by the Marquis of Worcester. The prior operation,—that of raising the water into a vacuum formed by the condensation of steam,- -we believe to have been original with Savery. For although Papin had described the principle in the "Acta Eruditorum" of Leipzig for 1690, and in a French work published five years later at Cassel, he applied it in a different manner; and there is no proof, or even surmise, of its having been known to Savery when he invented his engine in 1696, or perhaps sooner. Indeed, Papin, with praiseworthy candour, as quoted by Belidor, Arch. Hyd. Tome ii. p. 309, writes, “What I say here is not to give room for believing, that Mr. Savery, who has since published this invention at London, is not actually the inventor. I do not doubt that the same thought may have occurred to him, as well as to others, without having learnt it elsewhere." When we consider the whole of the contrivances invented by Savery, as described by himself in "The Miner's Friend,” we cannot but accord him the praise of very great ingenuity, independent of the merit of having made THE FIRST WORKING STEAM-ENGINE, (if he was not preceded in that by the Marquis of Worcester); but at all events, of having been the first who introduced it into use. His drawing and description in "The Miner's Friend," apply to an engine with two receivers ; but it was soon altered, in practice, to one receiver, as we have described it. 66 Switzer, in his System of Hydrostatics and Hydraulics, published in 1729, says, p. 325, “ Among the several engines which have been contrived for the raising of water for the supply of houses and gardens, none has been more justly surprising than that for the raising Friend."* The miners shewed themselves but little sensible of the compliment. With but one exception, none of them ordered his engines. They have been employed only for supplying water to various parts of palaces, pleasure-houses, parks, and gardens; recourse having been had to them only when the difference of level to be surmounted did not exceed twelve or fifteen metres.† It must, besides, be confessed, that the danger of explosions would have been very great, if this apparatus had been possessed of the prodigious power which its inventor professed to have gained. Whatever imperfection the practical success of Savery displays, the name of this engineer deserves of water by fire, the particular contrivance and sole invention of a gentleman with whom I had the honour long since to be well acquainted; I mean the ingenious Captain Savery, some time since deceased, but then a most noted engineer, and one of the Commissioners of the sick and wounded. "It was a considerable time before this curious person, who has been so great an honour to his country, could (as he himself tells us,) bring this his design to perfection, on account of the awkwardness of the workmen who were necessarily to be employed in the affair; but at last he conquered all difficulties, and procured a recommendation of it from the Royal Society, in Trans. No. 252, and soon after, a patent from the Crown, for the sole making this engine. And I have heard him say myself, that the very first time he played, it was in a potter's house at Lambeth, where, though it was a small engine, it forced its way through the roof."-TR. * The full title of Savery's book is as follows:— "The Miner's Friend, or an Engine to raise Water by Fire described, and the Manner of Fixing it in Mines, with an Account of the several other uses it is applicable unto; and an Answer to the objections made against it. By Tho. Savery, Gent. Pigri est ingenii contentum esse his quæ ab aliis inventa sunt. Seneca. London, printed by S. Crouch at the corner of Pope's-head Alley in Cornhill. 1702."-TR. † A Metre is 3.2808992 English feet.—TR. to occupy a most distinguished place in the history of the steam-engine. Persons whose whole life has been devoted to speculative labours, are not aware how great is the distance between a scheme, apparently the best concerted, and its realisation. It is not that I hold, with a celebrated German philosopher, that Nature always cries "No, no!" when we attempt to raise a corner of the veil which hides her; but, to follow out the same metaphor, it is at least fair to affirm, that the enterprize becomes more difficult, more delicate, and of more doubtful success, in proportion as it demands both the concurrence of more artists, and the employment of a greater number of material elements; and, as to these various points, making allowance for the period at which he lived, was there ever a man placed in more unfavourable circumstances than Savery? * * Little appears to be known of the life of Savery; and an enquiry made some years ago of a gentleman of the same name at Bristol, who acknowledged relationship, did not procure any information or papers. He published a small pamphlet, entitled "Navigation improved, or the Art of Rowing Ships of all rates in Calms, &c.; by Thos Savery, Gent. London. Printed and sold by James Moxon, at the Atlas in Warwick Lane, 1698." He says he had had a patent for it about two years, and that it had been worked upon the Thames. The engine, as he calls it, consisted of two paddle-wheels, one on each side of the ship, connected by a shaft above the deck, and worked there by a capstan. This, however, was not original, for he refers in the pamphlet to an objection taken against it by Mr. Dummer, the surveyor of the navy, "that it was the same sort of engine that was used in the year 1682 at Chatham, for the towing of ships, the charge of which proved a loss to the Crown." This most probably was the vessel made under the direction of Prince Rupert, having paddle-wheels worked by horses; and which, in a trial on the Thames, witnessed |