2
THE HISTORY OF
[sect. I.
employed, and for which alone it has become valuable, it appears to be mere
trifling to search for authorities, and absolutely unworthy of occupying the time
or attention of a man of real science. The blast of an eolipile is certainly not a
mode of employing steam capable of producing the species of useful effect which is
obtained by a steam engine, and, as a proof of its inefficiency, the same principle
of action (that is, by impulse) has never been rendered applicable to produce
mechanical power for useful purposes in a steam engine.
It is not my object, therefore, to inquire when it was first ascertained that steam
has force; but, to endeavour to trace the history of its suggestion in a practical
form, and of its employment in the arts and manufactures; to develop the various
changes and improvements the steam engine has received; and to exhibit, among
the host of projectors, those who have really advanced our knowledge, either
regarding the principles, the construction, or the arrangement of this powerful
prime mover.
It is easy to perceive that I have assigned myself a difficult task, but it is equally
evident that if it be accomplished in a judicious and candid manner, it will form
a valuable addition to an interesting and useful branch of mechanical science;
hence, I am encouraged to proceed, and trust to leave my reader with an impres
sion, that I have been just in deciding between the claimants of the invention of
each of the parts of the steam engine.
1663. Marquis of Worcester, died 1667.
4. The idea of employing the impulsive force of the eolipile seems to be the
only one which had been formed for using steam as a source of motion before the
time of the Marquis of Worcester; and he, in a little work entitled ‘A Century of
the Names and Scantlings of Inventions,’ undoubtedly describes a method of
employing the pressure of steam for raising water to great heights. 1 His work was
first published in 1663, and under the sixty-eighth invention we have the following
name and scantling:—
“ lxvin. A Fire Water Work.—An admirable and most forcible way to drive
up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards; for that must be, as the
philosopher calleth it, infra sphreram activitatis, which is but at such a distance.
But this way hath no bounder if the vessels be strong enough; for I have taken a
piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three-quarters
full of water, stopping and screwing up the broken end, as also the touchhole, and,
1 Another engine, which the marquis terms a “ Water-commanding Engine,” seems to have been
the one for which he obtained an act of parliament, allowing him the monopoly of the profits
arising from its use.