STEAM ENGINE is the name given to a machine in which the moving power is obtained from the elastic force of steam, and from its capability of being con densed into water, and thus creating a vacuum in the space which it occupied.
Like every other invention which has become im portant to society, the steam engine has been ascrib ed to a variety of authors, and he who enjoys the un doubted title to that distinguished honour, has been robbed of his just rights by the obtrusive claims of a number of contrivances, as devoid of genius as they are destitute of utility.
The power of national prejudice has been singular ly exhibited, and the spirit of scientific criticism as singularly degraded, when the invention of the steam engine has been ascribed to Hero and Branca, who whirled round a wheel by the steam of a kettle, or to Solomon de Caus, who squirted water out of a vessel by the steam which it generated. Upon such princi ples, we may refer the invention of the telescope to him who first looked through a glass ball filled with water, and the discovery of the air balloon to the little urchin who first committed his soap bubble to the at mosphere. • That the Marquis of Worcester was the inventor of the steam engine, or of a machine in which the elas tic force of steam was proposed as the first mover in raising water, is a fact beyond dispute. In his Cen tury of Intentions, a work published in 1663, he has described this engine in No. 68, and he has again re ferred to it in Nos. 98, 90, and 100. He has also left behind him what he calls a definition of his engine, the only copy of which is preserved in the British Museum. These different articles we shall now lay before our readers.
" No. 68. 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 sphaerarn activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way bath no bounder, if the ves sel he strong enough; for, 1 have taken a plea of a hole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three quarters full, stopping and screwing up the bro ken end, as also the touch hole; and making a con stant fire under it, within twenty-four hours it burst, and made a great crack: so that having found a way to make my vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within them, and the one to fill after the other, have seen the water run like a constant foun tain's stream, forty feet high; one vessel of water rarefied by lire, drinketh up forty of cold water: and a man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks that one vessel of water being consumed, another be gins to force and refill with cold water, and so succes sively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the self same person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim between the necessity of turning the said cocks.
No. 98. An engine so contrived that working the primum mobile forward or backward, upward or down ward, circularly or cornerwise, to and fro, straight upright or downright, yet the pretended operation continueth and advanceth; none of the motions above mentioned, hindering, much less stopping the other; but unanimously, and with harmony agreeing, they all augment and contribute strength unto the intended work and operation; and therefore I call this a semi omnipotent engine, and do intend that a model thereof be buried with me.
No. 99. How to make one pound weight to raise an hundred as high as one pound falleth, and yet the hundred pounds descending Both what nothing less than one hundred pounds can effect.
No. 100. Upon so potent a help as these two last mentioned inventions, a water work is by many years experience and labour, so advantageously by me con trived, that a child's force bringeth up one hundred feet high an incredible quantity of water even two feet diameter; and I may boldly call it the most stupendous work in the whole world.
Not only with little charge to drain all sorts of mines, and furnish cities with water though never so high seated, as well to keep them sweet running through several streets, and so performing the work of scavengers, as well as furnishing the inhabitants with sufficient water for their private occasions, but likewise supplying the rivers with sufficient to main tain and make navigable from town to town, and for the bettering of lands all the way it runs, with many more advantageous, and yet greater effects of profit, admiration, and consequence; so that deservedly I deem this invention to crown my labours, to reward my expenses, and make my thoughts acquiesce in way of farther inventions. This making up the whole century, and preventing any farther trouble to the reader for the.present, meaning to leave to posterity a book, wherein under each of these beads the means to put in execution and visible trial all and every of these inventions with the shape and form of all things belonging to them, shall be printed by brass plates. Besides many omitted, and some of three sorts wil lingly not set down as not fit to be divulged, lest ill use may be made thereof, but to show that such things are also within my knowledge, I will here in myne ovine cypher sett doun one of each, not to be conceal ed when duty and affection obligeth me." Thy following is the Marquis's definition, which is printed on a single sheet without date, and which Mr. Partington, supposes, had been written to procure subscriptions in aid of a water company then about to be established.