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Few Inventions formerly recorded.

[Book IV.

CHAPTER V.

Few Inventions formerly recorded-Lord Bacon-His project for draining mines-Thomas Bushell— Ice produced by hydraulic machines-Eolipiles-Branca's application of the blast of one to produce motion-Its inutility-Curious extract from Wilkins-Ramseye's patent for raising water by fire-Manufacture of nitre-Figure illustrating the application of steam, from an old English work-Kircher's device for raising water by steam-John Bate-Antiquity of boys' kites in England-Discovery of atmospheric pressure-Engine of motion-Anecdotes of Oliver Evans and John Fitch-Elasticity and condensation of steam-Steam-engines modifications of guns--A moving piston the essential feature in both-Classification of modern steam engines-Guerricke's apparatus-The same adopted in steam-engines-Guerricke one of the authors of the steam-engine.

How few, how exceedingly few of the conceptions and experimental researches of mechanics have ever been recorded! How many millions of men of genius have passed through life without making their discoveries known! Even since printing was introduced, not a moiety of those who possessed in an unusual degree the faculty of invention have preserved any of their ideas on paper. Of some men celebrated for the novelty of their devices, nothing is known but their names; they have gone, and not a trace of their labors is left. Of others, the title by which they designated their inventions is nearly all that has come down-no particulars by which we might judge of their merits. This is the case with many of the old experimenters on steam, especially those who raised or attempted to raise water by it. Among these we have sometimes thought Lord Bacon should have a place, under the impression that he employed, or designed to employ, that fluid to raise water from the deluged mines which he undertook to recover. He obviously had some new modes and machines for the purpose. An account of these he laid before the King, (James I) who approved of the project, and consented that the aid of parliament should be invoked. In the "Speech touching the recovery of drown'd mineral works," which Bacon prepared to be delivered before parliament, is the following passage: "And I may assure your Lordships that all my proposals, in order to this great architype, seemed so rational and feasable to my Royal Sovereign, our Christian Salomon, [!] that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this honorable Parliament, to confirm and impower me, in my own way of mining, by an act of the same." This great man was therefore in possession of a novel plan of accomplishing one of the most arduous undertakings in practical hydraulics; and so impressed with a belief in its efficiency that the king was induced by him to call, or agree to call, a parliament, chiefly it would seem to give sanction to it. What the plan was, we are not informed, nor is any account of it believed to be extant. Dr. Tenison, (Archbishop of Canterbury) the author of "Baconiana," alluding in 1679 to Bacon's "Mechanical Inventions," observes, "His instruments and ways in recovering deserted mines, I can give no account of at all; though certainly, without new tools, and peculiar inventions, he would never have undertaken that new and hazardous work." "b That the project consisted chiefly in some peculiar mode of raising the water is certain; and it is worthy of remark that a member of

a Baconiana. Lond. 1679, p. 133. b"An Account of all the Lord Bacon's Works," subjoined to Baconiana, p. 17.

Chap. 5.] Lord Bacon's Project for raising Water from Mines.

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his household was a mining engineer, and celebrated for the invention or construction of hydraulic engines, viz. "Mr. Thomas Bushell, one of his lordship's menial servants; a man skilful in discovering and opening of mines, and famous for his curious water-works in Oxfordshire, by which he imitated rain, hail, the rainbow, thunder and lightning.' "'a This was probably the same individual who is mentioned in some biographies as "Master of the Royal Mines in Wales," under Charles I.

That the application of steam to drain mines and impart motion to machinery had begun to excite attention in England before the death of Bacon, (in 1626) is very obvious. Of this there are several indications; and within four years of his demise, a patent was granted for a method of discharging water "from low pitts by fire." Then he was acquainted with the writings of Porta, and consequently with the apparatus No. 187. No experiment or fact of the kind illustrated by this could have escaped him, even if he had not been engaged in the project of recovering flooded mines; and he was, to say the least, as likely as any other man of his age to perceive the adaptation of such an apparatus as No. 187 for raising water, and also to apply it. We hear of no such uses of steam in England before his time, but soon after his death they make their appearance without any one very distinctly to claim them. It may however be said, if Bacon raised water by steam, Bushell, his engineer, would most likely have done the same after the death of the chancellor, and proofs of this fact might be obtained from an examination of the water-works of the latter. Had we any account of these, the question most likely could be settled; but almost the only information we have respecting the machines and labors of Bushell is contained in the extract above, and there is but one particular from which any thing respecting their construction can be inferred, viz.—hail is said to have been produced by them. How this was done we know not; possibly by admitting high steam into a close vessel, from which water mixed with airb was expelled with a velocity sufficient to produce ice, somewhat in the same manner as the operation is performed by compressed air in the pressure engine described at page 362. The same thing was done by others who we know did experiment on steam, and who performed the operation without the aid of a great fall of water. The Marquis of Worcester makes it the subject of the 18th proposition of his "Century of Inventions," in a fountain which he says a child could invert. And a century before, Cornelius Drebble "made certain machines which produced rain, hail and lightning, as naturally as if these effects proceeded from the sky."

But whether Lord Bacon used steam or not-and it must be admitted that there is no direct evidence that he did-it is interesting to know that his great mind was bent to the subject of raising water on the most extensive scale, and this too at the time when steam first began to be proposed for that purpose in England. On this account, if on no other, are his labors entitled to notice here.

a Account of Lord Bacon's Works, p. 19.

b Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Burnett, in his Letters from Italy, noticing the water-works at Frescati, observes, "the mixture of wind with the water and the thunder and storms that this maketh, is noble." 3d edition, Rotterdam, 1687, p. 245.

Lord Bacon seems to have been greatly interested in mining and in the reduction, compounding and working of metals. In his treatise on the Advancement of Learning he divides natural philosophy into the mine and furnace, and philosophers into pioneers and smiths, or diggers and hammerers; the former being engaged in the inquisition of causes, and the latter in the production of effects. In his "Physiological Remains," we find the saving of fuel thus noticed under the head of "Experiments for Profit:" “Building of chimneys, furnaces and ovens, to give out heat with less wood."

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any

Three years after Bacon's death, the first printed account was published of modern attempt (yet discovered) to communicate motion to solids by steam, and as usual an eolipile was employed. Occupying a place on the domestic hearth, as this instrument did, the shrill current proceeding from it must have often excited attention, and led ingenious men to extend the application of the blast to other purposes. The first idea that would occur to a novice when attempting to obtain a rotary movement from a current of vapor, would be that of a light wheel, having its wings or vanes placed so as to receive the impulse, in a similar manner as little paper wheels are made to revolve, which children support on a pin or wire and blow round with the mouth-or those which resemble ventilators and revolve when held against the wind at the end of a stick. These toys are vertical and horizontal windmills in miniature, and windmills and smoke-jacks were the only instruments in the 16th century that revolved by currents of air. Hence it was natural to imitate the movements of these in the first applications of steam; and the more so since steam at that time was generally considered to be nothing but air.a Such was the device of Giovanni Branca, as described in a work entitled The Machine, written in Italian and Latin, and published at Rome in 1629. The volume contains sixty-three engravings. The twenty-fifth represents an eolipile, in the form of a negro's head, and heated on a brazier: the blast proceeds from the mouth, and is directed against pallets or vanes on the periphery of a large wheel, which he thus expected to turn round; and by means of a series of toothed wheels and pinions, to communicate motion to stampers for pounding drugs. He proposed also to raise water by it with a chain of buckets, to saw timber, drive piles, &c.

It is hardly necessary to observe that the apparatus figured by Branca in all probability never existed except in his imagination, and that his stampers, buckets, saws, piles, &c. could no more have been moved by the blast of his eolipile, than those venerable trees were which Wilkins and older writers have represented being torn up from the earth by a man's breath-the blast being directed against the vanes of a wheel, and the force multiplied by a series of toothed wheels and pinions, until its energy could no longer be resisted by the roots.b Branca seems to have had these childish dreams in his mind when he proposed a continuous stream of steam from an eolipile, in lieu of intermitting puffs of air from a person's mouth. Italian writers have however claimed for him the invention of the steam-engine, a claim quite as untenable as that put forth in behalf of Decaus; for, in the first place, his mode of producing a rotary motion by a current of vapor was not new all that can be accorded to him in this respect is, that he perhaps was the first to publish a figure and description of it. Then it indicates neither ingenuity nor research. There probably never was a boy that made and played with "paper windmills" who would not have at once suggested it, had he been consulted; and when eolipiles were common, many a lad doubtless amused himself by making his "mills" revolve in the current of vapor that issued from them. Moreover, the device is of no practical value. How infinitely does it fall short when compared with that of Heron, (No. 180.) The philosophical principle of

a A horizontal and a vertical windmill are figured at folio 49 of Rivius' translation of Vitruvius, A. D. 1548.

By the multiplication of wheels and pinions it were easy to have made, says Wilkins, "one of Sampson's hairs that was shaved off, to have been of more strength than all of them when they were on: by the help of these arts it is possible, as I shall demonstrate, for any man to lift up the greatest oak by the roots with a straw, to pull it up with a hair, or to blow it up with his breath." Math. Magic, book i, chap. 14.

Chap. 5.]

Ramseye's Patent, A. D. 1630

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recoil by which the Alexandrian engineer imparted motion by steam, has often been adopted, and engines resembling his are made even at this day; but one on the plan of Branca never was, and, without presumption it may be said, never will be. The principle being bad, no modification or extension of it could be made useful. No boiler could by it be made to work even a pump to inject the necessary supply of water.

Mr. Farey has well observed that steam has so little density, that the the utmost effect it can produce by percussion is very trifling, notwithstanding the great velocity with which it moves. The blast issuing from an eolipile, or from the spout of a boiling tea-kettle, appears to rush out with so much force that at first sight it might be supposed its power, on a larger scale, might be applied in lieu of a natural current of wind to give motion to machinery; but on examination it will be found, that the steam being less than half the specific gravity of common air, its motion is impeded and resisted by the atmosphere. As steam contains so little matter or weight, it cannot communicate any considerable force by its impetus or concussion when it strikes a solid body. The force of a current of steam also soon ceases. This may be observed in a tea-kettle: the vapor which issues with great velocity at the spout, becomes a mere mist at a few inches distance, and without any remaining motion or energy; and if the issuing current were directed to strike upon any kind of vanes, with a view of obtaining motion from it, the condensation of the steam would be still more sudden, because the substance of such vanes would absorb the heat of the steam more rapidly than air.

Branca's apparatus has been made to figure in the history of the steamengine, but with equal propriety might the child's windmill be introduced into that of air-engines, for the analogy is precisely the same in both. His device had no influence in developing modern engines. Instead of leading to the employment of the fluid in close vessels, and to the use of a piston and cylinder, its tendency was the reverse: hence so far from indicating the right path, it diverted attention from it.

At the time Branca was preparing his book for the press, some experiments on steam were being made in England-or so it would seem from Sanderson's edition of Rymer's Fœdera. In vol. xix is a copy of a patent or special privilege granted by Charles I to David Ramseye, one of the grooms of the privy chamber, for the following inventions; and dated January 21, 1630:

"1. To multiply and make saltpeter in any open field, in fower acres of ground, sufficient to serve all our dominions. 2. To raise water from low pitts by fire. 3. To make any sort of mills to goe on standing waters, by continual motion, without the help of wind, waite [weight] or horse. 4. To make all sorts of tapistrie without any weaving loom, or waie ever yet in use in this kingdome. 5. To make boats, shippes and barges to goe against strong wind and tide. 6. To make the earth more fertile than usual. 7. To raise water from low places, and mynes, and coal pitts, by a new waie never yet in use. S. To make hard iron soft, and likewise copper to be tuffe and soft, which is not in use within this kingdome. 9. To make yellow wax white verie speedilie." The privilege was for fourteen years, and the patentee was to pay a yearly rent of 31. 68. 8d. to the king. Mr. Farey says that Ramseye had patents for other inventions from Charles I, but does not enumerate them. As it was not then customary to file specifications, there is no record of the details of his plan.

It is singular that English writers have passed over this patent almost without comment, and yet it contains the first direct proposal to raise water in that country by steam of which any account has yet been produced.

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Ramseye's Patent.

[Book IV. It may perhaps be said, that steam is not mentioned; still it is clearly implied in the second device, and was probably used in the third, fifth and seventh. The very expression "to raise water by fire," is the same that Porta, Decaus, and other old authors, used when referring to such applications of steam. Worcester, Papin, Savery and Newcomen, all described their machines as inventions for "raising water by fire;" and hence they were named "fire water-works," "fire machines," and "fire engines." It should moreover be remembered that the word steam was not then in vogue. It is not once used by the translators of the Bible. The fluid was generally referred to as air, or wind, or smoke, according to the appearances it presented. 'Rarefying water into ayer by fier," and similar expressions, were common. The idea of air in motion, or wind, was also applied to currents of steam: thus we read of "heating water to make wind," and eolipiles were designated "vessels to produce wind." From the form of clouds which steam assumes when discharged into the atmosphere, it was also named smoke: thus Job calls it, in a passage already quoted; and Porta, in describing the apparatus No. 187, speaks of it both as smoke and air. "The water [in the bottle] must be kept heated in this way until no more of it remains; and as long as the water shall smoke, (sfumera) the air will press the water in the box," &c.—and again, "from that you can conclude how much water has run out, and into how much air it has been changed." Had Ramseye therefore called his device a steam machine, its nature would not have been so well understood as by the title he gave it, if indeed it could have been comprehended at all by the former term. The expression "raising water by fire" appears to have as distinctly indicated, in the 17th century, a steam-machine, as the term steamengine does now; and there is no account extant of any device either proposed or used, in that century, for raising water from wells and mines by fire, except it was by means of steam.

The date of this patent being so near that of the publication of Branca's book, it may perhaps be thought that Ramseye derived some crude notions from it of applying a blast of steam to drive mills and raise water, as suggested by the Italian; but we should rather suppose some modification of, or device similar to, Porta's (see page 408) was intended in No. 2, and that Nos. 3, 5 and 7 were deduced from it. When once an efficient mode of raising water by steam (like No. 187) was realized, some application of it to propel machinery would readily occur. We know that both Savery and Papin and others proposed to work mills, by discharging the water they raised upon overshot wheels; and this idea was so obvious and natural, that hundreds of persons have proposed it in later times without knowing that it had previously been done.

From the order in which the first three devices are noticed in the privilege, it is possible that they were all modifications of the same thing; that the second and third were deduced from the first, and consequently invented independently of any previous steam machines. The operation of making saltpetre or nitre consists principally in boiling, in huge vats or cauldrons, the lixivium containing the nitrous earth; and from the large quantities of water and fuel required, was formerly carried on in such places only as afforded these in abundance. At such works, the idea of employing the vast volumes of vapor (which escaped uselessly into the air) to raise the hot, and subsequently cold, liquids, would naturally occur to an observing mind, and especially when the subject of raising water by steam was exciting attention. Certainly the idea was as likely to occur to practical men while engaged in the manufacture of nitre in the beginning of the 17th century, as it was to Worcester and others in the middle of it