Part 17 (1/2)
”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 s.h.i.+ps, 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p 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 steams.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p-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.