Scientific American Supplement, No. 620 | Page 4

date had entertained even the thought of a steam railway for passenger and freight traffic. In view of all this, is it at all surprising that the British _Mechanics' Magazine_ declared Oliver Evans, an American, to be the first projector of steam railway traveling? In 1804 Mr. Evans made a most noteworthy demonstration, his object being to practically exemplify that locomotion could be imparted by his high pressure steam engine to both carriages and boats, and the reader will see that the date of the demonstration was three years before Fulton moved a boat by means of Watt's low pressure steam engine. The machine used involved the original double acting high pressure steam engine, the original steam locomotive, and the original high pressure steamboat. The whole mass weighed over twenty tons.
Notwithstanding there was no railway, except a temporary one laid over a slough in the path, Mr. Evans' engine moved this great weight with ease from the southeast corner of Ninth and Market streets, in the city of Philadelphia, one and a half miles, to the River Schuylkill. There the machine was launched into the river, and the land wheels being taken off and a paddle wheel attached to the stern and connected with the engine, the now steamboat sped away down the river until it emptied into the Delaware, whence it turned upward until it reached Philadelphia. Although this strange craft was square both at bow and stern, it nevertheless passed all the up-bound ships and other sailing vessels in the river, the wind being to them ahead. The writer repeats that this thorough demonstration by Oliver Evans of the possibility of navigation by steam was made three years before Fulton. But for more than a quarter of a century prior to this demonstration Mr. Evans had time and again asserted that vessels could be thus navigated. He did not contend with John Fitch, but on the contrary tried to aid him and advised him to use other means than oars to propel his boat. But Fitch was wedded to his own methods. In 1805 Mr. Evans published a book on the steam engine, mainly devoted to his form thereof. In this book he gives directions how to propel boats by means of his engine against the current of the Mississippi. Prior to this publication he associated himself with some citizens of Kentucky--one of whom was the grandfather of the present Gen. Chauncey McKeever, United States Army--the purpose being to build a steamboat to run on the Mississippi. The boat was actually built in Kentucky and floated to New Orleans. The engine was actually built in Philadelphia by Mr. Evans and sent to New Orleans, but before the engine arrived out the boat was destroyed by fire or hurricane. The engine was then put to sawing timber, and it operated so successfully that Mr. Stackhouse, the engineer who went out with it, reported on his return from the South that for the 13 months prior to his leaving the engine had been constantly at work, not having lost a single day!
The reader can thus see the high stage of efficiency which Oliver Evans had imparted to his engine full 80 years ago. On this point Dr. Ernst Alban, the German writer on the steam engine, when speaking of the high pressure steam engine, writes: "Indeed, to such perfection did he [Evans] bring it, that Trevithick and Vivian, who came after him, followed but clumsily in his wake, and do not deserve the title of either inventors or improvers of the high pressure engine, which the English are so anxious to award to them.... When it is considered under what unfavorable circumstances Oliver Evans worked, his merit must be much enhanced; and all attempts made to lessen his fame only show that he is neither understood nor equaled by his detractors."
The writer has already shown that there are bright exceptions to this general charge brought by Dr. Alban against British writers, but the overwhelming mass of them have acted more like envious children than like men when speaking of the authorship of the double acting high pressure steam engine, the locomotive, and the steam railway system. Speaking of this class of British writers, Prof. Renwick, when alluding to their treatment of Oliver Evans, writes: "Conflicting national pride comes in aid of individual jealousy, and the writers of one nation often claim for their own vain and inefficient projectors the honors due to the successful enterprise of a foreigner." Many of these writers totally ignore the very existence of Oliver Evans, and all of them attribute to Trevithick and Vivian the authorship of the high pressure steam engine and the locomotive. Yet, when doing so, all of them substantially acknowledge the American origin of both inventions, because it is morally certain