Scientific American Supplement, No. 620 | Page 4

miles in an hour.
In 1809 Mr. Evans endeavored to establish a steam railway both for
freight and passenger traffic between New York and Philadelphia,
offering to invest $500 per mile in the enterprise. At the date of his
effort there was not a railway in the world over ten miles long, nor does
there appear to have been another human being who up to that 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