Scientific American Supplement, No. 620 | Page 5

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 that Trevithick and Vivian got possession of the plans
and specifications of his engine. Oliver Evans sent them to England in
1794-5 by Mr. Joseph Stacy Sampson, of Boston, with the hope that
some British engineer would approve and conjointly with him take out
patents for the inventions. Mr. Sampson died in England, but not until

after he had extensively exhibited Mr. Evans' plans, apparently,
however, without success. After Mr. Sampson's death Trevithick and
Vivian took out a patent for a high pressure steam engine. This could
happen and yet the invention be original with them.
But they introduced into Cornwall a form of boiler hitherto unknown in
Great Britain, namely, the cylindrical flue boiler, which Oliver Evans
had invented and used in America years before the names of Trevithick
and Vivian were associated with the steam engine. Hence, they were
charged over fifty years ago with having stolen the invention of Mr.
Evans, and the charge has never been refuted. Hence when British
writers ignore the just claims of Oliver Evans and assert for Trevithick
and Vivian the authorship of the high pressure steam engine and the
locomotive, they thereby substantially acknowledge the American
origin of both inventions. They are not only of American origin, but
their author, although born in 1755, was nevertheless an American of
the second generation, seeing that he was descended from the Rev. Dr.
Evans Evans, who in the earlier days of the colony of Pennsylvania
came out to take charge of the affairs of the Episcopal Church in
Pennsylvania.
The writer has thus shown that with the patent granted by the State of
Maryland to Oliver Evans in 1787 were associated--first, the double
acting high pressure steam engine, which to-day is the standard steam
engine of the world; second, the locomotive, that is in worldwide use;
third, the steam railway system, which pervades the world; fourth, the
high pressure steamboat, which term embraces all the great ocean
steamships that are actuated by the compound steam engine, as well as
all the steamships on the Mississippi and its branches.
The time and opportunity has now arrived to assert before all the world
the American origin of these universally beneficent inventions. Such a
demonstration should be made, if only for the instruction of the rising
generation. Not a school book has fallen into the hands of the writer
that correctly sets forth the origin of the subject matter of this paper. He
apprehends that it is the same with the books used in colleges and
universities, for otherwise how could that parody on the history of the

locomotive, called "The Life of George Stephenson, Railway
Engineer," by Samuel Smiles, have met such unbounded success? To
the amazement of the writer, a learned professor in one of the most
important institutions of learning in the country did, in a lecture, quote
Smiles as authority on a point bearing on the history of the locomotive!
It is true that he made amends by adding, when his lecture was
published, a counter statement; but that such a man should have
seriously cited such a work shows the widespread mischief done among
people not versed in engineering lore by the admirably written romance
of Smiles, who as Edward C. Knight, in his Mechanical Dictionary,
truly declares, has "pettifogged the whole case." If, as Prof. Renwick
intimates, "conflicting national pride" has led the major part of British
writers to suppress the truth as to the origin of the high pressure steam
engine, the locomotive, and the steam railway system, surely true
national pride should induce the countrymen of Oliver Evans to assert
it. In closing this paper the writer will say, for the information of the
so-called "practical" men of the country, or, in other words, those men
whose judgment of an invention is mainly guided by its money value,
that Poor's Manual of Railroads in the United States for 1886 puts their
capital stock and their debts at over $8,162,000,000. The value of the
steamships and steamboats actuated by the high pressure steam engine
the writer has no means of ascertaining. Neither can he appraise the
factories and other plants in the United States--to say nothing of the rest
of the world--in which the high pressure steam engine forms the motive
power.
* * * * *

AUGUSTE'S ENDLESS STONE SAW.
It does not seem as if the band or endless saw should