The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-21 00:00:00

-
Patriarchal Engines at South Kensington.

In an obscure corner of the South Kensington
Museum a collection of models of patented and
other machinery is to be found, packed away for
-want of space much as goods are packed away at
the Pantechnicon or other places for storing furni-
ture. Products of mental effort—nay, of anguish of
mind, unparalleled in any other branch of human
labour are found stacked away one upon another
as bricks are stacked away in a builder's yard. We
refer to those patriarchal engines upon which the
greatness of modern England is founded—the tools
with which we move the world, plough the water,
traverse the earth, and annihilate space and time;
the first steam-engine of Watt, the first engine of the
first steamvessel, and the first practical locomotive
for goods and passenger traffic. Amid the smaller
deer of the inventive mind these great engines, rude
and rough, yet containing the germs of the wonder-
ful motive powers which have changed the face of
Eur Ope, tower like material giants, and suggest to
the mind almost limited ideas of power. At the
further end of the room we recognise in the great
rocking beam with circular ends hung with chains
the old Newcomen engine in what Watt made his
first grand improvement, and in fact inaugurated
the modern steam-engine. This was the " fire
engine" of the old pattern, in which Watt intro-
duced, after many trials and failures, the separate
condenser and air-pump. One cannot look at this
formidable-looking engine towering above one's
head without feeling that we are in the presence of
ideas which separate old from young England—the
slow, solid past with the vigorous, rapid England of
the present day, which in some sense seems to be
changing even the character of her people. At the
time Watt introduced his happy idea of withdraw-
ing the steam from the cylinder and condensing it
in a separate receptacle the working of the old
Newcomen engine was becoming quite inade-
quate to master the water in the Cornish mines.
The great expense of coal, wasted as it was in
these ineffectual engines, in which the cylinder was
cooled every stroke by the injection of the con-
densing water, was fast rendering the working of
the mines impossible ; and it was the happy thought
that flashed through the mind of this great man,
crossing the Glasgow-green—the separate condenser
—which alone saved the proprietors of the greater
number of them from insolvency. It is just possible
that the difficulties with which Dr. Roebuck, the
friend and financial ally of the inventor, had to con-
tend, just as this improved engine was coming into
existence, were the cause of its success. "There would
have been no Watt had there been no Boulton" has
been well said ; for without the resources of the great
establishment at Soho it is doubtful if this engine
could ever have been got to work. Its original cylin-
der was not true in the casting ; the boring engines
of those days did not work from a fixed rest, but
followed with the hand the inequalities of the metal.
It was the happy discovery of Mr. Wilkinson's boring
lathes, whichbored from a fixed rest with exact truth,
which enabled the inventor to make his engine work
with accuracy and economy. This engine was em-
ployed for many years at Soho in pumping water. At
the date of its invention the steam-engine did not pro-
duce a circular motion. Its rectilinear action was
converted into a rotary one in a secondary manner
only. The pumped-up water turned a wheel—and
thus, at second hand, millwork of all kinds was put
in motion. The simple idea of a crank appears
never to have been thought of by the earlier im-
provers of the steam-engine, although it had been
in existence from the earliest time. But of this pre-
sently. The " Old Bess" engine, as this relic of
antiquity was called—for what ages seem to separate
us from the time of Newcomen, and what prodigies
of labour and what mighty changes have been
wrought since its creation, and these not mere
years in the true measure of time !—was in its day
the grand show of Birmingham. The " fire-engine"
formed the attraction of many crowned heads
and great personages from all parts of Europe. It
turned an organ in the presence of George 111. to
show its delicacy of touch as well as great power,
and it aided in grinding and polishing the shoe-
buckles and buttons of the past generation. It was
at work until very lately as an auxiliary engine to
the more perfect " sun and planet engine," now in
the Museum, at the opposite side of the room ; and
finally, when it was remoyedfrom Soho, it was stowed
away under a railway arch at Birmingham, where
any person wanting a piece of good old " yron" used
to knock off a link of its piston chain. From this
slow process of demolition it was rescued by the
authorities of the Museum,lby whom it was obtained
as a gift from Messrs. Branson and Gwyther, the

contractors. The patent of this engine was taken
out in 1769, but it was then in far from a working
condition, and had made no adequate returns to the
Soho firm. The terms of the patent were, however,
extended in 1775 for 25 years, to enable them to
'reap the benefit of their long years of labour and
great expenditure.
Let us now pass from this improved Newcomen
engine, which was, in fact, rut the steam engine in
a state of transition—an old wedded to a young
idea, a giant with one-arm tied behind him, for the
steam only acted on one side of the piston, the
weight of the pump rods producing the up-stroke,
and only having one motion—to the equally antique-
looking machine opposite, but one which, in fact,
embodies all the principles of a modern engine.
The patent for the " sun and planet engine"
was taken out in 1782. Watt had long seen
the necessity of giving a " rotative" action to his
machine. It was while scheming this movement
that the great piracy took place, which seems
to have annoyed Watt more than anything else
in his inventive career, and which caused the
applieation of the particular invention which gave
the name to the machine. According to his own
account he had made a model with a crank action,
but, having neglected to take out a patent imme-
diately, the application of the crank was stolen from
him by a workman and communicated to an engi-
neer named Wasborough, who patented it and ap-
plied it to a steam rolling mill, which at the time
attracted much attention. Watt bitterly complained
of this theft, and the fact that the workman, Cart-
wright, was afterwards hanged seems to have
afforded some relief to his mind. " Watt, writing
to Mr. Boulton in this year, says the real inventor
of the crank rotative motion,was the man who first
contrived the common foot-lathe. . . The ap-
plying it to the engine was merely taking a knife
to cut cheese which had been made to cut butter."
This was perfectly tle, but it applied to Watt's
application of the invention as well as to Wasbo-
rough's. The latter, though guilty of appropriating
Watt's idea, must certainly be credited with intro-
ducing the flywheel into his engine, the value of
which Watt himself did not see at first, but after-
wards adopted it. Precluded from using the crank,
Watt had to scheme some other means of effecting
his purpose. He invented five methods of accom-
plishing this, of which he selected the sun and planet
motion as the best, and introduced it for the first
time into the engine now in the Museum, the patent
for which bears date 1781. This engine contains
various appliances
for which patents were taken out
at a later
date, such as the parallel motion,
patented in 1784
the
and the method of applying
regulator or governor balls,
sides of the piston, applying the steam on both
patented in 1782 ; indeed, it
contains the germ on;
with the exception of allti its
modern improvements,
being
crank, the sun and planet
motion probably
ci,,,..r.Nerned because, by its
peculiar action of one
on the
the connecting
rod working into another axis of the fly-
wheel,the two revolutionnsisweenreginoebtv.
the crank action.
employed untinigOetwohl.:ee years
"lap engine," and was
ago in grinding and polishing steel
original works at Soho, where it had been lefint'
the
ex-
posed to the weather, in a roofless room, after
breaking up of that establishment. The workman-
ship is rough, and the whole appearance of the en-
gine, with its rocking-beam, reminds us of times
when timber trees were used for that purpose in-
stead of cast iron; but no Englishman can look
upon this machine with its wonderful contrivances
without veneration, for in it he beholds the first of
its kind. Like the mighty infant Hercules, this
creation was dandled by numberless handmaids
while still battling for existence, but to Watt alone
is due the calling forth its vigour and its subtle and

delicate action. There are many precious things in

the adjoining Museum of Art and Science, but we
question if there are any to be compared, where re-
sults are taken into consideration, with these two
old rusty fabrics of iron rescued from deserted work-
rooms and old dry arches by the authorities of the
Patent-office Museum. When a proper apartment
has been provided for this department of the Patent-
office a very valuable relic of the great inventor is
promised by his great grandson—nothing less than
the contents of the little workshop in which he la-
boured up to within a few weeks of his death. This
shop was next to his bedroom at Ileathfield, where,
since his death in 1819, they have remained as he
left them, no one having entered the room or dis-
turbed a thing since his decease until very lately,
when Mr. Woodcroft and Mr. Pettit Smith were

allowed to explore it. This place, we are told, is
a touching memento of the great engineer ; the
tools are as he left them ; the lathe at which
he was last at work is covered with chips ; the

copying or diminishing machine stopped by the
hand of death, leaving unfinished little works
of art, in which he had been " searching for
beautiful forms into the heart of marbles, andbring:

ing them out into full daylight ;" his tools most of
his own invention, and numberless contrivances
which the world knows little of. There are yet
_ _

other relics of Watt in the Museum—the model
steam-engine which he employed to turn his lathe ;
the workmanship is beautiful, and it has all the
great improvements. The Commissioners should
obtain the very instructive model of the locomotive
which Mr. Murdock constructed in 1784 upon the

principles set forth by Watt, intended to run upon
the common road. Most of our readers will remem-

ber it in the machinery-room of the International
Exhibition of 1851, where they will recollect it was
placed by way of contrast upon the magnificent ma-
rine engine of 700-horse power manufactured by

Messrs. James Watt and Co. for the 91 gun screw

steamship James Watt. This model is interesting,
inasmuch as it was the first ever made by an Eng-

lishman, preceding that by Trevethic in this museum
by many years. Watt, however, always thought
. . .

,he locomotive on the commonroadwas a vain thing,

but he clearly foresaw the advent and success of the
locomotive engine running upon a rail. In 1813,
for instance, before a single public line had been

thought of—in fact, in the year when Headley put
the first locomotive upon the Wylam Colliery rails,
writing to a friend he says, " I have always thought

[at steam would become the universal lord, and

that in time we should scorn post horses. An iron
railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road on
the common construction."
The parent engine of steam navigation stands in
a glass case in the middle of the room. What a con-
trast it presents to the model of the engine of the
Great Eastern close at hand. This engine was con-

structed in 1788 for Patrick Miller, of Dal

swinton, and propelled a vessel at the rate of nearly
seven miles an hour on the lake at his place. How
such a speed could have been got out of such a con-
struction, the cylinders of which are not much bigger
than the barrels of a beer-engine, we cannot con-

ceive, especially as the rotary motion was very
clumsily and wastefully given to the paddlewheels
by a chain passing round their axles. As Watt had
converted the rectilinear action of the piston-rod
into a rotary one seven years before that date, and
Wasborough had, indeed, appropriated and patented
the crank, it is inconceivable that Symington, its en-
gineer, should have adopted such a feeble means of
translating motion, unless, in his ignorance, he
thought his own patent as good as the others. This,
although the first trial to propel a vessel through the
water which was ever made, never could have been
a success. In the same glass case is Mr. Miller's own
model of a double ship, with paddlewheels between
them, which he caused to be worked from the deck

by capstan turned by men. If Mr. Miller had pur-
sued his idea of moving boats by steam power, he
might, by means of the more advanced ideps on the
subject daily coming before the public, have had

the honour of introducing the first practical passen
ger boat on this system, but he seems to have been
content to discard his engineer, and to lay up his
engine in his drawing-room as an ornament. Syming-
ton, however, really introduced the first practical
steamboat, as his vessel, the Charlotte Dundas, was
propelled by a well-constructed engine, and her first
effort was to draw after her two barges, each of 72
tons, and tow them at the rate of three and a quarter
miles an hour along the Forth and Clyde Canal.
This was certainly a practical test of the value of
the steam vessel, and we scarcely see how Syming-
ton can be robbed of the merit of the invention,
seeing that Fulton did not commence running his
vessels in America until 1807, and then after having
obtained drawings of Symington's engine, which,
with some alterations, were worked out by Messrs.
Boulton and Watt at their works at Soho. We do
not wish, however, to pursue this vexed question
it is quite clear that Symington, from adverse cir-
cumstances, did not follow up his success, and it was
left for Mr. Bell to inaugurate in Europe the first
steam passage-boat, the Comet, which plied between
Glasgow, Greenock, and Helensburg for passengers
only. The old engine of a most primitive construc-
tion is in the Museum. It has been burnt out of
one place, where it did duty as a stationary engine,
and was rescued from a blacksmith's shop in Glasgow
by the owner, Mr. Robert Napier, and by him pre-
sented to the Commissioners of Patents. The con-
struction of this engine was certainly not so effec-
tive as Symington's second engine patented 10 years
before, but it was started under happier auspices,
and continued in operation long enough to establish
the principle of propulsion by steam upon the water,
which henceforth became general throughout Europe •
In a small glass case a very unpretending model
of a ship, with a screw propeller cut out of wood,
carries the history of steam navigation up to its
present condition. To Mr. Pettit Smith, the pre-
sent curator of the Patent-office Museum, belongs
the credit of placing the screw propeller in the dead
wood of the ship, the only spot in which it can
' work effectually, and of asserting the value of the
new principle so long and so loudly as to force it
upon the attention of the Admiralty.
The screw of the Rattler, which in the water
tournament so signally defeated the paddle steamer
Alecto, is close at hand. With this simple instru-
ment the inventor may be said, like Gulliver, to
have dragged the whole British fleet after him.
Were the paddle our only means of propulsion, our
naval force would be reduced to a nullity. Hostile
gunners would wing a steamer as effectually as a
spotsman wings a bird, and all the plating in the
world would only render a ship so propelled a mere
helpless log upon the water. We wish Mr. Smith
had been better treated by the Government. The en-
gineer of the Napoleon, 90-gun ship, was rewarded
by the French Academy with a prize of 30,000 f. for
the mere successful application of the invention,
which they
frankly place to the credit of a "ferrnier
' de Middlesex," alluding to the early occupation of
our countryman,
Mr. Francis Pettit Smith, who,
with the exception of a small pension, goes alto-
gether unrewarded to this day for services which
have conferred immense benefits upon the naval and
eonofce more to land. What is this
mercantileßut to return
locomotive that we see rigged with iron beams and
rods, which liken it almost to a ship? This is the
premier locomotive—a machine which heralded
changes almost as momentous as the steam-engine
itself. Compared with one of the splendid engines
of the Great Western or North-Western, " Puffing
Billy," the brainwork of Wm. Headley, the Wylam
Colliery viewer, and the handiwork of Jonathan
Foster, the engineer or smith (for the two terms
were almost synonmous in the year 1813), looks but
a poor, bungling piece of workmanship out of which
it would seem hopeless to expect any good results.
Yet this very engine was _at work drawing eight
waggon-loads of coal day by day from Leamington
to the shipping port in the Tyne, eight miles distant,
from the day she was set rolling until the moment
shewas
finally taken off work for the purpose of being
f
transferred to this Museum. In this engine the two
great fiersattures which made the locomotive
a success
were
applied sufficiency for traction of the
smooth rail and
*wheel, and the application of the
steam blast up the chimney.
The sufficiency of the

* It is but fair to state that the invention of the steam•-
blast is claimed by the builder of the Sanspareil, and Was
said to have been first applied to the Royal George, built in
1827 ; but how this can invalidate Mr. Headley's claim for
the same appliance to tho Wyk engine in 1812 we cannot
conceive.