The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-08-31 00:00:00

THE STEAM-ENGiIkTE.

(From Sir John Barrow's Autobiography.)

The 'first discoverer, as we Englishmen &oil him to be,
of the power of steam for moving weights, lifting water,
&c., as well as of its locomotive power, has, in later
times, been a subject of doubt and dispute. Not only
has the story of the Marquis of Worcester, as told by
himself, been called in question, but the French, even
before his time, and M. Arago in our time, have claimed
the discovery for another, one Salomon de Caus, a cele-
brated engineer in the time of Lous XIII., to whom he
dedicated a book, published in 1615, entitled, An Ac-
count of Moving Forces, with various Machines as well
for Use as for Pleasure. This work is undoubtedly prior,
by nearly half a century, to Worcester's Century of In-
ventions, which was not published till 1663. This would
prove nothing against the Marquis's discovery unless
De Caus has mentioned steam among his " moving
forces," of which I profess my ienorance, not havine se

his treatise. But the charge of the Marquis having learnt
his invention from De Cans himself is curious, and, if
true, as it appears to be, decides the question against

In an amusing French work, La France Historique,
par Henri Berthoud, I find a very curious and interesting
letter, from Madame Marion de l'Orme to her husband,
the Marquis de Cinq-Mars, in which she says,—
" I have done the honours of Paris to your English
lord, the Marquis of Worcester. I have led him, or,
rather, he has led me, from one curiosity to another;
always making choice of the most sad and the most
serious, speaking little, and listening with marked attten-

tion.
" We went to Becetre, where he pretends to have dis-
covered in a madman a man of genius. Had he not
been raving, I verily believe your Marquis would have
asked his liberty to take him to London. In crossing the
court where mad people are kept, more dead than alive
from fear, I observed, on the other side of a strong bar-
rier, an ugly face, screaming out, lam not mad ! I have
made a discovery that would enrich the country that
would carry it into effect.' And what is his discovery ?'
I asked the keeper. Ah ! ' said he, you would never
I guess :it is the vapour of boiling water. His name,'
fl P, I I continued he, is Solomon de Caus. He came from Nor-
mandy, four years ago, to present a memorial to the king
of the wonderful effect of steam for turning machinery,
driving carriages, and a thousand other wonderful things :
but the cardinal drove him away without listening to him.
From that time he pursued the cardinal wherever he
went, so that he ordered him to be shut up in the Becetre
as a madman, where he has been three years and a-half.
He has written a book on his wonderful discovery,. which
I have here.' Lord Worcester is quite ravished with it
and, after reading a few pages, ' This person,' said he, is
an, and in my country, instead of shutting' him

~~1 o
% b~ :T

up, they would heap riches upon him. Bring me to him,
I wish to question him.' He was taken to him, and re-
turned sorrowful and pensive. tAt present,' he said, he
is very mad. Misfortune and captivity have for ever es-
tranged his reason. You have made him mad ; but when
von threw him into this prison, you there buried the
greatest genius of your age.' "
From this time, it is said, the Marquis of Worcester
never ceased talking of Saloman de Cans. and well he
might talk and think of this poor maniac, if the story be

true. The writer of the letter, the person it is written to,
and the genius of whom it treats, were all well known
characters of the time. De Caus was a distinguished

of several ingenious works ; one of them is Les Raisons
de Forces Mouvantes, arc., above mentioned, which went
through several editions, and was published in several
languages. He also published four or five other works,
one of which, entitled Institution Harmonique, he dedi-
cated to Queen Anne of England. The above letter,
there can be little doubt, is genuine. Marion de l'Orme
was well known among the beaux esprits of Paris and the
Court. She was accounted a woman of great talent for

wit, and was the friend and associate of the celebrated
Ninon. Arago asserts that De Caus was the first to dis-
cover the power of steam ; any one, even Papin, with his
digester, was an inventor, according to Arago, rather
than Englishmen. If De l'Orme's story be true, Wor-
s story of the cover of the cooking-pot being blown
,himney is indeed blown up, and must be con-
We English, however, are inclined

ered as a romance

to believe what the Marquis has declared to be the
assurance may be relied on, that " he d

and that his

not to set down any other men's
moreover, that " if he had, in any, ca
to nominate likewise the inventor. '

se, acted on them,
Here I leave it.

DREADFUL OCCU RI

4CE AT GLASGOW

SUFFOCATION OF TWO BOYS

,ow Mail of Tuesday details a tragedy of
1 and heart-rending character, very -
n the result, to that perpetuated in the
le Misletoe Bough." The full
-On Saturday afternoon, thr

►Vilson, were IT

As the rest of the family

the exception Mr. J. Wit

were down the w

absence occasioned at first no great ur
sunnosed that the vortnasters, the eldest

brad set off to join their n
)f the family. As nothing had been he
Wilson left home early yesterday mornini

g to