Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1835-06-18
From The Commercial Advertiser.
REMARKABLE PROPHECY

strong suspicion naturally aud Justly attends
the announcement OF any prophetic declaration.
aiter IL mas been fulfilled and in all such cases
very strong and convincing evidence is reanired
70 satisfy the reader or hearcr that the foreteI.
ing was actually prior TO The performance In
inc case TO which attention OF our readers is inyi
ted, this evidence is abundant and conclusive -
we nave the best possible reason TO know that
the loilowIng prophecy was made long before its
Imminent, as 1t was published in this paper more
Than two years ago; and we remember that il
was made the subject of much sneering at the
Tune. MIR. Evans, the man who made il was
considered insane, not only by the public gene
rally, but by the legislatures of Pcnnsy vania
ana Mary land, to which he applied for aid for
carrying into effect the projects set forth in the
prophecy of which he not only perceived and
maintained the practieabity, but had actually
devised the means. He finally obtained a patent
Tor fourteen years; but he had no money-no
capitalist had confidence enough in his projects
70 make advances; & the patent slumbsred in his
hahas without benefit to himself or the world He
died poor, neglected, and probably brok heart
co, IKE many an ingenious man before him. In
using the word prophecy we do not mean 10
convey the idea that Evans possessed any super.
natural gilt or power, of divination; what he
foreloid was merely the result OF his saeacity
ana mechanical ingenuity, knowledge Of the pro-
pertes OF steam, TO the investigation of which
a large portion of his life was devoted As in
the case ct Arkwright, who acquired fame and
fortune by carrying into operation the invention
OF others, while the inventors themselves renal
ned unknown and unrewarded, later and more
fortunate men have reaped the advantages 10
which Evans, and others, his contemporaries,
pointed out the way.
- Inc time will come when people will travel
in stages moved 10y steam engines, from one city
10 another, almost as fast as birds fly, fifteen or
twenty miles an hour.
% A carriage will set out from Washington in
the morning, the passengers breakfast al Baltimore
dine at Philadelphia and sup at New York, the
same day.
6. To accomplish this, two sets of railways
Will be laid, so nearly level as not to deyiate in
any place more than two degrees from horizon
tai line, made of wood or iron or smooth paths Of
broken stone or gravel, with rail to guide the
/ carriages, so that they may pass each other in
different directions, and travel as well by night
as by day aud the passengers will sleep as com.
fortably IN them as they now do in steamboats,
&C steam engine that consumes from quar-
ter TO half a cord of wood, will drive carriage
one hundred and eighty miles in twelve hours,
with twenty or thirty passengers and will not
consume six gallons Of water The carriages
will not be overloaded with fuel or water.
"These engines will drive boats ten or twelve
miles an honr, and there will be many hundred
boats running on the Mississippi, and other ives.
tern waters, as prophesied thirty years ago, by
one who could predict better than the poet can
now. But the velocity of boats through the wa
ter can never be made TO equal the velocity Of
carriages through air, because the resistance of
water is eight hundred times greater than that
Of air.
" Posterity will not be able to discover why
the Legislature or Congress did not grant the in.
ventof such protection might have enabled
him TO put in operation these great improvements
sooner, he having asked neither money or the
monopoly Of any existing thing.
OLIVER EVANS"