Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-04-24

Tho True lavender 81 the Locomotive.
From the April Ilppincott's.


The True lavender o. the Locouhstive.
From the April Lppincott's.
On Red Clay Creek, tributary to
the Christine, running into Il parallel
with the BrAniyNine, near the city Of
WilmingtonsA number of mills have
seated Themselves, attracted by its
Isswift torrent, amid scenery of sleeps
and rapids comparable to that on the
Lehigh about Mauch Chunk. Of these,
the most interesting traditions attach
to the Faulkland Mills. Their name
may remind the reader of the first
novel of the late Lord LyttOn III aulk-s
land" written in 182S-but it was Civ
en- to the spot long before, in designa-
ton Of Q primitive settlement, Faulk's
Land. The association with this site
IS that Of Oliver Evans, the true in
ventor Of the locomotive, who here
worked and dreamed In q mill enrich
ed by his contrivances.
Evans, like Fitch, is one Of the
worlds lost renowned. Had the leg
tslat0rs of his time possessed sagacity
enough to endow his inventions, the
| advantages of steam transport would
have been anticipated by several years,
and tho glory would have 9radiated
from the Delaware River instead Of the
Hudson. His design for locomotive
was sent to England in 1857, disputinR
priority with the "steam wagons" Of
james Watt. He built steamboats, and
ran them at Philadelphia in 1902 and
lSO3-antedating by five years the
Clermont OF Robert Fulton Fulton,
whom people are beginning to regard
with Mr.. Stone, author Of the recent
History Of New York." Is the man
who has received the greatest quantity
| ofundeserved praise Of all who ever
lived. Oliver Evans, born in 1855 of
respectable family, was miller at
Falkland, where his smaller invcn-
tons were first put In use. Y The plank
| just under the apex Of the roof, which
he used to retire to a. his private study
was shown until 1861, when the old
| mill was burned. Up among the swal.
lows, as he lay On the board to which
as Beecher expresses It, he abrought
the softness" children of his gen.
ius were conceived and delivered. The
mill was full of labor saving machines,
which clattered to the babbling Red
clay. One of his notions was the mill
elevator" Gan improvement Of some
thing he had seen in Marshall's Mill 1t
Stanton,) by which grain was raised to
J the top 0fthe building in buckets set
I along revolving belt which passed
from the roof to the bottom, distribute
J ing wheat with spouts to the bolt.
This was set up by contributions
among the millers, at Shipley's great
! mill in Wilmington, and also intro
duced into his own, where his other
inventions of the "conveyer.,D and the
sshoppcr-boy," attracted the starcs OF
the rival millwrights. Poor Oliver was
known to the fat millers Of this neigh
b0rhOod as the inconvenicnt person
4 who WAS always wanting the loan of a
th0usand dollars to carry out q new
invention. Tho ssthinking mem
among them sagely argued that his
improvements would benefit the con-
sumner by increasing the supply OF
-four and making il cheap-a clear
detriment to the interests of capital.
Then Oliver plunged desperately into
his idea of steam motion, losing the
faint yestiges of his reput for wit, and
| died poor and heartbroken in 1919. the
~ hero of an unwritten tragedy. The
happy hours of his life were the hours
on the dusty plank in the mitigate Al
Faulkland.' -