The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-09-15
Evans, itshould be stated was on Amer.

other remarkable pro luctions, came
about by accident.
When youthful apprentice, Evans
began his efforts to discover some sub.
stitute for animal power in moving
wagons. As q boyish trick, a gun
barrel partly filled with water, and
stopped at both ends, was inserted in q
blacksmith's forge, with results which
may be imagined It instantly occurred
to Evans that this was the power he
was in search of. Subsequently he
found a book describing the atmospheric
steam pump used in English mines,
and in which he az once noticed that
the sole use of steam in it was to pro-
duce q vacuum, Two >and two were
quickly put together, experiments fol-
lowed, in which piston was driven by
steam, and in 1881 he announced that
he could thus propel boats and wagons.
He was promptly declared crazy, and
patent was denied him on that ground.
But he persevered. In this country
there were no rails, but in the English
mines there were, and to England he
sent his ideas. In 1867 one Captain
Masters took drawings and specifications
to England for the express purpose of
exhibiting them to engineers. In 1704.5
J. s. Sampson went over for the same
purpose, and, in the first year of this
century, the engine was exhibited ac-
tually at work to two British engineers
in this country. No impression what
ever seems to have been made in Eng
land, except that in 1902 Richard Treve-
thick patented high-pressure engine.
The American edition of "Wood on
Railways" distinctly charges that he
availed himself of Evans ideas, but the
point need not be insisted on, since
Evans's engine was, beyond dispute, the
earlier and better. In this country,
however, Evans pushed his conceptions
to the incontestable records of patents
in Maryland (l7ST and Pennsylvania
(1766), and to embodiment in iron
and employment in actual practical use.
The idea of land and water locomotion
was temporarily abandoned, and in
1901, concentrating his entire financial
resources he had been too busy in.
venting to make money, though it came
to him rapidly enough when he turned
his attention to it-he built the first
successful double-acting, high-pressure
steam engine, the archetype Of the
standard motor of the world to-day.
The cost was SO, 700. 1t was not q
model. It was practical engine, and
was put to use in saving and grinding
Soon after Evans received an order
from the Philadelphia board of health
| for an engine to be used in dredging
docks. He built it in scow in his
workshop, he mounted it on wheels and
he drove it by its own po ser mile and
a-half over the highway to the Schuyl-
| kill, where he launched it. Thence il
padded its own way by stern wheel
t. Philadelphia. Three years later Fni.
ton built q better steamboat. Twenty
five years later Stephenson butt the
Rocket. But this was the first applica-
tion of high pressure steam engine to
land and water locomotion.
In 1909 Evans proposed to build a
passenger railroad--the first ever con-
ceived-to run between New York and
Philadelphia. His idea, using his words
was 'to lay track so nearly level as not
to deviate in any place more than two
degrees from q horizontal line, made OF
wood or iron, on smooth parks Of bro
|
the carriages, so that they may pass each
other in the different directions, and
travel 10y night as we'll as day" He of
fered "to make q steam carriage that
will run at the rate of IL miles an hour
on good, level railways, on condition
that have double price for it if it run
with that velocity, and nothing at all
for it if it shall not come up to that
speed. What can an inventor do more
to insure the performance of his en-.
gines ?" What, indeed ? He further
said 81 am willing to take of the stock
$500 per mile, to the distance of so or
60 miles, payable in steam carriages OF
steam engines invented by me for the
purpose 40 years ago, and will warrant
them to answer the purpose to the sat
isfaction Of the stockholders, or even to
make steam engines to run II or Is
miles per hour, or take back the engines
at my own expense if required" All
would not do. People did not grasp the
idea, and he could not get the money.
Then Evans wished to place himself
on record, and in view of all the cir.
cumstances his words are most remark.
able: "The present generation" said
he, "will use canals the next will use
railroads with horses ; but their more
enlightened successors will employ my
steam carriages on railways as the per.
fection of the art of conveyance in the
meantime the steam carriages may be
tested even on the present turnpikes.
The time will come when people will
travel in stages moved by steam engines
from one city to another almost as fast
as birds fly. To accomplish this two
sets OF railways will be laid, travelled by
night as we'll as by day, and the passen
gers will sleep in these stages as com
fortably as they now do in steam stage
boats" Even sleeping cars, which the
English mind has only lately completely
grasped, were thus foreseen by Evan:
before the first passenger train was evel
run, and his engine has drawn every
train that has ever moved. Evans esti
mated the value of what he knew about
steam at $1,000,000, q sum the1
named to be ridiculed. but who shall
say how many times it would need to bt
multiplied to express the fact to-day
Even yet the tale Of Evans's achieve
ments is most Incomplete. Before hi
time grain and -four were moved in the
mill BY manual labor. His improve
ment, which effected q complete revolu
tion in the manufacture of flour, con
sisted of the elevator, the conveyor, tht
hopper boy, the dill and the descender
By this machinery the grain was pu
into barrels as -four without the inter