Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-06-30
GR1NDF4qn ER or THD ENGINE


( GR1SDFaTRER or THE ENGINE.
Major Pangborn Makes a Discovery,
nut Falls Into an Error.
Baltimore Sua.
"lf Oliver Evans was not the father
of the locomotive, he certainly was one
of its grandfathers," said Major Pang-
born yesterday in discussing some of the
features Of the Baltimore & Ohio's ex.
hibit at the Worlds Fair. evans was
q Marylander by birth, one of the early
members Of the family Of that name
which is still well known in Cecil
county When quite young he went to
Philadelphia In lT72 he was nm appren-
tice TO wheelwright there, and already,
to quote his own words, was 'laboring
to discover some means of propelling
land carriages without employing ami
nal power
"rhe two essentials of the locomotive,
the high pressure non -condensing engine
and the multitubuar boiler, were both
the inventions Of Americans, the first OF
Oliver Evans, and the second Of Nathan
Read Of Salem, Mass These men were
the grandfathers, so to speak, OF the
locomotive, and Trevithick, an English
man, not George Stephenson, was It's
father. Trevithick, Blenkinsop, and
Kelley, all antedated Stephenson, but
without the high-pressure engine and
the single and double-iiue boilers of the
| Marylander Oliver Evans, drawings and
| plans of which had been taken TO Eng
land in 1895, Trevithick would in all
probability have never been known out
side Of Cornwall. His use of the Evans
| singlc-hu boiler caused il TO be known
as the Cornish boiler, while the Evans
| Gouhle-tiue boiler became the Lanca-
shire boiler in the same way.
zone of the very earliest recorded
grants of the Maryland legislature was
| that of 1887 to Oliver Evans, giving him
the exclusive right to make and use his
steam wagons in the state for period
OF fourteen years. Jesse liollingsworth,
Benjamin Chandler, Jonathan and John.
Ellicott and Levi Hollingsworth were
among the old-time Baltimore and Eli
colts Mills friends and supporters OF
| Evans. About this time James Watt,
the English inventor of the steam en-
| gine, was at the zenith of his great
fame, and as Evans began to attract at
tention on tile other side as well as on
this side of the Atlantic, he came to be
known as the Watt of America
! '
celebrity, Evans was in reality the
greater of the two men. Watt stood
for low pressure and Evans for high
pressure. The vindication of the Watt
principle meant the perpetuation OF the
stage coach, while the triumph OF the
Evans principle is embodied in the To-
connective Of to-day.
ITO Evans belongs the great honor Of
al. 81
steam upon land in the world. He had
dredging contract in Philadelphia,
and to carry out its provisions con-
structed in 1904 Il machine which, when
completed, weighed something over
10000 pounds, or, as he puts it, equal
to 200 barrels Of flour. IL was built at
bis shop in Broad street, was mounted
upon wheels fixed on wooden axles,
md, gearing from his engine to these
wheels. Evans drove this ponderous
and crudcly-consiructed contriyance up
Broad street TO Market, and thence to
the Schuylkill, with comparative ease.
Once At the river, Evans simply changed
his gearing from the wheels to paddle
wheel astern, and the dredging
machine propelled Itself down the
ochuylkill 70 the Delaware, and up the
Delaware 10 the city, where il was de-
terned Tia creotion tho a0nlktor Am.
nbibolis.n and the fuli.size model of il,
which Viii he shown in The Baltimore
A. Ohio exhibit al Cbiengo newt wear,
} ,riIl No. ,la II ~ evor r,.ds fra,, the old
, drawings, which are fortunately still
oxtantn
| wuEhE nm 10 Mtsr,wrN
J Ea;,o, G Fi,,n w. - N, ha a, know
. whether Of not he above article from