The Ketchikan miner., 1915-05-27
THE STEAM ENGINE
Its History a Romance of Philoso-
 phy and Mechanics.
UNCLE sAM's FINE EXHIBIT.


 The National Museum at Washington Shove the First Crude Machines Made as We'll a Originals and Mod els of the First Locomotives.
 /, Probably no museum collection in the world better illustrates the develop ment of the steam engine, particularly the locomotive, than the exhibit of the l United States National museum at Washington. which includes two of the earliest original locomotives and nu- merous models and accessories.
 The history of the steam engine is a materialistic romance without parallel in the record of hul an achievements. It covers the stupenIous and persist ent efforts of many early philosophers and mechanics who found steam a mysterious uncomfortable force and left 1t a comprehensible controllable factor of public service.
 1 No one knows how long after it was observed that by holding down the lid of kettle of boiling liquid a certain force was created, due to the com i pression of the steam. before any use was attempted with this newly discov- cred force. It is certain, however, that sort of steam engine was exhibited i in Alexandria, Egypt, about POO years before our era began, and 1t was de- scribed in a work on pneumatics by 1 Hero of Alexandria. written between ] 150 and 130 B. c. This machine was ] a rotary affair. more theoretical than i practical. as were many of the results of philosophy in those days. A recon struction of this engine in model form is in the museum exhibits.
 | Nothing more is to be found concern l ing the steam engine for centuries, a l fact which is no doubt due to the lack of interest in anything which did not have to do with war or warlike imple ments. A book published in Rome in 1929 gives a description of Giovanni Branca's crude steam engine, showing 1t to have been an elementary steam l turbine. with the sole defect that it lacked any appliances for making the steam follow the vanes. or buckets. of the revolving wheel. so that more of it's energy might have been converted | into useful work. One author in ! treatise on locomotives claims that had some genius improved upon this early device the reciprocating engine would probably never have been invented. but that we would have had the advantage of our modern turbines much sooner.
 The museum possesses a model of very early machine designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 16SO which was pro- pelled by a jet of steam projected backward against the air and a model of Denis Papin's invention of about the same time. The investigations of Savery and Papin and the successful experimental engines of Thomas New comen in 17O5 with his piston and cylinder soon followed Newcomen's ideas were improved by James Watt in 1 1760. who also introduced the high pressure engines. the condenser and later the double acting engine. The development of the engine was advanc- ed by Cugnot, Evans. Hornblower and Murdoch. A model of the latter's en- zine Is on display in the museum.
 As the result of wager made by a resident of Merthyr Tydfil, an impor- tant iron town of South Wales. that he could convey a load of iron nine miles by the power of steam alone | Pfnb ord ialy do ho Grcfn zine to run on rails in 1903 and won the wager for his employer the next year. Trevithick. it has been claimed. copied the stationary engine built in 1900 by Oliver Evans, an American, who was later ingenious enough to at- tach wheels to scow and propel it by steam through the streets of Philadel- 1 phia in 1894. This curious creation. called the Oruktor Amphibolis, was the i first motorcar to run on American soil. | A model of Treyithick's engine is to 1 be seen in the National museum, as 1 is also the model of the engine em- ployed by John Stevens in 1925 and his original tubular boiler Other mod | els illustrate nearly all the types which began to put in their appearance soon after 1926. when the Stourbridge Lion was built in England and ship ped to America. where if was the first engine to run on full sized rails The museum possesses not only the model of this historic engine. but the orig inal engine itself The other original | full sized locomotive to be seen in the museum is the John Bull. built by George Stephenson X Sons of England and shipped 10 America for nse in 1881 on the Camden and Amboy railroad 1t is interesting to recall that this old relic of early railroading in America made a round trip under it's own steam in 1893 from New York 10 Chicago. where it was exhibited at the Worlds Columbian exposition.
 Among the models of early and his toric locomotives are George stephen sons Rocket. which was built in 1929. the R. and o. engine Tom Thumb. built