Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-12-28
OLIVER EVANS WORK.

life and remarkable Inventions, by |
the United States Navy covering a
a period OF fourteen years i was most
agreeaby eratified to read your edl-
torial Of the 18th Inst. covering quite
an extended review OF the services OF
Delaware's greatest engineer ur
which YOU referred To his being en-
tlrely forpotten) and the comment
on your editorial on tho t6th inst. by
S. N. Tammany, OF Newport In which
he detailed the splendid efforts mado
by Messrs. Kreba and Fox, and the
school authorities. who have collated
tho evidence and presented the same
to their school. Truly this In n most
pralseworthy act, and most be-
lated one on the part OF Delawareans
along this line.
In thanking our friends Of Newport
for their kindly and public spirited
efforts, | wish To embrace the oppor
tunty of correcting the impression
made by your editorial, at which time
YOU spoke OF the great inventor hav-
ing been entirely forgotten. This Is
hardly the case. az the following rec
ord viii denote. Beginning in 1907
under the administration of Secretary
Of the Navy Metcalf. assisted 10y two
influential friends of the Navy, Nd
mirals X. ~. Griffin. Chief OF Bureau
Of Steam Eng, and u. g. Bryan, the
claims Of Evans have been laid before
tho above mentioned incumbent of the
Navy portfolio, and of his successors
Mnucfu NattylaYfv Nnn l. MaDnV
Daniels. and DENLY. The action has
taken the form OF memorizlng the
memory Of Evans by having a repair
ship named after him Such boat
was provided for by the Senate eight
years ago, for which one million dol
lars was provided, the safne 20 be a
floating machine and boiler shop. for
the repair OF battleships at sea: she
was to have been FIVE hundred feet
long, and would have been the finest
type of this kind OF vessel extant, and
would have borne his name by official
order. Unfortunately the appropris-
ton at that time was not Concurred I'm
by the House of Representatives: this
will however. be brought about In
due time. a very extended brochure
has been on file with the Department
for some years, and material added
thereto from time to time. This includ-
ed handsome steel engraving Of
Evans. published by Lipplnoott In
1874. Messrs. Newberry and Daniels
have expressed themselves personally
to tho writer their warm personal In
terest In the cause.-the former hav-
Ing written mo n summary OF tho re-
port of n commission appointed by
him Co look into the merits Of our
claims I'm tho promises. A striking
sentence included In tho letter was
that Evans was ono Of the most fer
tile inventors the world has ever pro-
duced, and tho Father of the high
pressure steam engine the only
type of engine that prevails today.
Lippincotts class Evans as being the
Watt of America" Certainly no WAS
much bolder and more courageous as
well as original I'm his ideas covering
engine practice. for during a period
Of ten years from 1900 at the Mars
works. at Ninth and Ridge avenue.
Philadelphia, he constructed many
cast iron boilers for his engines, some
of which carried two hundred and
twenty y-five pounds of steam. In his
controversy with Watt. ne sagely and
properly advocated an adequate pres
sure with which to drive his engine.
and thereby derive the maximum
amount of power for useful work
from the particular unit.
Space will only permit me 20 touch
slightly upon few OF the high points
made for Evans as listed. His com
prehensive and original design Of his
flour mill machinery, consisted OF an
extensible bucket conveyer. drawing
the grain from vessels alongside,
thence to the top OF the mill. where
II was distributed by an endless screw
to storage bins to tho various hopper
boys, thence to the grinding wheels
and bolting cloths. from there it was
automatically weighed into bags ready
for delivery. The extensive plate
prints in the young millers guide"
can be viewed at the Wilmington In
stituto, and except for the elaboration
of mechanical detail, the conveying
systems as produced by the present
day companies. have not improved on
the splendid plans OF Evans as then
practiced. In vain. at that time, did
Evans implore assistance from the
Prices and Lea's of the Brandywine
and of the millers of the Schuylkill
Rivers. The same experience he had
with the Pennsylvania Legislature. 1t
Is utterly incomprehensihle how Evans
could have received such scaly treat
ment from the prosperous Quakers Of
Ills day. Prosperity wonders what
were their reasons for denying him a
fraction of the earnings effected
through the use of his apparatus. by
which admittedly the price of the pro
| duction of flour at that time was cut
| in half. Certain IL Is that the El-
| licotts of Patapsco River, Baltimore.
well known millers. engaged him to
build two large mills for them some
time after this. This required his
absence from Delaware for five years.
and during this time the Maryland
Legislature granted him a patent on
the same devices for which the Penn
sylvania authorities refused recogni-
tion-as State patents at that time
carried Interstate obligation, Evans
returned TO Delaware and vicinity to
find that his devices had been appro-
priated at large by the millers then
doing business. He summoned them
to Court, and had the grim satisfac-
ton of forcing them to pay him the
sum OF twenty thousand dollars, and
with this money, he built the above
mentioned Mars works In Philadel-
phia. He was very bitter at the treat
ment received by him at the hands