At this time experiments were in progress in England which soon resulted in the useful application of steampower to raising water.

A patent, dated January 21, 1630, was granted to David Ramseye by Charles I., which covered a number of dis

tinct inventions. These were: "1. To multiply and make saltpeter in any open field, in fower acres of ground, sufficient to serve all our dominions. 2. To raise water from low pitts by fire. 3. To make any sort of mills to goe on standing waters by continual motion, without help of wind, water, or horse. 4. To make all sortes of tapistrie without any weaving-loom, or waie ever yet in use in this kingdome. 5. To make boats, shippes, and barges to goe against strong wind and tide. 6. To make the earth more fertile than usual. 7. To raise water from low places and mynes, and coal pitts, by a new waie never yet in use. 8. To make hard iron soft, and likewise copper to be tuffe and soft, which is not in use in this kingdome. 9. To make yellow waxe white verie speedilie."

This seems to have been the first authentic reference to

1 Rymer's "Fœdera," Sanderson. Ewbank's "Hydraulics," p. 419.

the use of steam in the arts which has been found in English literature. The patentee held his grant fourteen years, on condition of paying an annual fee of £3 6s. 8d. to the Crown.

The second claim is distinct as an application of steam, the language being that which was then, and for a century and a half subsequently, always employed in speaking of its use. The steam-engine, in all its forms, was at that time known as the "fire-engine." It would seem not

at all improbable that the third, fifth, and seventh claims are also applications of steam-power.

Thomas Grant, in 1632, and Edward Ford, in 1640, also patented schemes, which have not been described in detail, for moving ships against wind and tide by some new and great force.

Dr. John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, an eccentric but learned and acute scholar, described, in 1648, Cardan's smoke-jack, the earlier æolipiles, and the power of the confined steam, and suggested, in a humorous discourse, what he thought to be perfectly feasible-the construction of a flying-machine. He says: "Might not a 'high pressure' be applied with advantage to move wings as large as those of the 'ruck's' or the 'chariot'? The engineer might probably find a corner that would do for a coal-station near some of the 'castles'" (castles in the air). The reverened wit proposed the application of the smoke-jack to the chiming of bells, the reeling of yarn, and to rocking the cradle.

Bishop Wilkins writes, in 1648 ("Mathematical Magic "), of æolipiles as familiar and useful pieces of apparatus, and describes them as consisting "of some such material as may endure the fire, having a small hole at which they are filled with water, and out of which (when the vessels are heated) the air doth issue forth with a strong and lasting violence. 'They are," the bishop adds, "frequently used for the exciting and contracting of heat in the melting of glasses or

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metals. They may also be contrived to be serviceable for sundry other pleasant uses, as for the moving of sails in a chimney-corner, the motion of which sails may be applied to the turning of a spit, or the like."

Kircher gives an engraving ("Mundus Subterraneus ") showing the last-named application of the æolipile; and Erckern ("Aula Subterranea," 1672) gives a picture illustrating their application to the production of a blast in smelting ores. They seem to have been frequently used, and in all parts of Europe, during the seventeenth century, for blowing fires in houses, as well as in the practical work of the various trades, and for improving the draft of chimneys. The latter application is revived very frequently by the modern inventor.

SECTION II. — THE PERIOD OF APPLICATION—WORCESTER, PAPIN, AND SAVERY.

We next meet with the first instance in which the expansive force of steam is supposed to have actually been applied to do important and useful work.

In 1663, Edward Somerset, second Marquis of Worcester, published a curious collection of descriptions of his inventions, couched in obscure and singular language, and called "A Century of the Names and Scantlings of Inventions by me already Practised."

One of these inventions is an apparatus for raising water by steam. The description was not accompanied by a drawing, but the sketch here given (Fig. 7) is thought probably to resemble one of his earlier contrivances very closely.

Steam is generated in the boiler a, and thence is led into the vessel e, already nearly filled with water, and fitted up like the apparatus of De Caus. It drives the water in a jet out through the pipe f. The vessel e is then shut off from the boiler a, is again filled through the pipe h, and the oper

ation is repeated. Stuart thinks it possible that the marquis may have even made an engine with a piston, and sketches it. The instruments of Porta and of De Caus were "steam fountains," and were probably applied, if used at all, merely to ornamental purposes. That of the Mar

quis of Worcester was actually used for the purpose of elevating water for practical purposes at Vauxhall, near London.

How early this invention was introduced at Raglan Castle by Worcester is not known, but it was probably not much later than 1628. In 1647 Dircks shows the marquis probably to have been engaged in getting out parts of the later engine which was erected at Vauxhall, obtaining his

1 "Anecdotes of the Steam-Engine," vol. i., p. 61.

materials from William Lambert, a brass-founder. His patent was issued in June, 1663.

We nowhere find an illustrated description of the machine, or such an account as would enable a mechanic to

reproduce it in all its details. Fortunately, the cells and grooves (Fig. 9) remaining in the wall of the citadel of Raglan Castle indicate the general dimensions and arrangement of the engine; and Dircks, the biographer of the inventor, has suggested the form of apparatus shown in the sketch (Fig. 8) as most perfectly in accord with the evidence there found, and with the written specifications.

The two vessels, A A', are connected by a steam-pipe, BB', with the boiler, C, behind them. D is the furnace. A vertical water-pipe, E, is connected with the coldwater vessels, A A', by the pipes, FF", reaching nearly to the bottom. Water is supplied by the pipes, G G', with valves, a a', dipping into the well or ditch, H. Steam from