USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 52
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It is melancholy to contemplate his overwhelming disappointment in a case since proved so practicable, and so productive to those con- cerned. Some of those thousands so useless to others, had they been owned by him, so as to have enabled him to make all the experi- ments and improvements his inventive mind suggested, would have set his care-crazed head at rest, and in time have rewarded his exer- tions : but for want of the impulse which money affords, all proved ineffective. "Slow rises worth by poverty depressed !"
After Fulton and Livingston had proved the practicability of a bet- ter completion, by their boat on the North river, the waters of the Dela- ware were again agitated by a steam vessel, called the Phoenix. She
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was first started in 1809, and being since worn out, her remains, with those of Fitch's boat, repose in the mud flats of Kensington. The Phoenix, then deemed the ne plus ultra of the art, won the admira- tion of all, of her early day : but as " practice makes perfect," it was frequently discovered that better adaptations of power could be at- tained ; and although she underwent many changes in her machinery and gear, she soon saw herself rivalled, and finally surpassed, by suc- cessive inventions ; till now, the steamboats can accomplish in two hours, what sometimes took six to perform in her. For instance, the Phoenix has been known to take six hours in reaching Burlington against the wind and tide.
Such, too, was the rapid progress in steam invention, that Mr. La- trobe, who wrote a paper for the Philosophical Society to demonstrate the impossibility of a momentum such as we now witness, became himself, in two years afterwards, a proselyte to the new system, and proved his sincerity and conviction by becoming the agent for the steam companies in the west !
Most amazing invention ! from a cause now so obvious and fami- liar! It is only by applying the principle seen in every house, which lifts the lid of the tea kettle and " boils over," that machines have been devised which can pick up a pin, or rend an oak ; which com- bine the power of many giants with the plasticity that belongs to a lady's fair fingers ; which spin cotton, and then weave it into cloth : which, by pumping sea-water and extracting its steam, send vessels across the Atlantic in fifteen days ; and amidst a long list of other marvels, " engrave seals, forge anchors, and lift a ship of war, like a bauble, in the air,"-presenting, in fact, to the imagination, the prac- ticability of labour-saving inventions in endless variety, so that, in time, man, through its aid, shall half exempt himself from "the curse !" and preachers, through steam-press printing, shall find an auxiliary effecting more than half their work !
Much of our steam invention we owe to our own citizen, Oliver Evans. He even understood the application of it to wagons-(now claimed as so exclusively British.) As early as 1787, the legislature of Maryland granted him its exclusive use for fourteen years, and in 1781, he publicly stated he could by steam drive wagons, mills, &c. Finally, he published his bet of 3000 dollars, engaging " to make a carriage to run upon a level road against the swiftest horse to be found,"-none took him up! and Latrobe, as a man of science. pronounced the idea chimerical ; others said the motion would be too slow to be useful, &c. He got no patrons, and others now take his fame !- See Emporium of Arts, 1814, p. 205.
" Of each wonderful plan E'er invented by man, This nearest perfection approaches- No longer gee-up and gee-ho, But fiz-fiz '-off we go
VOL II .- 3 G 38*
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Nine miles to the hour, With fifty horse-power, By day time and night time, Arrive at the right time, Without rumble or jumble, Or chance of a tumble, As in chaise, gig, or whiskey, When horses are frisky."
A friend of mine has lately seen in Philadelphia an original letter of Mr. Fitch to Dr. Franklin, dated 12th October, 1785. It was neatly written ; had some few faults in spelling, and reads in part thus :- " Steamboat navigation is, in the opinion of the subscriber, a matter of first magnitude, not only to the United States, but to every maritime power in the world, and he is full in the belief that it will answer for sea voyages, as well as for inland navigation-in particu- lar for packets where there may be many passengers. She could make head off lea shore against the most violent tempests, because the machine can be made of almost omnipotent force, by the very simple and easy means of the screws or paddles, which act as oars- working on the oscillating motion of the old pumping engine, in a manner similar to that given by the human arm."
N. B. Boileau, of Montgomery county, asserts that he remembers John Fitch well as a frequent visiter at his father's house, and he knows that, although Fitch first used paddles to his boat, he also had the idea of wheels, for he actually showed Boileau his draught of hem, and employed him as a boy to cut out of wood small water wheels as models, by which to construct large ones for his boat. He believes he only wanted the money to have had them made. He worked as a silversmith; learned to survey; went to Kentucky in 1780; left there in 1781; made a map of that country and the west, as a new land of enterprise; engraved the plate and struck off copies himself, and then sold them about the country-one of them is now with Mr. Boileau, and another is with Daniel Longstreth, at Warminster, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. For more of Fitch and steam power, see the article John Fitch, in the chapter Persons and Characters.'
An elderly gentleman, of Philadelphia, communicates that he knew very well both John Fitch and Robert Fulton. The latter was, about the year 1770, and for several years, his schoolmate, in the town of Lancaster. His mother was a widow of limited circumstances. "I had (he said) a brother who was fond of painting. The war of the Revolution, which prevailed at that period, made it difficult to obtain materials from abroad, and the arts were at a low ebb in the country. My brother, consequently, prepared and mixed colours for himself; and these he usually displayed on muscle shells. His cast off brushes and shells fell to my lot; some of which I occasionally carried in my pocket to school. Fulton saw and craved a part. He pressed his suit with so much earnestness, that I could not refuse to
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livide my treasure with him; and in fact, he soon, from this begin- ning, so shamed my performances, by the superiority of his own, that it ended in my voluntarily surrendering to him the entire heir- ship to all that came into my possession. Henceforth his book was neglected, and he was often severely chastised by the schoolmaster for his inattention and disobedience. His friends removed him to Philadelphia, where he was apprenticed to a silversmith, but his mind was not in his trade. He found his way to London, and placed himself under the patronage of his celebrated countryman, West.
" While Robert Fulton was thus engaged in London, John Fitch, a clockmaker and silversmith, was contriving schemes in Philadelphia, for the propulsion of boats by steam. He conducted his mysterious operations at a projection on the shore of the Delaware, at Kensing- ton, which, among the wise and prudent of the neighbourhood, the scorners of magicians and their dark works, soon acquired the omi- nous and fearful title of Conjurer's point. I often witnessed the per- formance of his boat, 1788, '89 and '90. It was propelled by five paddles over the stern, and constantly getting out of order. I saw it when it was returning from a trip to Burlington, from whence it was said to have arrived in little more than two hours. When coming to, off Kensington, some part of the machinery broke, and I never saw it in motion afterwards. I believe it was his last effort. He had, up to that period, been patronized by a few stout-hearted individuals, who had subscribed a small capital in shares of, I think, £6, Penn- sylvania currency, or 16 dollars each ; but this last disaster so stag- gered their faith, and unstrung their nerves, that they never again had the hardihood to make other contributions. Indeed, they had already rendered themselves the subjects of ridicule and derision, for their temerity and presumption, in giving countenance, as they said, to this wild projector, and madman. The company, thereupon, gave up the ghost-the boat went to pieces-and Fitch became bankrupt and broken-hearted. Often have I seen him stalking about like a troubled spectre, with down-cast eye, and lowering countenance ; his coarse soiled linen peeping through the elbows of a tattered garment. During the days of his aspiring hopes, two mechanics were of suf- ficient daring to work for him. Ay, and they suffered in purse for their confidence. These were Peter Brown, ship-smith, and John Wilson, boat-builder, both of Kensington. They were worthy, benevolent men, well known to the writer, and much esteemed in the city. Towards Fitch, in particular, they ever extended. the kindest sympathy. While he lived, therefore, he was in the habit of calling almost daily at their workshops, to while away time; to talk over his misfortunes; and to rail at the ingratitude and cold neglect of an unfeeling, spiritless world. From Wilson I derived the following anecdote : Fitch called to see him as usual-Brown happened to be present. Fitch mounted his hobby, and became unusually eloquent in the praise of steam, and of the benefits which
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mankind were destined to derive from its use in propelling boats. They listened, of course, without faith, but not without interest, to this animated appeal ; but it failed to rouse them to give any future support to schemes by which they had already suffered. After in- dulging himself for some time, in this never-failing topic of deep excitement, he concluded with these memorable words-" Well, gen- dlemen, although I shall not live to see the time, you will, when steamboats will be preferred to all other means of conveyance, and especially for passengers ; and they will be particularly useful in the navigation of the river Mississippi." He then retired ; on which Brown, turning to Wilson, exclaimed, in a tone of deep sympathy, " Poor fellow ! what a pity he is crazy."
It is curious to observe, that both Fitch and Fulton should have been originally silversmiths. In 1785, Robert Fulton is found in the Philadelphia directory of that year set down as a miniature painter, at the corner of Second and Walnut streets-perhaps not even dreaming of steamboats, nor even making the acquaintance of the inventor, though in the same city, and at a time when Fitch had actually written out his views, in the above-mentioned letter to Doc- tor Franklin, dated 12th October, 1785.
Rumsey has been named as our earliest inventor of boat naviga- tion by machinery ; that is, so far at least as actually forming a boat with apparatus, &c., for such an operation, he probably executed one as early as 1783. A friend of mine, who saw Fitch's boat at Ken- sington, as early as 1786-7, saw the remains of Rumsey's boat in a rotten state in 1790, in a creek at Shepherdstown, Va., near Harper's ferry. Rumsey, it is said, went to England to procure patronage and aid, and soon after died there, poor. Some of his heirs were lately soliciting some contribution from the congress of the United States, on the grounds of Rumsey's being the first projector. Fitch, however, declared that Rumsey derived his conception from himself.
John Fitch, in his controversy with James Rumsey, respecting priority of claim, as set forth in his pamphlet of 1788, admits or sustains the following facts and circumstances, to wit :
That the first thought of a steamboat came to him suddenly, in April, 1785.
That in June following he went to Philadelphia, and showed his scheme to Dr. Ewing and Mr. Patterson. That in June and July he formed models, and in August laid them before congress, and in September he presented them to the Philosophical Society.
That in October he called on the ingenious William Henry, Esq., of Lancaster, to take his opinion of his draughts, who informed him that he was not the first person who had thought of applying steam to vessels, for that he himself had conversed with Andrew Ellicott, Esq., of his own views on that matter, as early as the year 1775; and that T. Paine, author of Common Sense, had suggested the same to him in the winter of 1778; that some time after, he (Mr. Henry) thinking more seriously of it, was of opinion that it might
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easily be perfected, and he accordingly had made some draughts, " which he then showed me," but added, that as he had neglected to bring them to public view, and as Mr. Fitch had first published the plan to the world, he would lay no claim to the invention. To this alleged fact A. Ellicott adds his testimony, saying that Mr. Henry did so converse with him on the subject of steam, and inti- mated his belief that it might be advantageously applied to the navi- gation of boats. Mr. Fitch went from Mr. Henry's, in Lancaster, to the governors of Maryland and Virginia, to see them upon the sub- ject. He then procured laws in his behalf from the different legis- latures, to wit-New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
He admits that he had been greatly indebted to the assistance of his ingenious friend and partner, Mr. Henry Voight, who had afforded him valuable hints, and had united with him in perfecting his plans ; and that " to his inventive genius alone he was indebted for the im- provement in their mode of creating steam, from a thought which struck him two years before ;" for, says Mr. Fitch, we never made a secret of part of our works-but that a fear of departing from old es- tablished plans had made him for some time fearful of adopting it, until he (Mr. Fitch) perceived that Voight's invention of creating steam by a condensor, might be constructed on the same principles, (viz. a spiral pipe or worm,) only by reversing the agent-because the best means of applying fire to evaporate water into steam, must also be the best way of applying cold water to condense steam-that is, the bringing of the greatest quantity of fire into action upon the greatest surface of water, or the contrary.
Mr. Fitch asserts, and adduces his proofs, that Mr. Rumsey only began to procure his apparatus in the summer of 1786, and that by reason of the ice in the Potomac in the winter of that year, he could not have made any use of his steam and boat till the spring of 1787 -"which was long after Mr. Fitch's boat was built, and his model of a steam-engine was completed." Mr. Fitch also asserts, that the certificate of Gen. Washington, of 7th September, 1784, adduced by Mr. Rumsey as his proof of an earlier period, was in relation to his earlier boat and apparatus as then shown to the general, at Bath, and which boat, as the certificate expressed it, was constructed to work against streams, by mechanism (not steam !) and manual assistance, and that she was then so worked in his presence.
Mr. Fitch alleges that Mr. Rumsey's application to the legislature of Pennsylvania, by his petition of 26th November, 1784, shows on its face that it was not a steamboat then he meditated, but " a species of boats of ten tons, to be propelled against the current of a rapid river, by the combined influence of mechanical powers, at the rate of twenty-five to forty miles a day."
Mr. Fitch alleges that it was an after-thought of Mr. Rumsey's to use and apply steam, and the knowledge of which he alleges he de- rived from himself, by seeing and hearing of his models, &c .; and that he then puts in his pretension because of the certificate of Gen
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Washington and others, to facts about his boat of 1784, as if he had been showing the same kind of boat then, which he could only have effected in 1787 !
Mr. Fitch concludes thus triumphantly, saying, " If Mr. Rumsey claims on his thought, as expressed to Gen. Washington in his letter of 10th March, 1785, then he has to encounter the prior thoughts of Mr. Paine, Mr. Henry and Mr. Ellicott-if on former draughts, without exposing them to the public, he must also admit the prior draughts of Mr. Henry-but if it is to be determined by the esta- blished mode of public declaration, put on record, as was done in my case, then he must submit to my title, as being prior and indis- putable."
In this publication Mr. Fitch makes the remark, that Mr. Rumsey had insinuated that he (Mr. Fitch) had formed his first conception of a steam vessel indirectly from Mr. Rumsey ; because, as he hinted, Mr. Fitch got his first thought from a Captain Bedinger, in Ken- tucky, who went there in 1784, and who had derived his ideas, as a secret, from Mr. Rumsey. To this insinuation Mr. Fitch replies, that " he has not been in Kentucky since the year 1781."
Oliver Evans, a blacksmith of Philadelphia, (for steam power seems to have run most in the the heads of the smiths,) certainly foresaw the power which could be made effective from the use of steam ; but when he made his assertions the public would not credit his report, and many actually believed that it was the ravings of an over-excited mind. "More than twenty years ago," says the New York Commercial Advertiser, in 1835, " we published his assertions as hereinafter written and signed by his name, and yet none then gave him any credence-not even the legislatures of Pennsylvania and Maryland, to which he applied for countenance and support, gave him any patronage, and he died neglected and poor ! But what he then so confidently asserted is now matter of true history." I give his published declarations, to wit :
" The time will come, when people will travel in stages, moved by steam-engines, at fifteen to twenty miles an hour !"
" A carriage will leave Washington in the morning, breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York, on the same day !"
" Railways will be laid, of wood or iron, or on smooth paths of broken stone, or gravel, to travel as well by night as day."
" A steam-engine will drive a carriage 180 miles in twelve hours -or engines will drive boats ten or twelve miles an hour ; and hun- dreds of boats will so run upon the Mississippi, and other waters, as prophesied thirty years ago ; but the velocity of boats can never be made to equal those of carriages upon rails, because the resistance in water is 800 times more than that in air."
" Posterity will not be able to discover why the legislature or con- gress did not grant the inventor such protection as might have enabled
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him to put in operation these great improvements sooner, he having asked neither money nor monopoly of any existing thing."
" OLIVER EVANS."* O. Evans was first induced to notice the powerful expansion of vapour, by applying his heated iron with a hammer stroke to the spittle he could cast upon his anvil; and also by heating the but- end of a musket barrel in his fire, filled with confined water. He had thought of all these things in embryo as early as the period of the Revolution, and yet he and his suggestions passed for years un- patronized ! Such is the too frequent fate of new and important im- provements. It is in general for more fortunate men in after years to reap the harvest of such minds as Evans, Fitch and Fulton's.
In 1827 there were but two railroads, and short ones too, viz., one at Mauch Chunk and at Quincy, and now they are every where.
Oliver Evans not finding any one willing to promote his views for a steam-wagon, bethought himself to apply his power more profitably to mills for grinding grain, plaster of Paris, &c., and procured his patent accordingly.
In 1804, he applied his power to a machine for cleansing docks, and for that object constructed a large flat or scow, with a steam-en- gine; and such a one having been ordered by the board of health, he conceived that it presented him with a fine occasion for showing the public that his engine could propel both land and water carriages. He therefore set his scow, as if it were a car, upon wheels; and al- though it was only set upon wooden axles, and bore a weight equal to 200 barrels of flour, he actually conveyed the whole from his workshop along the streets of Philadelphia out to the Schuylkill river with great facility. Having then launched it into the river, he applied paddle-wheels in the stern, and thereby propelled it down that river like a steamboat, and then up the Delaware to the city, to the place of delivery.t This, it should be observed, was six years before Fulton started his first boat, the Clermont, on North river, in 1807. This was a sufficient demonstration, as he conceived, of what he had asserted, that he could make a carriage to go by steam, upon a level road, equal to the swiftest horse ; and upon this confidence he offered his bet of 3000 dollars, with none to take him up! About this time he also laboured much to induce proprietors of turnpikes to introduce steam-carriages upon their roads ; but none followed his counsels, although he pledged himself to construct them steam-car- riages which should run upon a railway, or level road, at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. At the same time he published his princi- ples of applying the same power to the propelling of boats on water and against currents.
* Apollos Kingsley, a young man of Hartford, Conn., about the year 1798, made and propelled through the streets of that city a steam locomotive, which he then said would in future be the means of propelling the mail stages, &c. He was not credited, died soon after, and all then went for nothing.
t See a picture of the same as it was, in this book.
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MI. Niles, of the Register, heard Mr. Evans say, many years ago. that " the child was then born who would travel from Philadelphia to Boston in one day!" Already they go from Boston to New York in seventeen hours, and soon they will go by the railroad to Phila- · delphia in six hours more, which will of course fulfil the prophecy.
Oliver Evans had at one time a great steam engine standing for .six months at the corner of Ninth and High streets, where it had broken, and would go no further ! It had been made to go under water, as it was said, and was to dig out river beds, and docks and shoals. It had started from his premises at Vine street, and had gone that far on the streets. To what will not steam eventually contribute !
By the Briarean might thy hands supply, We cook, we ride, we sail, and soon shall fly ! Mind marches ;- soon the glorious day will break When we may sit, our hands within our breeches ; When steam will plough, sow, reap, grind, knead and bake, And our sole task be to digest earth's riches! Soon iron muscle will leave nought to do, And slave and master both may cease from labour- When giant steam, with never-tiring hand Shall toil, the only slave throughout the land !
Steam power has just been doing wonders, both by land and water for travelling facilities; but who knows how soon even these ener getic auxiliaries may be superseded, and by abler and simpler inven- tions! Already we hear of the electro-magnetic combinations of Davenport and Cook, at Saratoga. This reminds us of the prophetic ken of science, as happily exhibited by Dr. Lardner : " Philosophy (said he) already directs her finger at sources of inexhaustible power in the phenomena of electricity and magnetism, and we may expect that the steam-engine itself may ere long dwindle into insignificance, in comparison with the hidden powers of nature still to be revealed. We may expect that the day will come when the steam-engine will cease to have existence, save in the page of history."-[Vide Dr. Lardner's Treatise on the Steam-engine, 1838.]
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WATERWORKS.
THE Philadelphia Waterworks were begun in the spring of 1799. by constructing a large house, for water power, near the banks of the Schuylkill, southward of High street, (of which see a picture,) and also, another edifice of marble, at the Centre square, as a receiv- ing fountain, (of which also see a picture.) It was an ornamental structure ; but with some it nevertheless bore the disparaging name of " the pepper box," in allusion to its circular form and appearance. These works had at first but little encouragement; and to induce moneyed men to adventure their capital, they were offered water free of rent for a term of years. As late as 1803, only 960 dollars was the rental of the water, although nearly 300,000 dollars had then been expended on the enterprise. At same time, one hundred and twenty-six houses were receiving the water free of cost. In 1814, there were two thousand eight hundred and fifty dwellings receiving the water, and paying a rent of 18,000 dollars. In that year, the cost of raising the water was 24,000 dollars. In 1818, the steam engine at Fairmount was set in operation, and raised the water at a saving of 8000 dollars, still leaving an expense of 16,000 per annum ; but in 1827, such were the improvements introduced, that the ex- pense of raising the water was but 1478 dollars, while the water rents from the city and districts had risen to 33,560 dollars, and this is still rapidly increasing. In the eventual success of these mea- sures we owe much to the skill and perseverance of J. S. Lewis and Frederic Graff, names which will be always identified with the origin and the renown of a lasting public benefit.
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