14 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



arc deposited in great quantity. Among other curiosi- 

 ties, I took pleasure in examining a little machine of 

 which Air. Henry is the inventor, + and engaging in an 

 amicable dispute over the possibility of making such a 

 machine, designed to go against the wind. It is very 

 simple and fully accomplishes the effect desired. A 

 wing-wheel of tin, such as is used in the ventilators of 

 windows, has attached to its axle a six-inch, iron 

 spindle-tree, which rests on a frame making an acute 

 angle, or triangle, pointed towards the wing-wheel, 

 each bar fixed at the other end to a small, smooth 

 w r heel ; beneath the point of union of the bars there is 

 adjusted a larger wheel, double-toothed. On these 

 three wheels the machine rests and moves. On the 

 spindle, immediately behind the wing-wheel and just 

 above the double-toothed wheel, there is a double 

 screw-shaped groove-attachment, from which a thread 

 is so wound about the lower wheel that when the 

 spindle is set in motion by the wing-wheel the toothed 

 wheel must move forward. If, therefore, the wing- 

 wheel is revolved by the wind or by blowing with the 

 mouth, the whole machine moves directly against the 

 current and with a speed proportional to its strength. 

 But this machine is practicable only on a firm surface 

 into which the under toothed wheel may grip. How- 

 ever, Mr. Henry states that he is about putting to- 

 gether another machine which, if attached to a boat, 

 must bring it against the current of a stream, being 

 set in motion merely by the force of the current and of 

 the wind. But he will not publish this machine until 

 he has reason to expect some reward for his invention, 

 for he is sure that by means of it the difficult return- 

 passage on the Mississippi and the Ohio may be con- 



