24 BUULETIN 119, U. S. IS^ATIOXAL MUSEUM. 



opposite Belleville, near Newark, New Jersey. The mine was rich in ore but 

 had been worked as deep as hand and horse power could clear it of water. 

 Col. Schuyler, having heard of the success with which steam engines (then 

 called fire-engines) were used in the mines of Cornwall, determined to have 

 one in his mine. He accordingly requested his London correspondents to pro- 

 cure an engine and to send out with it an engineer capable of putting it up 

 and in operation. This was done in the year named, and Josiah Hornblower, 

 a young man then in his twenty-fifth year, was sent out to superintend it. 



Mr. Hornblower's father, whose name was Joseph, had been engaged in the 

 business of constructing engines in Cornwall from their introduction in the 

 mines there, about 1740, and had been an engineer and engine builder from the 

 first use of steam engines in the arts, about 1720. The engines constructed by 

 him and his sons were the kind known as Newcomen's engines, or Cornish 

 engines. That brought to America by Josiah was of this description. Watt 

 had not then invented his separate condenser nor the use of high pressure. 

 But it is generally conceded that for pumping purposes the Cornish engine has 

 still no superior. 



About 1760 the Schuyler mine was worked for several years by Mr. Horn- 

 blower himself. The approach of the war in 1775 caused the operations to 

 cease. Work was resumed, however, in 1792 and was carried on for several 

 years by successive parties. It finally ceased altogether in this century, and 

 the old engine was broken up and the materials disposed of. The boiler and 

 large copper cylinder standing upright eight or ten feet high and as much 

 in diameter, with a flat bottom and a dome-shaped top, was carried to Phila- 

 delphia. A portion of the clyinder was purchased by some person in Newark. 

 In 1864 I met an old man named John Van Emburgh, then a hundred years 

 old, who had worked on the engine when it was in operation in 1792. He 

 described it very minutely and, I doubt not, accurately. It is from this de- 

 scription that I happened to know the kind of engine it was ; although from 

 the date of its construction and the use to which it was put, there could have 

 been but little doubt on the subject. Cat. No. 180,143 U.S.N.M. 



Model of R. F. Leper Steam Engine (Working) . TJ. S. Patent, No. 4389, 

 November 26, 1845. Transferred from United States Patent Office. 



The engine is arranged to operate two parallel crankshafts in oppo- 

 site directions and with equal velocities, A motion is brought about 

 by means of a connecting rod extending from the steam crossheads 

 to the two crank shafts, the center of vibration of the crossheads 

 being centrally between the two. Cat. No. 251,297 U.S.N.M. 



ILodel of John Ericsson Steam Engine. TJ. S. Patent, No. 6844, November 

 6, 1849. Transferred from United States Patent Office. 



The engine is designed to use steam expansively. There are two 

 vertical, single-acting beam engines placed side by side whose cranks 

 are connected to the same shaft but 180 degrees apart, and whose 

 cylinders are of different sizes. Steam is admitted to the smaller 

 cylinder at the top and acts directly on the piston for a portion of 

 its stroke, but is cut off at a given point and acts expansively for 



