Contents 



Page 



Preface xi 



George Escol Sellers xiv 



Part I: Early Philadelphia Mechanics i 



i . Fire Engines and Leather Hose 2 



2. Jacob Perkins in Philadelphia 12 



3. Old Blind Hawkins 26 



4. An Adventure in Learning 20 



5. John White's Press-Screw Manufactory 31 



6. The Philadelphia of Oliver Evans 36 



7. Sellers and Pennock Fire Engine Works 43 



8. Isaiah Lukens and Joseph Saxton 52 



9. The United States Mints 61 



10. Redheffer's Perpetual Motion Machine 7g 



Part II: On Papermaking in the LInited States and England .... 87 



1 1 . Nathan Sellers and Wire Working 89 



12. A Visit to the Mills of the Brandywine 96 



13. Papermaking by Hand and Machine 102 



14. A Visit to England. I. Maudslay and Brunei 108 



15. A Visit to England. II. Donkin's Bermondsey Works 116 



16. A Visit to England. III. I botson's Pulp Dresser 127 



17. A Visit to England. IV. Perkins's Adelaide Gallery 131 



18. An American Counterfeiter 135 



Part III: Internal Improvements 143 



19. Stage Line to Washington 144 



20. Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad 147 



21. The Portage Railroad 153 



22. Cardington Locomotive Works 160 



23. John Brandt, Master Mechanic 166 



24. The Sellers Locomotive 1 72 



25. Phineas Davis and the Arabian 180 



26. Seth Boyden's Locomotives 185 



27. George Escol Sellers Takes Leave of His Friends 190 



Appendix 193 



Sources of Sellers' Text 193 



Amnican Machinist Articles 1 94 



Index igr, 



vii 



