312 Additional Notes to 



perhaps sooner. Indeed, Papin had the candour to acknowledge, sa5's 

 Robison, that the invention was made without communication with him. 

 When we consider the whole of the contrivances invented by Savery, in- 

 chiding the separate boiler, we cannot but accord him the praise of very 

 great ingenuity, independent of the merit of having made the first 



WORKING steam-engine. 



" The Miner's Friend." (p. 243.) Mr Robert Stuart, p. 34 of his His- 

 tory of the Steam-Engine, 1824, says, quoting from Robison, " Savery ob- 

 tained his patent in 1698, after a hearing of objections, * * but, besides 

 this, he had erected several of his engines before he obtained his patent, 

 and," continues Mr Stuart, "published an account of his engine in 1696, un- 

 der the title of " The Miner's Friend," and "a Dialogue," by way of answer 

 to the objections which had been made against it ; both were print- 

 ed in one volume in 1702." We have not seen the publication of 

 1696 ; but we observe that in that of 1702, he says he worked a small 

 model before some members of the Royal Society 14th June 1699. 



" This problem," &c., (p. 262.) See Mr Watt's own interesting account 

 in Brewster's edit, of Robison's Mechanical Tracts, vol. ii., Steam-Engine^ 

 pp. 113 to 120. 



" He enclosed the metallic cylinder," &c., (p. 254.) Mr Watt's words, in 

 his specification of 1769, are, ''first, by enclosing it (». e. the cylinder) in 

 a case of wood, or any other materials that transmit heat slowly ; secondly, 

 by surrounding it with steam, or other heated bodies ; and, thirdly, by 

 suffering neither water, or any other substance colder than the steam, to 

 ' enter or touch it during that time." In point of practice, he surrounded 

 the cylinder with a metallic case containing steam, which he again pro- 

 tected by a covering- of wood, or other matters which conduct heat slowly. 



" There was no need of calling in the assistance of James Watt," (p. 256.) 

 We cannot think that these were such trivial matters as they may appear 

 to one conversant with the present state of civil-engineering ; for be it 

 remembered, that they were the performance of a young and self-taught 

 engineer, at a period when such operations were only beginning to be car- 

 ried on by a Brindley and a Smeaton. 



" The celebrated Burke," (p. 258.) Mr Burke's opposition is believed 

 to have arisen, not from any hostility to Mr Watt or his patent, but sim- 

 ply from a sense of duty in defending what he conceived, or what were 

 represented to him to be, the claims of a constituent. 



" Boulton and Watt received the third part of the value," &c., (p. 258.) 

 Stipulated to receive, but, in fact, did not receive nearly that proportion. 



" The solution which he gave," &c., (p. 261.) Mr Watt's own words 

 are, " It occurred to him, that if some mechanism could be devised moving 

 upon centres, which would keep the piston-rods perpendicular, both in 

 pushing and pulling, a smoother motion would be attained, and, in all 

 probability, the parts would be less subject to wear." 



'' The principle of the expansion of steam," Sic, (Note, p. 263.) The fol- 



