THE STEAM-ENGINE. 



443 



In 1736, Jonathan Hulls obtained a patent for a method of towing ships into 

 or out of harbor against wind and tide. This method was little more than a 

 revival of that proposed by* Papin in 1690. The motion, however, was to be 

 communicated to the paddle-shaft by a rope passing over a pulley fixed on an 

 axis, and was to be maintained during the returning stroke of the piston by the 

 descent of a weight which was elevated during the descending stroke. There 

 is no record, however, of this plan, any more than that of Papin, ever having 

 been reduced to experiment. 



During the early part of the last century the manufactures of this coifntry 

 had not attained to such an extent as to render the moving power supplied by 

 water insufficient or uncertain to any inconvenient degree ; and accordingly 

 mills, and other works in which machinery required to be driven by a moving 

 power, were usually built along the streams of rivers. About the year 1750 

 the general extension of manufactures, and their establishment in localities 

 where water power was not accessible, called the steam-engine into more ex- 

 tensive operation. In the year 1752, Mr. Champion, of Bristol, applied the 

 atmospheric engine to raise water, by which a number of overshot wheels wefe 

 driven. These were applied to move extensive brass-works in that neighbor- 

 hood, and this application was continued for about twenty years, but ultimately 

 given up on account of the expense of fuel and the improved applications of the 

 steam-engine. 



About this time Smeaton applied himself with great activity and success to 

 the improvement of wind and water mills, and succeeded in augmenting their 

 useful effect in a twofold proportion with the same supply of water. From the 

 year 1750 until the year 1780 he was engaged in the construction of his im- 

 proved water-mills, which he erected in various parts of the country, and which 

 were imitated so extensively that the improvement of such mills became general. 

 In cases where a summer drought suspended the supply of water, horse ma- 

 chinery was provided, either to work the mill or to throw back the water. 

 These improvements necessarily obstructed for a time the extension of steam 

 power to millwork ; but the increase of manufactures soon created a demand 

 for power greatly exceeding what could be supplied by such limited means. 



In the manufacture of iron, it is of great importance to keep the furnaces 

 continually blown, so that the heat may never be abated by day or night. In 

 the extensive iron-works at Colebrook Dale, several water-wheels were used 

 in the different operations of the manufacture of iron, especially in driving the 

 blowers of the iron furnaces. These wheels were usually driven by the water 

 of a river, but in the summer months the supply became so short that it was 

 insufficient to work them all. Steam-engines were accordingly erected to re- 

 turn the water for driving these wheels. This application of the engine as an 

 occasional power for the supply of water-wheels having been found so effectual, 

 returning engines were soon adopted as the permanent and regular means of 

 • supplying water-wheels. The first attempt of this kind is recorded to have 

 been made by Mr. Oxley, in 1762, who constructed a machine to draw coals 

 out of a pit at Hartley colliery, in Northumberland. It was originally intended 

 to turn the machine by a continuous circular motion received from the beam of 

 1 the engine ; but that method not being successful, the engine was applied to 

 raise water for a wheel by which the machine was worked. This engine was 

 continued in use for several years, and though it was at length abandoned, on 

 account of its defective construction, it nevertheless established the practica- 

 bility of using steam power as a means of driving water-wheels.* 



In the year 1777, Mr. John Stewart read a paper before the royal society, 

 describing a method for obtaining a continued circular motion for turning all 

 * Farey on the Steam-Engine, p. 297. 



