2 VARIOUS INVENTIONS. 



hard rock by the use of iron rollers was a novelty : 

 though his patent of 1802 shows the proposed rolls 

 driven by steam for crushing sugar-canes, yet no one 

 had dreamt, prior to 1804, of economy in crushing- 

 stone and clay by such a means. The plan, however, 

 remains in use to this day in many mines, and is fre- 

 quently spoken of under the name of quartz-crusher. 



" MR. GlDDY, " COALBROOKDALE, September 23rd, 1804. 



" Sir, Yours of the 13th this day came to hand. I left 

 Wales about eight weeks since, and put an engine to work in 

 Worcester, of 10-horse power, for driving a pair of grist-stones, 

 and a leather-dressing machine, and another in Staffordshire 

 for winding coals ; each of them works exceedingly well. 



"From Coalbrookdale I went to Liverpool, where a founder 

 had made two of them, which also worked exceedingly well ; 

 one other was nearly finished, and three others begun. Some 

 Spanish merchants there saw one of them at wock, and said 

 that as soon as they returned to Spain they would send an order 

 for twelve engines, of 12-horse power, for South America. In 

 South America and the Spanish West Indies water is very 

 scarce; in several places there is scarcely water for the inha- 

 bitants to drink, therefore there is no water for any engine. By 

 making inquiry, I found that ten mules would roll as much cane 

 in an hour as would produce 250 gallons of cane-juice, which 

 they boil until the water is evaporated, and the sugar produced. 



" I told them that the engine-boiler might be fed with this 

 juice, and by a cock in the bottom of the boiler constantly 

 turning, and by taking a greater or smaller stream from it, 

 they might make the juice as rich as they like d. In this pro- 

 cess the juice would be so far on towards sugar, and the fire 

 that worked the engine would cost nothing, because it would 

 have taken, the same quantity of fuel under the sugar-pans to 

 evaporate the water, as it would in the engine-boiler. 



" The steam from the engine might be turned around the 

 outside of the furnace for distilling rum, as the distilleries 

 require but a slow heat. 



