POLE STEAM-ENOTXK. 0") 



cylinder, double power of B. and Watt's. The expense of 

 erection, and the consumption of coals in this engine, are not 

 one-third of a B. and Watt's to perform the same work. I am 

 the same Trevithick that invented the high-pressure engine. I 

 have sent out nine steam-engines to the gold and silver mines 

 of Peru. I intend to sail for that place in about a month or 

 six weeks, but shall appoint agents in England to erect these 

 engines. 



"No publication or description whatever has been in cir- 

 culation, neither is it required, for I have a great many more 

 orders than I can execute. 



" I have not seen anything of Mr. Losh's patent engine, or 

 Mr. Collins'. 



" If you should go to London I advise you to call on Mr. Jas. 

 Smith, Limekiln Lane, Greenwich, who is an agent for me, and 

 will soon be able to show you an engine on this plan at work. 



" I remain, &c., 



"K. TREVITHICK." 



Unless the foregoing letters are based on error, the 

 only conclusion to be drawn is that Watt, on the expiry 

 of his patent right and of twenty-eight years of labour, 

 having erected his masterpiece in Cornwall, was within 

 a few years so beaten that Trevithick, in his challenge 

 to Woolf, offered to throw in the Watt engine as a make- 

 weight, and with such odds to bet him two to one that 

 his comparatively small and cheap high-pressure engine 

 should beat the two big ones, both in power, in first 

 cost, and in economical working. The Watt engine 

 was one of his largest, with a 72-inch cylinder. Its 

 power was equal to Trevithick's 33-inch pole-engine, 

 when worked with steam of 34 Ibs. to the inch ; but 

 the latter also worked with three times that pressure of 

 steam, whereby its power was increased threefold. The 

 first cost of these engines was probably in inverse pro- 

 portion to their power. Trevithick's cost TOO/., while 



