AND SURFACE CONDENSER. 359 



pressure at which engines were worked forty years ago to 

 50 Ibs., or in some cases as high as 70 Ibs. on the square 

 inch." 1 



Dear me ! would have been Trevithick's exclamation 

 had he read this ; did I devote my whole life to the 

 making known the advantages of .high-pressure steam, 

 and did I, seventy years ago, 2 really work expansive 

 steam of 145 Ibs. on the inch in the presence of many 

 of the leading engineers of the day ! Of course this 

 short extract of a speech made by a member of a 

 practical society, may not be taken as conveying fully 

 the speaker's views, but it illustrates the immense 

 difficulty Trevithick encountered in making his nu- 

 merous plans acceptable to the public. 



Another modern statement bearing on inventions 

 originating with Trevithick, but wearing new garbs 

 with new names, shows the same tendency to ignore 

 old friends, or, to say the least of it, to pass them 

 by:- 



" The trial of No. 36 steam-pinnace was made at Portsmouth 

 yesterday. Her peculiarity consists in the arrangement of her 

 propelling machinery, in the adaptation of the outside surface 

 condenser, and a vertical boiler, both patented by Mr. Alexander 

 Crichton. The condenser is simply a copper pipe passing out 

 from the boat on one quarter at the garboard strake, and along 

 the side of the keel, returning along the keel on the opposite 

 side, and re-entering the boat on that quarter. The boiler is 

 designed for boats fitted with condensing engines, and which, 

 therefore, are without the acceleration of draught given by the 

 exhausted steam being discharged into the funnel. It is of 

 the vertical kind, and stands on a shallow square tank, which 



1 ' The Engineer,' March 15th, 1872 : remarks by the Chairman at a meeting 

 of the Manchester Steam Users' Association. 



2 See Trevithick's letter, August 20th, 1802, vol. i., p. 154. 



2 B 2 



