APPLICATION TO THE ADMIRALTY. 375 



alternate expansion and contraction, which plan, if it succeeds, 

 will be found of immense importance to vessels and locomotive 

 engines. 



" Understanding that Mr. Trevithick is desirous of making 

 the experiment at his own expense, we clearly recommend that 

 facilities may be afforded him." 1 



J 



This paltry question with the Admiralty indirectly 

 produced more trustworthy evidence of the great 

 importance of Trevithick's inventions than all that has 

 been written of him under the professional terms 

 Engineers, and Engineering. 



The names are not given of those who believed that 

 he had, as an established fact, reduced the consumption 

 of coal in the Watt engine to one-third ; they were not 

 Cornishmen, or they would not have misspelt the word 

 Hayle, but they understood the great value of using 

 the same fresh water over and over again in marine 

 steam-engines. 



Mr. Mills, who had taken an active part in the screw- 

 propeller experiments in 1815, was again interested in 

 the proposed trial in a Government ship, and wrote, 

 " I have just left Captain Johnston e ; he has com- 

 municated with Faucett and Co., Barnes and Miller, 

 and with the firm of Maudslay. He has had his mind 

 disturbed again by Maudslay about the greater quantity 

 of water required to condense steam at higher tempera- 

 tures ; I repeated the same as yourself, about the 

 cylinder full of steam, atmosphere strong ; Jiowever, he 

 appears quite different to what he was on Friday." 

 Such a clique of professional friends would sink a 

 stronger man than Trevithick. A year or two from 

 that time the writer designed a high-pressure steam- 

 engine suitable for a steamboat, and on presenting it to 



1 In ili" li;ni(hvrit,ing of Mr. Davies Gilbert. 



2 c 2 



