360 AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM. 



OBSERVATIONS ON" STEAM ENGINES. 



From the Aurora of \2th Sept. 1810. 



It was in the year 1773 or 1771, thirt}' five or six 

 years since, I (irst discovered the principal of my im- 

 provemcDt on stean engines, and about twenty seven 

 years since I discovi'red the means of applying it, to 

 thepropelHng boats up the Mississippi and other rivers, 

 and carriages on turnpike roads ; ever since that disco- 

 very I have been endeavoring to persuade those inter- 

 ested to apply those principles to the said purposes, I 

 have travelled hundreds ofmiles to see different ingenious 

 men, to engage them, but none could be found willing to 

 riscjue the exnenee. In the year 1786 1 petitioned th.c 

 legislature of Pennsylvania; they supposed me deranged, 

 and 1 met from them no encouragement on the subject. 



In 1787, I petitioned the legislature of Maryland, and 

 they granted me an exclusive right in that state for 14 

 years; this patent expired before I could do more than 

 try several experiments. In the year 1801, 1 began ta 

 make a steam engine on the principle, ior a plaister mill, 

 it, with the experiments 1 had to make, cost me .-^^3,700, 

 a sum hardly earned, and illy spared at that time^ al- 

 thougli I succeeded perfectly. 



In the year 1802 or 1803, captain James M'Keever 

 and Louis Valcourt having been in Kentucky, a letter 

 which 1 had written to a gentleman there, explaining 

 how my improvement would apply to steam boats, in 

 the western waters, agreed to construct a steam boat, 

 to ply between New Orleans and Natchez, The cap- 

 tain superintended the building of the boat, and Mr. 

 Valcourt came to Phildelphia, and in the fall 1803, had 

 the engine constructed at my shop, while I was at the 

 City of Washington, and they met at Orleans, fitted the 

 engine to the boat, ready for experiment — but the water 

 had left thorn high and dry, not likely to raise to float the 

 boat in less than fcJ months, they having expended about 

 •^" 15,000, their money was exhausted, and they left in a 

 tad dilemma. Air. Wm. Donaldson of Orleans, luvnirhcd 



