276 II1STOUY OF STEAM. 



INVENTION OF THE STEAM ENGINE. 



Dr. Lardner has very justly observed, that the steam engine, as it now 

 exists, is not the exclusive invention of any one individual, it is a 

 combination of inventions, which for the last two centuries have been 

 accumulating. The first person of whom we have any record as 

 having a notion of steam as a moving power, was Hiero or Hero, an 

 Alexandrian mathematician, about one hundred and thirty years B. C., 

 in a work written by him, and in which he describes three several methods 

 of applying steam as a motive power; first to elevate water by its 

 elasticity, secondly, to raise water by its expansive force, and thirdly, to 

 produce a rotary motion by its re-action on the atmosphere, the last only 

 was applicable to any useful purpose. The next in order was Solomon 

 de Caus, a Frenchman, who in 1615 employed the elastic force of 

 steam as a means of raising water. 



The third attempt to apply steam as a moving power was by Giovanni 

 Branca, an Italian mathematician, who formed a boiler in the shape of 

 the human head and breast ; from the mouth of the figure proceeded a 

 pipe, through which the steam issued, and striking against the vanes of 

 a float wheel (similar to a common water wheel or paddle), caused its 

 revolution, and a pinion being attached, motion by this means was given 

 to machinery, which was employed in a drug or pounding mill. 



The next person whose name is associated with the steam engine is the 

 Marquis of Worcester, who in the reign of Charles the Second (1663), 

 published his " Century of Inventions," all of which he claimed as his 

 own. Among which is " an admirable and forcible way to drive up 

 water by fire," and this is supposed by some to have given the first idea 

 of many great improvements of the steam engine ; others deny that he 

 suggested any beneficial alteration, and it is certain that engines have 

 been made upon his principle and have altogether failed. Sir Samuel 

 Moreland a few years after is known to have constructed an apparatus, 

 of which the moving power was steam; it was exhibited before the King 

 of France ; but of which no drawing or description is extant. His 

 estimate of the expansive power of steam, although denied by Desaguliers 

 and others, was proved by Watt to be the only correct one. Dr. Papin, 

 a Frenchman, was the next improver of the steam engine, by the in- 

 troduction of the safety valve for the boiler; this was in 1690. 



In 1699, Captain Savery introduced his engine for raising water by 

 steam; this was, in fact, the firstuseful application of the power, and this 

 discovery said to have been made by accident. The story runs that 



