86 



PATRICK MILLER. 



Born in Scotland 1730. 

 Died at Dalswinton House, near Dumfries, 1815. 



Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, was originally a banker, and ulti- 

 mately became possessed of considerable independent property. At 

 different periods of his life he embarked in many schemes of great 

 public utility. He made considerable improvements in artillery 

 and naval architecture, and during the course of his various experi- 

 ments expended upwards of thirty thousand pounds. One of the 

 immediate results of his experiments in the first-named science was 

 the invention of the well-known carronade ; while in the course of his 

 experiments in naval architecture, he constructed double and triple 

 vessels, and was the first to practically apply the present form of 

 the paddle-wheels now in ordinary use to their propulsion. Having 

 satisfied himself of the usefulness of his researches in this respect, 

 by many costly experiments undertaken at his own expense, Mr. 

 Miller published at Edinburgh, in 1787, a book in English and French, 

 containing a full account of them, and sent a copy of his work to 

 every sovereign in Europe, and also to the American States, inas- 

 much as he considered that his inventions ought to be the property 

 of the human kind.* The paddle-wheels in these experiments (un- 

 dertaken in the years 1786-7) were turned by manual labour, and 

 on the occasion of a severe contest between one of his double boats 

 and a Custom-house boat, reckoned to be a fast sailer, the want 

 of a more powerful force to- turn the wheels was greatly felt. Mr. 

 James Taylor, at that time a tutor in Mr. Miller's family, suggested 

 steam power, and ultimately introduced Miller to Win. Symington, 

 with whose aid Mr. Miller commenced and carried out those ex- 

 periments (in the years 1788-89) which have justly entitled him to 

 the honour of being the first to originate the present system of 

 steam navigation.f 



It is much to be regretted that since the deaths of Mr. Miller and 

 Mr. Symington, statements have been made in which the entire 

 merit of first establishing steam navigation is claimed, on the one 

 hand, for Miller, by his eldest son, in a paper published in the 

 'Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' for July 1825 ; and on the other 

 for Symington, by Richard Bowie, in his pamphlet published in 

 1833 ; whereas these two gentlemen appear to be inseparably con- 

 nected with the first introduction of this grand application of steam. 

 As far as it is possible to reconcile the conflicting statements, the 



* See ' Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland,' by Sir John Dalrymple, 

 Bart. 



f For fuller account of Miller and Symington's experiments see ' Memoir of 

 Symington.' 



