Masterpieces of Science 



face was thus considerably increased ; but the ex- 

 pedient was not successful, for the tubes, becom- 

 ing furred with deposit, shortly burned out and 

 were removed. It was then that M. Seguin, the 

 engineer of the railway, pursuing the same idea, 

 is said to have adopted his plan of employing 

 horizontal tubes through which the heated air 

 passed in streamlets, and for which he took out a 

 French patent. 



In the meantime Mr. Henry Booth, secretary 

 to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, whose 

 attention had been directed to the subject on the 

 prize being offered for the best locomotive to 

 work that line, proposed the same method, which, 

 unknown to him, Matthew Boulton had em- 

 ployed but not patented, in 1780, and James 

 Neville had patented, but not employed, in 1826; 

 and it was carried into effect by Robert Stephen- 

 ' son in the construction of the "Rocket," which 

 won the prize at Rainhill in October, 1829. 

 The following is Mr. Booth's account in a letter 

 to the author: 



"I was in almost daily communication with 

 Mr. Stephenson at the time, and I was not aware 

 that he had any intention of competing for the 

 prize till I communicated to him my scheme of a 

 multitubular boiler. This new plan of boiler 

 comprised the introduction of numerous small 

 tubes, two or three inches in diameter, and less 

 than one-eighth of an inch thick, through which 

 to carry the fire instead of a single tube or flue 

 eighteen inches in diameter, and about half an 

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