231 HIGH IV AYS AND HORSES. 



neither screw propeller nor paddle, but are driven by 

 water discharged from both their port and starboard 

 quarters. The Watei^ Witch, an armour-plated ship of 

 war, built at the Thames Iron Works, was constructed 

 on the same principle. She was built from the design 

 of Admiral Sir George Elliott, but was not found a 

 success. Nevertheless, she had one good point, there 

 was no propeller which could be injured by the enemy's 

 shot. 



I will return to the question of road locomotives. 

 There were an immense number of steam carriages 

 constructed at different times. A man named Nathan 

 Read built one in 1790, for which he obtained a 

 patent. 



It consisted of two horizontal cylinders, with the 

 pistons terminating in a ratchet arrangement, which 

 worked on a toothed wheel through which the fore- 

 most axle passed, by which means the carriage was 

 propelled. Another steam carriage was made by a 

 French officer, named Nicholas Cugnot, who con- 

 structed his carriage in 1769. In 1770, he made a 

 second steam carriage, which is still to be seen in the 

 Conservatoire des Arts et I^.Ietiers, Paris. In this 

 machine the cylinders are upright. After this there 

 is no record of a road steam carriage until Murdock, 

 the partner of James Watt, constructed a model one. 

 This model ran six to eight miles an hour, its driving 

 wheels making from 200 to 275 revolutions per minute ; 

 it was fitted with an American grasshopper engine. 



After this, Oliver Evans, a native of the United 

 States, constructed a road carriage, which he christened 

 the " Oruker Amphibolis ; " it was built in the year 

 1804. In September of the same year he made a 

 statement to the Lancaster Turnpike Company, as 



