STEAM. 215 



Franche-Comte, who embarks steam engines upon 

 rivers, this lunatic who would have us believe that 

 he can marry fire and water ? " 



In order to escape from the yoke of the prejudices 

 which surrounded him, Claude de Jouffroy determined 

 to take service in the artillery, so that he might be 

 able to utilise the experience which he had gained. 

 But there was a great outcry at this, for the nobility 

 at this period considered it derogatory to enter that 

 branch of the service, leaving the artillery and engi- 

 neers to the middle classes. Having been a page to 

 the Dauphin's wife, and having entered at the age of 

 twenty the Bourbon regiment as sub-lieutenant, he 

 had a duel with his colonel. He was then exiled for 

 two years to the island of St. Marguerite, opposite 

 Cannes. During his enforced leisure, while watching 

 the galleys and their oarsmen, he was struck by the 

 drawbacks of this mode of navigation, and conceived 

 the idea that the use of steam as a motive power might 

 obviate it. When his exile was over, in 1775, he went 

 to Paris, where the brothers Perrier had just founded 

 a large establishment, and had imported from Birming- 

 ham one of Watt's engines, known in France as the 

 "Pompe a feu de Chaillot." 



Jouffroy met in Paris two men from his own district, 

 soldiers like himself, the Comte d' Auxiron and the Mar- 

 quis Ducrest, colonel in the Auvergne regiment, brother 

 of Madame de Genlis, member of the Academic des 

 Sciences, and author of a work on mechanics. Count 



