164 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



From Savery's own account it is evident that several of his 

 engines were erected in Cornwall and it is said that the first was 

 tried at Huel Vor or the Great Work in Breage a few miles from 

 Helston, then considered the richest tin mine in the county. The 

 engine was found to be an improvement on the methods formerly 

 employed for draining the mine and sent the miners to consider- 

 ably greater depths. But the great pressure of steam required 

 to force up a high column of water was such as to strain to the 

 utmost the imperfect boilers and receivers of those early days ; 

 and the frequent explosions which attended its use eventually led 

 to its discontinuance in favour of the superior engine of Newcomen 

 which was shortly afterwards invented. 



Thus far I have been mainly quoting from Smiles as shewing 

 I am not over-estimating the part played by Cornwall in inducing 

 the invention of the first practical steam engine. 



I ought perhaps to refer to Edward, second marquess of 

 Worcester, to whom the merit of the invention of the engine 

 that Savery patented is sometimes ascribed by those who seem 

 not to have investigated the matter with sufficient care. We know 

 practically nothing of the marquess of Worcester's engine which 

 never passed beyond the exj)erimental stage, and although a 

 patent for 99 years, from 1663 to 1762, was granted to the 

 marquess of Worcester, yet Captain Savery and his successors 

 under his patents which extended for ;<.t years from 1698 to 1733 

 compelled every user of Newcomen' s and other steam engines to 

 submit to the most grinding terms and no one attempted to plead 

 that Savery's patents were invalidated by the marquess of 

 Worcester's prior patents and as late as 1724 the Laird Wauchope 

 was obliged to petition the holders of Savery's patents for a 

 license to erect and use a fire engine (Newcomen's) having a stem 

 or barrel (a cylinder) 28 inches in diameter and 9 feet in length 

 and this was granted by the committee (Savery's) on his agreeing 

 to pay £80 a year in c[uarterly payments during the term of 

 the patent (Savery's) which then had eight years to run. 

 The license contained a stipulation that if any payment was over- 

 due for forty days the committee might enter and sell up the 

 engines, boilers and everything, returning the over-plus to Mr. 

 Wauchope. I think these facts dispose once and for all of the 

 fallacious idea that Savery's engine was merely the marquess of 



