Cooper'' s Rotative Piston. 313 



shelter in a more hospitable land, and that the pre-eminence 

 which England has so long enjoyed in the manufacture of 

 the achromatic telescope should be transferred to a foreign 

 country. The loss of Fraunhofer holds out to us an oppor- 

 tunity of recovering what we have lost, and we earnestly 

 hope that the Royal Society of London and the Board of 

 Longitude will not allow it to pass. Great Britain has hith- 

 erto left the sciences and the arts to the care of individual 

 enterprise, and to the patronage of commercial speculation; 

 but now, when all Europe has become our rivals, when eve- 

 ry sovereign, like the Ptolemies of old, is collecting round 

 his throne, the wisdom even of foreign states, is it not time 

 that she should start from her lethargy, and endeavor to se- 

 cure what is yet left ? The British minister who shall first es- 

 tablish a system of effectual patronage for our arts and sci- 

 ences, and who shall deliver them from the fatal incubus of 

 our patent laws, will be regarded as the Colbert of his age, 

 and will secure to himself a more glorious renown than he 

 could ever obtain from the highest achievements in legislation 

 or in politics. 



Art. XVIIl. — Cooperh Rotative Piston. 

 Communicated for this Journal, by the Inventor and Proprietors. 



REJtIARKS. 



As we have had good opportunities of seeing, in full ope- 

 ration, the engines described in the following papers, and 

 have been much impressed with a conviction of their supe- 

 riority over those in common use, we publish the following 

 account, designedly left imperfect, as regards the construc- 

 tion, but not as regards the practical effect ; hoping, with 

 the aid of the prints, to draw the public attention to the subject. 

 The first part of this article is original, and it is completed, by 

 extracts from the printed papers issued by the proprietors, 

 who appear to us not to have overrated their engines. At a 

 future time, after they have secured their invention abroad, as 

 well as at home, a more detailed account may be given. — Ed. 



This invention originated with John Milton Cooper* of 



* A young man of a vigorous intellect, and strong inventive powers, who (liv- 

 ing until that time, in the forest,) by a happy thought, hit upon this fine in- 

 vention; before he had ever seen or heard the word hydraulics, or knew that 

 there was such a thing as atmospheric or hydrostatic pressure, — Ed. 



Vol. XTL— No. 2. 1 3 



