42 Perkins'' Steam Engine. 



country have constantly stood by me, or I must have sunk 

 under the pressure. This government have now given the 

 stamp business, to Perkins and Heath, which we should long 

 since have had, and the country thereby have been saved 

 thousands, but for the intrigues of an individual who is now 

 sent to Coventry. 



More than a dozen projectors have attempted to make 

 tubular bciiers, since I commenced my experiments, of gen- 

 erating steam by small quantities of water, under pressure ; 

 but for want, of pressure, (which is the novelty I claim in my 

 patent,) they have all failed. M'Curdy from New York, who 

 brought out Hawkins 1 project was the first who opposed me. 

 He stated that I had stolen Hawkins 1 invention, and gave an 

 air of probability to his assertion, by producing such evidence 

 from the United States as he hoped would substantiate it. 

 Yet he was altogether ignorant of my method of generating 

 high steam ; and indeed there are not, at this day ten persons 

 in the world who are wholly acquainted with it. M'Curdy 

 took out a patent in this country, and sold it to the amount 

 of ten thousand pounds ; reserving one-third to himself. He 

 has made three small steam boats ; one large enough to take 

 passengers to Richmond, but no one of them ever steamed 

 more than three miles an hour. The quantity of coal con- 

 sumed I could not learn; it must however have been too 

 great to answer, had there been no other objection, and they 

 have all been abandoned. Of all the methods yet contrived 

 to generate steam, this was the worst. Had the agent in this 

 business, been considered as the representative of the mechan- 

 ical talents of his country, it would have been most unfortu- 

 nate ; but such is not the case, as there are now here, four 

 Americans, who stand confessedly pre-eminent, viz. Mr. Lu- 

 kens of Philadelphia, Mr. Wright of New York, Dr. Church, 

 and Mr. Dyer of Boston. 



Brown's vacuum engine, has at length given over, although 

 its death was a very hard one. It was at last found, that al- 

 though at the beginning of the stroke, the mercury showed a 

 vacuum equal to twenty inches, yet his rarified air became, 

 towards the end of the stroke, more dense than the atmos- 

 phere, and there was, consequently a great loss from its re- 

 action. I had frequently predicted, that this would be the 

 case and am apprehensive that Morey's explosive engine will 

 be unavailable, from the same cause. 



Brown has certainly shown great ingenuity in the variety of 



