160 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



tices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the following state- 

 ments are made, under date of September 20, 1875 : 



The steam-engine of which you possess a relic was, as you suppose, the first ever 

 erected on tbi" continent. It was imported from England, in the year 1753, by Col. 

 John Schuyler, for the purpose of pumping water from his copper mine opposite 

 Belleville, near Newark, New Jersey. The mine was rich in ore, but had been worked 

 as deep as hand and horse- power could clear it of water. Colonel Schuyler having 

 heard of the success with which steam-engines (then called fire-engines) were used 

 in the mines of Cornwall, determined to have one in his mine. He accordingly re- 

 quested his London correspondents to procure an engine, and to send out with it an 

 engineer capable of putting it up and in operation. This was done in the year named, 

 and Josiah Hornblower, a young man then in his twenty-fifth year, was sent to 

 superintend it. The voyage was a long and perilous one. Mr. Hornblower expected 

 to return as soon as the engine was in successful operation. But the proprietor in- 

 duced him to remain, and in the course of a couple of years he married Miss Kings- 

 land, whose father owned a large plantation adjoining that of Colonel Schuyler. 

 The late Chief Justice Hornblower was the youngest of a large family of children 

 which resulted from this marriage. Mr. Hornblower's father, whose name was 

 Joseph, had been engaged in the business of constructing engines in Cornwall from 

 their first introduction in the mines there, about 1740, and had been an engineer and 

 engine builder from the first use of steam-engines in the arts, about 1720. The en- 

 gines constructed by him and his sons were the kind known as Newcomen's engines 

 or Cornish engines. That brought to America by Josiah was of this description. 

 Watt, had not then invented his separate condenser, nor the use of high pressure. 

 But it is generally conceded that for pumping purposes the Cornish engine has still 

 no superior. 



After 1760 the Schuyler mine was worked for several years by Mr. Hornblower him- 

 self. The approach of the war, in 1775, caused the operations to cease. Work was 

 resumed, however, in 1792, and was carried on for several years by successive parties. 

 It fiually ceased altogether early in this century, and the old engine was broken up 

 ar.d the materials disposed of, The boiler, a large copper cylinder, standing upright, 

 H or 10 feet high and as mnch in diameter, with a flat bottom and a dome-shaped 

 top, was carried to Philadelphia. The relic in your possession was a portion of the 

 cylinder, and was purchased by some person in Newark. 



In 1864 I met an old man named John Van Emburgh, then a hundred years old, who 

 had worked on the engine when it was in operation in 1792. He described it very 

 minutely and, I doubt not, accurately. It is from his description that I happened to 

 know the kind of engine it was; although, from the date of its construction and the 

 use to which it was put, there could have been but little doubt on the subject. 



What changes have been wrought in 125 years. What mighty power has been 

 created on this contiueut in that time by the multiplication and improvement of the 

 steam-engine. We may well look upon this relic with a sort of superstitious venera- 

 tion, and looking forward as well aa backward, wonder what another century will 

 bring forth. 



An important addition has also been made to the steamboat series 

 by the authorities of Stevens Institute, Hoboken, New Jersey, who de- 

 posited two drawings, made by Fulton's hand, about 1807. One is a 

 draft of the machinery of the historic steamboat, which he at first called 

 the Catherine of Clermont. The other is a drawing of the Chancellor 

 Livingston, another steamboat constructed by Fulton shortly after the 

 Clermont was put in service. 



A most interesting relic has been added to the series illustrating the 

 history of the locomotive, namely, the original boiler of the locomotive 



