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prize committee of this Society awarded him a silver medal and a 
prize of five sovereigns, pointing out in their report that the stern 
paddles, as they call the propellers, “ can be kept altogether under 
water and out of the reach of surf, and answer equally well in rough 
as in smooth sea.” 
Mr James Hunter of Thurston had introduced the invention suc- 
cessively to the Dunbar Institute, the Highland Society, and the 
Society of Arts. Notwithstanding the encouragement received from 
those Societies and the support given by various influential men, 
the Admiralty, to whom he again applied, declined to make any trial 
of the plan, and Mr Wilson had the mortification of seeing the 
simple screw introduced into the navy by Mr Smith of Hendon. 
Mr Wilson was, however, by no means the first who had thought 
of a screw as the propeller of a boat, and it must be admitted that 
he pushed the right and left hand geared screws in preference to the 
simple plan which was ultimately successful. He met with some 
reward indirectly, becoming known to many influential persons as an 
ingenious and able young mechanic; and ultimately in 1880 he had 
the satisfaction of receiving a sum of £500 from the Admiralty for 
the use of his double-action screw propeller as applied to the fish 
torpedo. 
In 1832 Mr Wilson was in business as an engineer in Edinburgh, 
in the North Back of the Canongate. A few years afterwards he 
went to Manchester, and in 1838 he was manager of the famous 
Bridgewater Foundry at Patricroft. That he should, with no edu- 
cational advantages, have attained this position at thirty-five years 
of age, is perhaps as high a testimony to his ability as his connec- 
tion with the screw propeller or even with his steam hammer itself. 
It is universally admitted that the conception of the steam hammer 
was due to Mr James Nasmyth, but Bobert Wilson was the 
inventor of important details which he considered essential to 
its success. On the one hand, we must remember that a steam 
hammer at Creuzot, suggested by Mr Nasmyth’s sketch, worked suc- 
cessfully with no assistance given by Mr Wilson ; but on the other 
hand, there is no doubt that some details largely used in connection 
with the hammer, as commonly made in England, were due wholly 
or in great part to Mr Wilson. There was unfortunately some dis- 
agreement between him and Mr Nasmyth on this point ; and indeed 
