214 
Steam Engine* 
can ail inventor do more than to insure the perform- 
ance of his inventions ? Or, I will make the engine and 
apparatus, at a fair price, and warrant its utility for the 
pur}X)se of conveying heavy burthens on good turnpike 
roadi:). 
I feel it just to declare that, with Mr. Latrohe^ I my- 
self did believe, that with the ponderous and feeble steam 
engine, now used in boats, they could never be made use- 
ful in competition with sail boats, or to ascend the Missis- 
sippi ^ esteeming the current more powerful than it is. 
But I rejoice that, with him I have been mistaken ; for 
I have lived to see boats succeed well with those engines ; 
and I still hope to see them so completely excelled and 
out-run by using my engines, as to induce the proprie- 
tors to exchange the old for the new, more cheap and 
more poiverful principles. 
I have been highly delighted in reading a correspon- 
dence between John Stevens^ Esq. and the commission- 
ers appointed by the legislature of Nexv York^ for fixing 
on the scite of the great canal proposed to be cut in that 
state. Mr. Stevens has taken a most comprehensive and 
very ingenious view of this important subject, and his jfian 
of rail- ways for the carriages to run upon, removes all the 
difficulties that remained. I have had the pleasure, also, 
of hearing gentlemen of the keenest penetration, and of 
great mechanical and plfilosophical talents, freely give 
into the belief, that steam carriages will become very use- 
ful. Mr. John Ellicott, (of John) proposed to make roads 
of substances, such as the best turnpikes are made with, 
with a path for each wheel to run on, having a rail- way on 
posts in tiie middle to guide the tongue of the wagon, 
and to prevent any other carriage from travelling on it. 
Then, if the wheels were made broad and the paths 
smooth, there would be very little wear. Such roads 
might be cheaply made ; they would last a long time, and 
