m 
Steam Engine. 
through a pipe to be guided by the hand. This may be 
carried by a man on his breast, hung by straps round his 
neck and must have two stirrups pending from the lower 
end of the piston rod. 
Fifty men thus equipped, who would on an alarm, pro» 
ceed immediately to the fire, and on their way fill their en» 
gines and ascend to the roof, or upper loft, or as the case 
may be, to come near the fire ; then by stooping and put* 
ting their feet in the stirrups, and straightening themselves, 
they might exert such force as to eject the water thirty 
feet, horizontally, or fifteen feet perpendicularly, to strike 
the burning materials. Three hundred gallons of water, 
early applied and so immediately powerful to the spot 
wanting it, would extinguish most fires before the great 
engines could get into play. But the great engines must 
be preserved, and used on other occasions, O. E. 
Extract from the ( Philadelphia) Democratic Press of 
January 28, 1813, 
An experiment was lately made in Charles River, 
near Boston, to shew the velocity of a steam boat, con- 
structed for the conveyance of passengers, &c. in the Mid- 
dlesex canal. The boat was driven seven miles and six 
furlongs in sixty minutes ; and there is no doubt by the 
best informed that it will go nine miles.” 
The steam engine in the said boat was constructed by 
Oliver Evans, on his improved principles adapted to the 
purpose of propelling boats and land carriages ; and which 
he is convinced, will propel boats ten miles and upwards 
per hour, through still water. 
The improvements made by Mr, Watt, may be sum- 
med up thus, 
1st. Condensing the steam in a vessel separate and at^ 
a distance from the cylinder, which is now no longer 
VqI. IL E e 
