THE SCREW PROPELLER.
In 1781, when the steam engine, only recently improved by Watt, was merely applied to the more obvious purposes of mine drainage and the like, Darwin, in his Botanic Garden, wrote—
"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd Steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car."
And in an appended note prophecies that the new agent might "in time be applied to the rowing of barges, and the moving of carriages along the road." The ingenious chronicler of the "loves of the plants," however, was in no doubt, when he wrote, aware of the experiments of D'Auxiron, Perier, and De Jouffroy; those prosecuted at Dalswinton and in America were some years later, about 1787-8 I think. But in another and less widely known poem by the same author, the Temple of Nature, published in 1802, there occurs a very complete anticipation of one of the most important applications of science to navigation, which may prove as novel and striking to some of your readers as it did to me. It is, indeed, a remarkable instance of scientific prevision. In a note to line 373, canto ii. of the poem, the author sets out with, "The progressive motion of fish beneath the water is produced principally by the undulation of their tails;" and after giving the rationale of the process, he goes on to say that "this power seems to be better adapted to push forward a body in the water than the oars of boats;" concluding with the query, "Might not some machinery resembling the tails of fish be placed behind a boat so as to be moved with greater effect than common oars, by the force of wind or steam?"
Anon.