"Dated in London this 27th day of January, 1832."
This was sent to Mr. Davies Gilbert, who on the same date suggested the following:—
"Recommendation of Mr. Rd. Trevithick, January 27, 1832.
"We have not any doubt or hesitation in recommending Mr. Richard Trevithick as a man of extraordinary powers of mind, and of fertility of invention.
"Cornwall owes to him much of the improvements that have been made on Mr. Watt's engine—improvements that have reduced the consumption of coal to a third; nor have his exertions been confined to steam-engines alone. He now proposes to make the same water act over and over again by alternate expansion and contraction, which plan, if it succeeds, will be found of immense importance to vessels and locomotive engines.
"Understanding that Mr. Trevithick is desirous of making the experiment at his own expense, we clearly recommend that facilities may be afforded him."[207]
This paltry question with the Admiralty indirectly produced more trustworthy evidence of the great importance of Trevithick's inventions than all that has been written of him under the professional terms Engineers, and Engineering.
The names are not given of those who believed that he had, as an established fact, reduced the consumption of coal in the Watt engine to one-third; they were not Cornishmen, or they would not have misspelt the word Hayle, but they understood the great value of using the same fresh water over and over again in marine steam-engines.
Mr. Mills, who had taken an active part in the screw-propeller experiments in 1815, was again interested in the proposed trial in a Government ship, and wrote, "I have just left Captain Johnstone; he has communicated with Faucett and Co., Barnes and Miller, and with the firm of Maudslay. He has had his mind disturbed again by Maudslay about the greater quantity of water required to condense steam at higher temperatures; I repeated the same as yourself, about the cylinder full of steam, atmosphere strong; however, he appears quite different to what he was on Friday." Such a clique of professional friends would sink a stronger man than Trevithick. A year or two from that time the writer designed a high-pressure steam-engine suitable for a steamboat, and on presenting it to the eminent marine-engine builders whom he served, was told that the lightness of the engine would cause less profit to the makers. Their bills were based on the pounds weight delivered, and new designs necessitated new patterns and new troubles. It was unreasonable to expect those makers of marine steam-engines to report that Trevithick knew better than they did. They knew of his screw-propeller experiments fifteen years before, but they in no way benefited him, and the Admiralty Captain was either a tool in their hands, or powerless without them.
The primary object, when the loan of the ship was asked, was the using for marine purposes a high-pressure steam tubular boiler, combined with tubular condenser, supplying or returning its water as feed, thereby avoiding the use of salt water in the boiler; and this steam-engine, as shown in his patent of 1831, was to be applied either to his screw, or his duck's foot, or other propeller; but during the year or two of suspense, other schemes for propelling ships had occupied his thoughts, resulting in the patent of 1832.