It is not to the historic page, but to the calm unobtrusive volumes of scientific record, that we must turn to be enlightened with respect to the mental and mechanical achievements of the Marquis of Worcester; and we must at the same time not overlook the fact, that many branches of science were, in his day, but just emerging from that thraldom of empiricism, which had for centuries clouded every department of philosophical research.
The Marquis of Worcester was so essentially a scientific, and not a literary man, that Horace Walpole acted most inconsistently in classing him among his Royal and Noble Authors. That brilliant cynic, however, had a purpose to serve, and although he found in the Marquis a vein of pursuit of which he was totally ignorant, he presumed to criticise the "Century," and to question its author's veracity; a charge which, if established, even in a minor degree, would serve a political purpose, by proving the Marquis to be unreliable in other respects, and thus weakening his authority in religion and politics. But the dilettante Walpole, a connoisseur in paintings and works of vertu, was, in matters of science, more ignorant of the Marquis of Worcester's worth, than was the equally satirical Voltaire of Shakspeare's genius. Hume, the historian, attracted by the sparkling wit of Walpole, adopted without examination, his plausible criticism, unconscious of its superficiality and absolute untruthfulness in every respect.
We would here notice the probable cause of the Marquis's indefatigable study of, and attention to, practical mechanics. As in the time of Charles II., so also during the reign of his father, there is reason to believe that some distinguished public officer was appointed to superintend Government works connected with the army and navy, and that they were situated at Vauxhall. It was probably a department similar to that held in 1661, by Sir Samuel Morland, designated Master of Mechanics. Otherwise how are we to account for the Marquis of Worcester's devoting his time, his energies, and his very fortune to inventions affecting mechanical appliances generally, and particularly to those connected with naval and military affairs, and hydraulic engines?
One of his inventions (No. 56) he exhibited to Charles I. at the Tower, and of another (No. 64) being an improvement in fire-arms, he observes it was "tried and approved before the King (Charles I.), and an hundred Lords and Commons." Then his great invention, the "Water-commanding Engine," was set up at Vauxhall in 1663, where it was certainly at work in 1667, or probably three years later. All these circumstances wear the aspect of royal patronage, of public employment, and of the possession of influence suitable to the holder of a dignified position.
This view of the high and honourable public official position held by the Marquis is also borne out by the petition of William Lambert, about 1664, to be found in the State Paper Office. It was addressed to Charles II. and sets forth:—"That your petitioner was founder to his late Majesty of blessed memory, in Vauxhall, under the Marquis of Worcester, for gun and water-work, or any other thing founded in brass." Nothing surely can be more certain than that the Marquis's was a public situation, and his "Century" affords ample evidence of his aptitude in that respect for the post which he filled; nor can we better account for his numerous improvements in fire-arms, cannon, sailing vessels, fortifications, and embankments.
His "Century of Inventions" is the mere syllabus or outline of a proposed larger work, for he concludes with the statement of his—"meaning to leave to posterity a book, wherein under each of these heads the means to put in execution and visible trial all and every of these inventions, with the shape and form of all things belonging to them, shall be printed by brassplates,"—the usual substitute at that time for copperplates. It is most unfortunate that he did not live to complete his projected publication. But in common candour let it not be forgotten that, the promise thus placed before us was published in 1663, not long before the devastating plague, which almost depopulated the metropolis in 1665, and the terrible conflagration of 1666, which laid waste the city of London; and that it was in the midst of the accumulated calamities thus inflicted on society, that his health appears to have suddenly given way; aged, harassed, disappointed, and dismayed, he was prematurely called to his long rest on the 3rd of April, 1667; but whether he died at Vauxhall, at the family town mansion, Worcester House, in the Strand, or at some other place is unknown; so little was he understood or esteemed for his intellectual capacity at the period of the Restoration. As though it were not a sufficient infliction to be ruined, dishonoured, oppressed, and neglected while living, it would almost appear that events conspired to lessen, if possible, the lustre of his memory by the dark shades of apocryphal history; which ascribed the invention of the steam-engine to the pretended fact of the Marquis while in imprisonment, having seen a pot lid blown off by the expanding steam; made out against him a false case of political forgery; and, worse than all, scandalously forged a letter in Paris to make it appear that in 1641 the Marquis borrowed his idea of the steam engine from Salomon De Caus, during a visit to the Bicêtre, at Paris. The fact that this same De Caus died at Paris, and was buried in the Church of La Trinité, in February, 1626;[2] shows how requisite it is for rogues to remember historical dates.
On the 3rd of June, in 1663, the Parliament passed an Act securing to the Marquis of Worcester the full benefit and profit of his "Water-commanding Engine," for the term of ninety-nine years. And in the same year he printed his memorable "Century," in the Dedication of which he alludes to the above Act, as one by which he feels "sufficiently rewarded."
The "Century" is little more than a Catalogue Raisonné, although each matter of invention is as fully and intelligibly stated as was required in the Patent office specifications of the period. To give some idea of its contents, we shall enumerate only the first twenty-five. 1. Seals abundantly significant; 2. private and particular to each owner; 3. a one line cipher; 4. reduced to a point; 5. varied significantly to all the 24 letters; 6. a mute and perfect discourse by colours; 7. to hold the same by night; 8. to level cannon by night; 9. a ship-destroying engine; 10. how to be fastened from aloof and under water; 11. how to prevent both; 12. an unsinkable ship; 13. false destroying decks; 14. multiplied strength in little room; 15. a boat driving against wind and tide; 16. a sea-sailing fort; 17. a pleasant floating garden; 18. an hour-glass fountain; 19. a coach-saving engine; 20. a balance waterwork; 21. a bucket fountain; 22. an ebbing and flowing river; 23. an ebbing and flowing castle clock; 24. a strength increasing spring; and 25. a double drawing engine for weight.
We find in the "Century" that three of the articles refer to improved seals and watches; two to games; two to arithmetic and perspective; six to automata, or self-acting mechanical contrivances; no less than twenty-three to ciphers, correspondence, and signals: in short, secret writing and telegraphs; ten to useful appliances in domestic affairs; nine are wholly mechanical; upwards of thirty-two were intended for use in naval and military affairs; and thirteen, including his Water-commanding Engine, were connected with hydraulics. It is singular that he professes "to have tried and perfected all these," words of great import in all matters of novel invention.