In Article No. 100, of the “Century,” however, it is shortly but expressly urged, as one important point, that the engine works, “with little charge, to drain all sorts of mines, &c.”

It appears from documents dated 1664, relating to Vauxhall, that Caspar Kaltoff is named therein as “lately deceased.”[P] So that in 1699 Thomas Savery was left in full possession of the field he had entered upon. The facts and dates now furnished, are not very favourable to the genuineness of Savery’s Invention. For it is not likely that all trace of the “Water-commanding Engine” would have been lost between 1670 and 1699, when Kaltoff’s family were still living, as also many persons who had witnessed the performance of the great engine at Vauxhall. It is true that the last we hear of it is not later than 1670, but it was then the property of the Dowager Marchioness, who died in 1681, and her Ladyship would most likely, from respect, as well as from personal interest in the matter, not permit the engine to be sold or destroyed. Then from 1681 to 1699, reduces the probability of its existence up to a period within 18 years, taking the dates to the uttermost limit, although we can easily understand that for the whole or a large portion of those 18 years Savery was in possession of all the facts he would require for coming before the public on the decease of Kaltoff, the Dowager Marchioness of Worcester, and the Duke of Beaufort; the latter being the last party interested in the invention, and likely, during his life, to frustrate such a design.

But what papers could he procure at Paternoster Row for destruction? 1. There was a pamphlet, being the Definition and Act, the latter printed in black letter. 2. There was the “Definition” itself, printed in the form of a posting bill. And, 3, there was the “Century.” All these were printed 1663 to 1664, and are editions which are now remarkably scarce. There are only about three copies of the Act, and one of the “Definition,” known to exist, while the few copies of the “Century” of 1663, are rarely indeed to be found in private collections. But, besides these, it was quite possible to procure, within 15 or 20 years after his decease, even manuscripts, drawings, and books, the property of the deceased Marquis, more or less referring to his great invention.

Even admitting that Savery was an independent inventor in 1699, notwithstanding so many conflicting circumstances pointing to a different conclusion, he could not have been working many years at York Buildings in the Strand, without hearing of the Engine at Vauxhall, invented by the proprietor of Worcester House in the Strand. This very propinquity alone was sufficient to excite in the mind of some intelligent, inquisitive, and observant visitor the fact, which so singular a coincidence would obviously suggest.

While, however, everybody else is viewing the engine of Savery’s reputed invention with astonishment, Savery himself is present to our mind only as a cold calculating man, proud, not of being a Captain over Mines, but of being designated “Gentleman;” and while thus precise to inform the world of his gentility, he leaves us in perfect ignorance of his mental acquirements, or the origin of the marvellous engine. It may appear to some, that his exhibiting of the model before the Royal Society is at once evidence of straightforwardness and uprightness of conduct. But this view is open to the objection, that he had never before shown the model, and he thanks the Royal Society for “countenancing this Invention on its first appearance in the world.” From the 25th of July 1698, to the 14th of June 1699, he had been nursing the invention in secret. What doubts could remain in his mind, when all persons likely to be most interested were no longer in existence? Men of science alone remained, who might possibly disturb his claims, and what means could be found more likely to set this doubt at rest, than a bold appeal to that learned body? And come of it what might, there would still remain to him the question of improvements; supposing the grand claim to originality to become a matter of dispute. But to Savery’s great satisfaction, if not to his greater surprise, so far from a word of dissent being raised, there was (contrary to all precedent) a certificate given in favour of the invention at Savery’s request.

Savery’s career may be taken as commencing in 1699, thirty-two years after the decease of the Marquis of Worcester, thirty-six years from the date of the “Century of Inventions,” or thirty-nine years after the establishment of the Royal Society, and yet his operations made slight impression on the public, and scarcely any on scientific society. This circumstance removes much of the surprise we might otherwise seriously entertain respecting the occasion of the Marquis of Worcester’s own publications and personal labours, during four arduous years of excessive mental and physical activity, leaving little behind to attest the extent of his operations and the precise nature of the difficulties with which he had to contend. Great strides must have been made in arts, manufactures and trade, during the intervening thirty-two years, all in favour of Savery’s progress, and yet, with the exception of Dr. Papin, scientific men were not attracted by the remarkable results which Savery prominently placed before the public; and Savery’s own exposition before the Royal Society is abridged to a single copper-plate engraving, and the shortest possible printed reference to its several details. Thus was this true mechanical prodigy of the age treated as though it were of little or no interest.

When we compare this long continued apathetic feeling, this absence of forecast to form some strikingly favourable judgment of the value of the novelty thus published, although in its earliest stage, with the superior knowledge on the subject evinced by the writings, labour, and conduct of the Marquis of Worcester, at least thirty-six years before Savery; it is then, and then only, perhaps, that we become fully alive to his almost prescient judgment, that could, as if inspired, prognosticate so truthfully as he did the future benefits of his invention to mankind.

69.

A way how a little triangle[2] scrued Key, not weighing a Shilling, shall[3] be capable and strong enough to bolt and unbolt round about a great Chest an hundred Bolts through fifty Staples, two in each, with a direct contrary motion, and as many more from both sides and ends, and at the self-same time shall fasten it to a place beyond a mans natural strength to take it away: and in one and the same turn both locketh and openeth it.

Footnotes