Nathan Read, who has already been [mentioned], a native of Warren, Mass., where he was born in the year 1759, and a graduate of Harvard College, was a student of medicine, and subsequently a manufacturer of chain-cables and other iron-work for ships. He invented, and in 1798 patented, a nail-making machine. He was at one time (1800-1803) a Member of Congress, and, later, a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and Chief Justice in Hancock County, Me., after his removal to that State in 1807. He died in Belfast, Me., in 1849, at the age of ninety years.
Fig. 73.—Read’s Boiler in
Section, 1788.
Fig. 74.—Read’s Multi-Tubular
Boiler, 1788.
In the year 1788 he became interested in the problem of steam-navigation, and learned something of the work of Fitch. He first attempted to design a boiler that should be strong, light, and compact, as well as safe. His first plan was that of the “Portable Furnace-Boiler,” as he called it; it was patented August 26, 1791. As designed, it consisted, as seen in [Figs. 73] and [74], which are reduced from his patent drawings, of a shell of cylindrical form, like the now common vertical tubular boiler. A is the furnace-door, B a heater and feed-water reservoir, D a pipe leading the feed-water into the boiler,[72] E the smoke-pipe, and F the steam-pipe leading to the engine. G is the “shell” of the boiler, and H the fire-box. The crown-sheet, I I, has depending from it, in the furnace, a set of water-tubes, b b, closed at their lower ends, and another set, a a, which connect the water-space above the furnace with the water-bottom, K K. L is the furnace, and M the draught-space between the boiler and the ash-pit, in which the grates are set.
This boiler was intended to be used in both steamboats and steam-carriages. The first drawings were made in 1788 or 1789, as were those of a peculiar form of steam-engine which also resembled very closely that afterward constructed in Great Britain by Trevithick.[73] He built a boat in 1789, which he fitted with paddle-wheels and a crank, which was turned by hand, and, by trial, satisfied himself that the system would work satisfactorily.
He then applied for his patent, and spent the greater part of the winter of 1789-’90 in New York, where Congress then met, endeavoring to secure it. In January, 1791, Read withdrew his petitions for patents, proposing to incorporate accounts of new devices, and renewed them a few months later. His patents were finally issued, dated August 26, 1791. John Fitch, James Rumsey, and John Stevens, also, all received patents at the same date, for various methods of applying steam to the propulsion of vessels.