Loud as the stentorphornic noise.”
[ [18] His first idea seems to have been to employ gunpowder for the production of motive power, for in the ‘Calendar of State Papers’ (Dom) we find the following entry:—“Decr. 11th, 1691.—Warrant for a grant to Sir Samuel Morland of the sole use for 14 years of his invention for raising water out of pits, &c., to a reasonable height, by the force of powder and air conjointly.”—(‘Entry Book,’ V., p. 85.) In vol. XLVI., p. 49, we find this entry under the same date:—“Warrant for a grant to Sir S. Morland of the sole making of an engine invented by him for raising water in mines or pits, draining marshes, or supplying buildings with water.”
[ [19] The ‘Harleian Miscellany’ (Brit. Mus.), No. 5771, contains the following brief tract in French, written by Morland in 1682. It is on vellum, and entitled ‘Les Principes de la Nouvelle Force de Feu:’—“L’eau estant evaporée par la force de feu, ces vapeurs demandent incontinant une plus grand’espace [environ deux mille fois] que l’eau n’occupoiet auparavant, et plus tost que d’etre toujours emprisonnés, feroient crever une piece de canon. Mais estant bien gouvernées selon les regles de la statique, et par science reduites a la mesure au poids, et à la balance, alors elles portent paisiblement leurs fardeaux [comme des bons chevaux] et ainsy seroient elles du grand usage au gendre humain, particulièrement pour l’elevation des eaux, selon la table suivante que marque les nombres des livres qui pourrant estre levés 1800 fois par heure, à 6 pouces de levée, par de cylindres à moitie remplies d’eau, ausi bien que les divers diametres et profondeurs des dit cylindres.” Tables are then given, showing the power requisite to raise given quantities of water to certain heights by cylinders of different dimensions.
[ [20] M. Bergenroth says the documents at Simancas consist of—1. A holograph letter of Blasco Garay to the Emperor, dated Malaga, 10th Sept., 1540, containing his report on the trial trip of one of his paddle-wheel ships; 2. The report of the Captain Antonio Destigarura on the same trial trip; 3. The report of the Provcedores of Malaga concerning the same trip, dated 27th July, 1540; 4. The report of Blasco Garay to the Emperor, dated 6th July, 1543, concerning the trial trip of another of his paddle-wheel ships made at Barcelona in June, 1543; 5. A letter of Blasco Garay to Carrs, dated 20th June, 1543. In none of these is there to be found any reference to steam-power; but only to the power of men employed in driving the paddle-wheels. This is confirmed by the independent examination of the same documents by J. Macgregor, Esq., of the Temple, who gives the result in a Letter to Bennet Woodcroft, Esq., inserted as a note to the ‘Abridgments of the Specifications relating to Steam Propulsion,’ pp. 105–7.
[ [21] Burn, ‘History of Foreign Protestant Refugees,’ 261.
[ [22] In a letter, dated Shilston, August 9th, 1727, he writes:—“The late Mr. Thomas Savery, inventor of the engines for rowing, and raising water by fire, was, I believe, well known to several of the Royal Society, perhaps to the President; but as I am a perfect stranger, do acquaint you that his father was youngest brother to my grandfather. The late Servington Savery, M.D., of Marlborough, was one of my family, viz., a brother to my deceased father.”
[ [23] It is now in the possession of Capt. Lowe, of the 26th Regiment, whose grand-aunt was a Miss Savery of Shilston.
[ [24] ‘Navigation Improved; or the Art of Rowing Ships of all rates in calms, with a more easy, swift and steady motion than oars can. Also, a description of the engine that performs it; and the Author’s answer to all Mr. Drummer’s objections that have been made against it. By Tho. Savery, Gent. London, 1698.’
[ [25] Mr. Davies Gilbert says even this method was comparatively modern, as he remembered a carpenter who used to boast that he had assisted in making the first whim ever seen westward of Hayle.—Davies, ‘Parochial History of Cornwall,’ London, 1838, ii. 83.
[ [26] Borlase, ‘Natural History of Cornwall,’ 175–6.