INVENTION OF STEAM ENGINES.
By J. O. Corliss
The honor of first applying steam to vessels, as a propelling power, is generally attributed by Americans to Robert Fulton, of New York. When public speakers make this statement without qualification, as they sometimes do, their assertion is very apt to be questioned, and not without good reason. That Fulton did make the first successful attempt which brought steam navigation into general use throughout the world, is not disputed; though it is well known that he was anticipated, even in the United States, by Fitch. Nearly two hundred years before that, however, the idea of procuring motion by steam was started by Brancas, in Italy, and soon after, it was used in England by the Marquis of Worcester. It is also further established by various documents found in the archives of Simancas, and published in Navarrete’s “Collection of Spanish Voyages and Discoveries,” that the first known experiment of propelling a vessel by steam was made at Barcelona, as early as the year 1543. Blasco de Garay, a sea-officer, proposed to exhibit before the emperor Charles V. a machine by which a vessel could be made to move without the assistance of sails or oars. Ridiculous as the offer appeared, upon the man’s earnest solicitation the emperor appointed a commission to witness and report the experiment, which took place June 17, 1543, on board a small vessel called the Trinidad, then lying in the harbor. Without any visible mechanism, except a huge boiler of hot water and a complicated combination of wheels and paddles, the vessel was moved forward and turned about at pleasure. The assembled multitude, filled with astonishment, made the harbor resound with applause. With the exception of one man, who, for some reason was prejudiced against the inventor, the commission all returned a favorable report, and Garay was taken into favor by the emperor. Charles, however, was at that time taken up with some military expedition, and suffered the occasion of conferring a great benefit on mankind to be neglected for the work of bloodshed and devastation. But this experiment at Barcelona, owing to the absence of the modern medium of communication,—newspapers,—was unknown to Fulton, as it was to the world generally at the time of making it. Hence the fact that a vessel was propelled by steam as early as the sixteenth century by no means detracts from the honors due to Fulton as being the first to bring steam, as a motive power, before the notice of the world. J. O. CORLISS.