MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE. No. 937.] SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1841. Edited, Printed and Published by J. C. Robertson, No. 166, Fleet-street. [Price 3d. DESIGN FOR A STEAM VESSEL SUBMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY IN 1808, BY MR. THOMAS OXLEY. NEW CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE STEAM-ENGINE. In short, the Mechanics' Magazine has rendered those departments of science almost universal, and therefore, since mechanical knowledge has become so general and familiar, I must now remind your readers, that if they would judge justly, and award the merit that is due to the plan of Steam Navigation I invented thirty-four years ago, they must not judge by the present state of engineering; but endeavour to go back to the epoch of my invention, making proper allowances, and considering the then imperfect state of the mechanical sciences compared with what they are now. It is thus only that they can judge justly of the merits of the plan I forwarded to the Royal Society so many years ago. I must further remind them, that this is not one of the plans which I had formerly alluded to, as being superior to the engines, &c. on board the Great Western steam ship. Being the correspondence between Sir Joseph Banks, Baronet, President of the Royal Society, and Mr. Thomas Oxley; with the Plan of Steam Navigation Mr. Oxley forwarded to the Royal Society eight years before the general introduction of Steam Vessels in England. Sir,-Agreeably to my promise, I now forward for insertion, verbatim, the correspondence between myself and the late Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society of London, with facsimiles of the drawings of the plan that I then proposed for Steam Navigation, about eight years before Steam Vessels were seen on the Thames, or at least before they were brought into general use in England: and I hope your very numerous readers will have candour enough to bear in mind, that I had no example to copy from, and that the plan here submitted to their notice originated with myself, or in other words, was invented by me in the year 1807, and the very documents themselves prove the originality thereof. At that time I had never read, nor heard from any one, that Steam Navigation had even been thought of by any body before myself; in those days, that is to say, thirty-four years ago, there were no periodical publications on the Mechanical Sciences, or if there were, I can truly say that I never saw any of them; there was then no Mechanics' Magazine, nor anything similar. Here I must beg leave to remind your readers of the immense obligations, and of the debt of gratitude that the scientific public owe to the Editor and Publisher of the Mechanics' Magazine; for all the other cheap scientific periodicals, are nothing more than mere imitations of this very useful, original, and wellconducted work, which has stood its ground for eighteen years, and yet improves with age. Had it not been for the enlightenment, and the vast impetus given to mechanical studies and pursuits by that celebrated work, many hundreds, I might say thousands, of clever mechanicians, stimulated by the Mechanics' Magazine, and many of whom have distinguished themselves and greatly benefited society by their improvements, would have remained in total ignorance of the mechanical sciences, but for the information, and I may add, scientific inspiration which they derived from its pages. (Copy of the letter to Sir Joseph Banks, &c.) "Right Honourable and Learned Sir,Having often heard that ships are detained for several days, and sometimes for weeks, together from entering the desired port, or, of clearing out of the same, owing to the wind remaining contrary, and that ships are also frequently becalmed and unable to sail for many days in succession when on the wide ocean, I have within the last two or three years often thought that some mechanical means might be discovered which would completely obviate these difficulties, and accordingly, about twelve months ago, I sketched out a plan of machinery for this purpose, to be worked by a steam-engine inside, and revolving oars to be placed externally on each side of the ship or vessel in which the machinery may be fixed; and as I have never heard of such a thing being done by anybody else, I trust that the novelty of my invention will be a sufficient apology for my requesting your honour to present this communication and the accompanying plans to the notice of the Royal Society; for I have been told, that if my invention were approved of by that honourable and very learned body, that the government would then take up the matter, and assist me with ample means of bringing my plans into general use. The drawings represent different sections of a vessel intended to tow ships in and out of port when there is no wind for them to use their sails, or when the wind or tide is contrary. The same kind of steam-engine and machinery being properly fixed in a ship, or large vessel, would enable it to go forward on its voyage when becalmed for want of wind, and so help it into the trade winds, or proper current. As it is well known, if a ship had the means to be worked onward for two or three days, she might get out of the place that is becalmed, and by that means gain much in time and escape many dangers, and were my plan to be adopted, a ship then never need stand still, for when there was no wind, or when there was a contrary wind, the machinery would carry her forward, and when the wind favoured, the machinery could be stopped, and she could then use her sails, so that she would always be progressing to her destination. "Anxiously, but most respectfully hoping to hear that my invention meets with your approbation, and that of the Illustrious Society over which you preside, with so much honour to yourself, and such great benefit to literature and the arts and sciences, "Most Honourable and Learned Sir, I remain your very obedient humble servant. "THOMAS OXLEY. "St. John-street, Clerkenwell, Sept. 19, 1808. "To the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Baronet, President of the Royal Society, &c. &c." Description of the Drawings of a Plan for moving Ships in a calm, or of sailing by means of a Steam Engine and Revolving Oars. Fig. 1, (see front page,) is a bird'seye-view of the ship, or vessel with the machinery therein. In which, S S, represents the steam pipe; C, the cylinder; B B B, the bevil wheels; OO, the oars; h, the handle, or lever to throw the wheels in and out of gear, and to reverse the motion of the revolving oars without stopping the engine. The dotted square is the iron platform which supports the cylinder, &c.; r r, rods to connect the motion with the cranks and piston rod. E, the escape valve; W W, the condenser, water pumps, &c.; P, pipe to supply the boiler from the force-pump in WW; F, the chimney, and G the water gauge; nn, the fly-wheel; xx, the outline of the bevel wheels; B g and B d, serving also to represent the iron braces which support and keep the oars in their proper places. Fig. 2, in this drawing the same let ters refer to the same parts of the machinery as in fig. 1, only some things, as the lever, or handle h, are omitted, to prevent confusion in the delineation. By looking at these drawings, the manner of the engines, acting will be easily understood; to the top of the piston rod is fixed an arm, or cross-bar of iron, which slides up and down two upright iron rods k k; near the ends of this bar is fixed two long rods of iron with freedom to vibrate thereon; the end of each rod r r, is fitted in like manner to a double crank, so that by the rising and falling of the piston in the cylinder, the cranks are made to revolve, and thereby, the fly wheel n n, and also the bevel wheel B, being upon the same axle as the double crank are both turned thereby. The bevel wheels Bd and Bg are fixed upon a square iron tube or socket vv, of which the circular collar t forms a part; and this socket, and the two bevel wheels upon it, slide backwards and forward on the large axle A A, which carries round the revolving oars. Now it is plain, that if we press the lever h against the circular collar t, we can place the two bevel wheels Bd and B g, so as neither of them will touch the bevel wheel B, and that we can thereby stop the progress of the vessel in a moment, and that without stopping the engine; and it will also be seen, that, as represented in the drawing, fig. 1, the bevel wheel Bg is in gear with the bevel wheel B, the vessel is going forward, but by means of the lever h, and the circular collar t, we can bring the bevel wheel Bd in contact with the wheel B, the motion of the revolving oars is instantly reversed, and thereby, that of the ship or vessel also. In reply to the foregoing communication on the subject of Navigation by Steam, Sir Joseph Banks sent me the following reply, dated— "Revesly Abbey, October 21, 1808. "Sir, I have received your Letter respect ing a Contrivance for moving a Ship in a Calm by means of Oars, of which you have given a full Description, with Drawings. Whether my own Judgment on matters of this Kind, founded on Some, the rest on much experience in naval matters, and acquired many years ago, is Sufficient to Enable me to Form a just opinion on matters of this nature, is for others to determine. Such as it is, however, I am sorry to Say that it does not Lead me to any hopes of your Plan being more successful than many others, intended for the Purpose of moving ships by Oars, have been, all of which have entirely Fail'd. "Under these Circumstances you will no doubt excuse me when I decline to undertake the office of Presenting your Paper to the Royal Society, as I am not in the Habit of Presenting to that body matters of any kind that do not meet my full approbation. "I beg leave also to Suggest to You, that as the Board of Admiralty must Finally Judge of the merit of Your invention, and possess the means of bringing it to a Trial, which the Royal Society cannot do, it will therefore be better in the first instance to Communicate it to them, than to offer it to a Society that has no Superintendence over, or Concern with, maritime affairs. "I am, Sir, "Your Very Humble Servant, "Jos: BANKS. "I will deliver your paper to any person who shall call for it, from you, at my house, in Soho-square, where I shall be in about three weeks." "To Mr. Thomas Oxley, &c." The preceding letter was the reply to my proposal of steam navigation, as written by the generally considered very learned President of the Royal Society of London, which I have given to your readers word for word, with the capital letters to almost every third or fourth word; but I have not given it according to his extraordinary system of orthography, lest they might think the mis-spellings were mine instead of his. It might be thought by many persons, that such a reply, from such a (what the world calls) great man, would have so much damped my ardour in the pursuit of mechanical discoveries, that I should instantly have given up all thoughts of steam navigation, and every thing connected with the mechanical sciences, but I was not to be so easily discouraged; for I had been at Birmingham, and other places, where I had had opportunities of seeing steam-engines at work, though I had never seen any on the same plan as that sent in my communication to the Royal Society; and I had well considered in my own mind, that an agent so immensely powerful as the steam-engine might be successfully employed for many useful purposes, besides rolling and slitting of metal and pumping water out of the mines. With this strong conviction of the ultimate success of the application of steam to the purposes of navigation, on having carefully perused Sir Joseph Banks's letter, and having observed that he had not said therein what his objections were, nor stated the reasons why the attempts of other persons had failed, I immediately formed the resolution of going to see Sir Joseph himself, and hear from him what objections he could urge against the invention, and also learn from him what had been the causes of failure in others who had made similar attempts: for I believed that by a personal interview I could easily remove all objections from the mind of Sir Joseph, and fully convince him of the practicability of my invention, and, by showing him that I would avoid those causes of failure which had rendered others unsuccessful, induce the Honourable Baronet to reconsider my plan, and so have got his recommendation and that of the Royal Society; for I was then simple enough to think, that, under such patronage, my invention could not fail of making my fortune. Accordingly, buoyed up with these flattering hopes, I went to the house in Soho-square, a day or two after the receipt of Sir Joseph Banks's letter, to ascertain, if possible, the very day when the Honourable Baronet would be in town; and I was very civilly told by those attending in his house, that something had occurred which would cause Sir Joseph to be in town about a fortnight sooner than had been expected; and that if I would call again in eight or nine days, I should be sure to see him. I went again at the stated time, and having given my name, was ushered into the study of this very learned personage; and, after I had made my obeisance to his honour, he addressed me in this manner: "I am glad to see you, Mr. Oxley. And so you are the young gentleman that fancies he could make ships to sail by means of steam-engines-very extraordinary, indeed, young gentleman -take a seat, and draw near me, for I shall feel very happy to convince you of the impracticability, I may say the impossibility, of yourself or any body else ever being able to sail or na |