tain, namely, the cylindrical flue boiler, which Oliver Evans
had invented and used in America years before the names of Trevithick
and Vivian were associated with the steam engine. Hence, they were
charged over fifty years ago with having stolen the invention of Mr.
Evans, and the charge has never been refuted. Hence when British
writers ignore the just claims of Oliver Evans and assert for
Trevithick and Vivian the authorship of the high pressure steam engine
and the locomotive, they thereby substantially acknowledge the
American origin of both inventions. They are not only of American
origin, but their author, although born in 1755, was nevertheless an
American of the second generation, seeing that he was descended from
the Rev. Dr. Evans Evans, who in the earlier days of the colony of
Pennsylvania came out to take charge of the affairs of the Episcopal
Church in Pennsylvania.
The writer has thus shown that with the patent granted by the State of
Maryland to Oliver Evans in 1787 were associated--first, the double
acting high pressure steam engine, which to-day is the standard steam
engine of the world; second, the locomotive, that is in worldwide use;
third, the steam railway system, which pervades the world; fourth, the
high pressure steamboat, which term embraces all the great ocean
steamships that are actuated by the compound steam engine, as well as
all the steamships on the Mississippi and its branches.
The time and opportunity has now arrived to assert before all the
world the American origin of these universally beneficent inventions.
Such a demonstration should be made, if only for the instruction of
the rising generation. Not a school book has fallen into the hands of
the writer that correctly sets forth the origin of the subject matter
of this paper. He apprehends that it is the same with the books used
in colleges and universities, for otherwise how could that parody on
the history of the locomotive, called "The Life of George Stephenson,
Railway Engineer," by Samuel Smiles, have met such unbounded success?
To the amazement of the writer, a learned professor in one of the most
important institutions of learning in the country did, in a lecture,
quote Smiles as authority on a point bearing on the history of the
locomotive! It is true that he made amends by adding, when his lecture
was published, a counter statement; but that such a man should have
seriously cited such a work shows the widespread mischief
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