adelphia was granted to him. About this time he
became absorbed in the hard work of writing a book, the "Millwright and
Miller's Guide", which he published in 1795, but at a heavy sacrifice
to himself in time and money. A few years later he had an established
engine works in Philadelphia and was making steam engines of his own
type that performed their work satisfactorily.

The Oruktor Amphibolos, or Amphibious Digger, which came out of his shop
in 1804, was a steamdriven machine made to the order of the Philadelphia
Board of Health for dredging and cleaning the docks of the city. It was
designed, as its name suggests, for service either in water or on shore.
It propelled itself across the city to the river front, puffing and
throwing off clouds of steam and making quite a sensation on the
streets.

Evans had never forgotten his dream of the "steam wagon." His Oruktor
had no sooner begun puffing than he offered to make for the Philadelphia
and Lancaster Turnpike Company steamdriven carriages to take the place
of their six-horse Conestoga wagons, promising to treble their profits.
But the directors of the road were conservative men and his arguments
fell on deaf ears.

In the same year Evans petitioned Congress for an extension of the
patent on his flour-milling machinery, which was about to expire. He
had derived little profit from this important invention, as the new
machinery made its way very slowly, but every year more and more millers
were using it and Evans received royalties from them. He felt sure that
Congress would renew his patent, and, with great expectations for the
future, he announced a new book in preparation by himself to be called
"The Young Engineer's Guide". It was to give the most thorough treatment
to the subject of the steam engine, with a profusion of drawings to
illustrate the text. But Evans reckoned without the millers who were
opposing his petition. Though they were profiting by his invention, they
were unwilling to pay him anything, and they succeeded in having his
bill in Congress defeated. It was a hard blow for the struggling author
and inventor. His income cut off, he was obliged to reduce the scale
of his book "and to omit many of the illustrations he had promised."
He wrote the sad story into the name of the book. It came out under the
title of "The Abortion of the Young Engineer's Guide".

Four years later, when Congress restored and extended his patent, Evans
felt that better day