Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/25

 us. xi. JAN. 2, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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or quite touching the Circus is Coventry Street, easily covering the top of the Hay- market.

My memory may be at fault, but my impression is that the little bit of Picca- dilly which extends from the Circus to the Haymarket used to be spoken of as Coventry Street. Similarly I think that it is not unusual for (Lower) Regent Street to be called Waterloo Place.

I do not contend that I was not mistaken in my foot-note at the third reference.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

SCOTS GUARDS : REGIMENTAL HISTORIES (11 S. x. 447, 495). With further reference to your correspondent's inquiry for a biblio- graphy of military books, I have since met with another work of some importance, namely, " A Bibliography of English Military Books up to 1642, by Maurice J. D. Cockle . . . .with an introductory note by Charles Oman," 4to., published in 1900 at 25s. net ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.

THE WILD HUNTSMAN : HERLOTHINGI <11 S. viii. 487; ix. 15, 76, 152, 197, 232). Some time since a question concerning the wild hunt in England or Britain ap- peared in ' N. & Q.' The querist should consult ' Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx,' by John Rhys, 1901, vol. i. pp. 203, 216.

M. P.

EARLY STEAM - ENGINES : ABRAHAM POTTER : HUMPHREY POTTER (11 S. x. 450). According to J. T. Desaguliers, ' A Course of Experimental Philosophy ' (1744), vol. ii. pp. 532, 533 :

"About the Year 1710. Tho. Neivcomen, Iron- monger, and John Galley, Glazier, of Dartmouth in the County of Southampton (Anabaptists), made then several Experiments in private, and having brought it to work with a Piston, &c., in the latter End of the Year 1711, made Proposals to draw the Water at Griff in Warwickshire ; but their Invention meeting not with Reception, in March following, thro' the Acquaintance of Mr. Potter of Sromsgrove in Worcestershire, they bargain'd to draw Water for Mr. Back of Wolverhampton, where, after a great many laborious Attempts, they did make the Engine work .... They used before to work with a Buoy in the Cylinder inclos'd in a Pipe, which Buoy rose when the Steam was strong, and open'd the Injection, and made a Stroke ; thereby they were capable of only giving six, eight, or ten Strokes in a Minute, 'till a Boy, Humphry Potter, who attended the Engine, added (what he call'd Scoggan) a Catch that the Beam Q always open'd : and then it would go 15 or 16 Strokes in a Minute."

Abraham Potter was associated with John Potter in the erection of an engine for

Mr. Andrew Wauchope of Edmonstone, Midlothian, 1725-7. The agreement and accounts in connexion with the building of this engine are given in Bald, ' A General View of the Coal Trade of Scotland,' 1812. The discharge of the account is acknow- ledged by John Potter in the presence of two witnesses, one of them being " Abraham Potter, my brother-german." Bald gives also the

" Articles of Agreement betwixt Mr. James Smith of Whitehill, proprietor of the Fir-Engine and Coal work of Whitehill, and Jno. and Abr. Potter, Engineers in Bishopric of Durham."

This relates to the repair of an existing engine.

Isaac Potter erected an engine at Konigs- berg, in Hungary, in 1722-4: he was most probably a brother to John and Abraham, but the writer has not met with a distinct statement to that effect. Leupold, ' Thea- trum Machinarum Hydraulicarum,' 1725, vol. ii. p. 94, gives an imperfect description and drawing of the engine, and credits Potter with being its inventor. He gives a letter, dated Vienna, 23 Dec., 1724, from which it appears that the engine had been running continuously for nine months, that Potter was still at Konigsberg, and had undertaken to remain there to super- intend the engine. Leupold does not give Potter's Christian name, but in recent years another drawing of this engine has been brought to light, in which the name of the engineer appears as Isaac Potter. See Conrad Matschoss, ' Die Entwicklung der Dampfmaschine,' 1908, vol. i. p. 309, and Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher In- genieure, 1905, vol. ii. p. 1794.

A steam-engine was set up in Paris in 1726, and it is very likely that John Potter was concerned in its erection. As to the story that Humphrey Potter became a skilled workman, and erected several engines on the Continent, so far as the writer is aware, there is no contemporary authority. Ap- parently the brief statement in Desaguliers has been the foundation of a number of Humphrey Potter stories, including the charming one by Arago, which will be found in "Historical Eloge of James Watt, by M. Arago, translated by J. P. Muirhead," 1839. RHYS JENKINS.

Since sending you my queries, my atten- tion has been called to a contemporary deed printed in Bald's ' General View of the Coal- Trade in Scotland ' (1812), in which Abraham Potter is described as a " brother-german " of John. L. L. K.