Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/143

 9* s. v. FEB. 17, law.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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fact that " it was the old high way from Aldersgate streete for the Northeast parts o England before Bishopsgate was builded ('Survey,' ed. 1603, p. 433). It was equal! the exit from Cripplegate for Leyton an Epping.

MR. STEVENSON observes that the gen. t frequently disappears at an early date from local names, which is, of course, quite true but it has been retained in the other gat names, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, and Billings gate, and the cause of its disappearance in Aldgate would therefore seem to nee explanation. In conclusion, I may not that although the translation of the saintlj remains took place about 1010, Herman tell us that he compiled his work at the reques of Abbot Baldwin, who was dead at the time of writing. As this abbot died at the end of 1097 or the beginning of 1098, it i obvious that Herman made use of th< spelling Ealsegate less than thirty yean before we find the spelling Alegata in a roya

rant, and it seems unlikely that so wide i ivergence from the older orthography coulc have had effect within so brief a time.

W. F. PEIDEAUX.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE STEAM ENGINE (9 th S. v. 64). The advertisements cited by my friend R. B. P. are quite new to me, and pro- bably to most of your readers, and are parti- cularly interesting for more reasons than one. We have far too little information respecting these public demonstrations of the utility of inventions offered about this time to the public, and all inquirers would hail with delight any contemporary records of what passed when the spectators had been ad- mitted. We do know, however, from other sources, just what Savery had to offer to his mining public, and at what cost he was able to raise water, but shall perhaps never now be enlightened as to the results which the Marquis of Worcester had to show, though they must have been known to many. I have a broadside, issued by Sir Samuel Morland on 2 Feb., 1673/4, announcing that

"upon Thursday the Fifth of February between Eight and Ten in the Morning, Sir Samuel Morland will be in readiness in Mr. Packer's Yard, adjoining to Westminster-Hall, to wait on the Honourable Committee, appointed to view his Water - Engin, and will there endeavour to give them full Satis- faction, concerning the Particulars humbly Proposed in his Petition."

One would like to see the report of the com- mittee thereupon. Your correspondent has so intimate a knowledge of the early history of mechanical inventions, that it is with much diffidence that I make a suggestion as to the

possible explanation of the second advertise- ment.

This might have been issued in the inter- est of persons who were prepared to under- take commercially either of the following modifications of Savery's engine : (1) that of Papin, described in 1707, by which he at- tempted to diminish the loss of heat caused in Savery's engine by the actual contact of the steam with the water upon which it was pressing by means of a piston floating upon the water, and thus intervening between it and the steam ; (2) that of the fussy Dr. Desaguliers, who, as is well known, never tired in his attempts to depreciate Savery's admirable invention. He tells us ('Experi- mental Philosophy,' 1763, ii. 484) that in 1716 he began tostudy Savery's, "orratherthe Marquis of Worcester's," engine, that he made great improvements thereon, and ultimately made seven of these improved engines after the year 1717 or 1718, the first of which was for Peter the Great. The near accordance of these dates with those of the advertisement in 1721 makes it extremely probable that the conceited doctor was behind the projectors who were desirous of breaking into Savery's trade. He makes (op. cit., pp. 466, 488-9) very similar disparaging statements in regard to Savery's engine to those put forth in the ad- vertisement. His " improvements " of the engine itself were at this period really retro- gressions ; but, unlike Savery, he had the sagacity to avail himself of Papin's newly invented safety valve, and could thus work at higher steam pressures.

J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

In Beckmann's ' Hist, of Inventions ' (Bohn, 1846, vol. ii. p. vii) it is stated that the first actual working steam engine of which there s any record was invented by Capt. Savery, an Englishman, to whom a patent was granted n 1698, so that the advertisement to which attention is directed by R. B. P. in the Post Man of 19 to 21 March, 1702, had reference .o the same engine, which in the estimation >f the then expert had just been " brought to >erfection." Newsham's engine later was Apparently the first to throw water out in a ontinued stream (Beckmann, 1846, vol. ii. ). 252), and that it fulfilled its duties with ompetency appears from the Daily Advertiser f 8 April, 1742, where a fire is described as aying broken out at 6 A.M. in a stove himney of the "Mourning Bush" Tavern, Udersgate, which

in a short time consum'd that part of the House here it began, and burnt into the Fruiterer's ad- >ining, next to Aldersgate ; and if it had not been for ve or six engines of Mr. Newsham's making, and.