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THE TWIN-SCREW PROPELLER OF JOHN STEVENS OF 1804, NOW ON EXHIBITION AT THE FAIR AT CHICAGO
The following account of the boat and engine of 1804, copied from an earlier American publication, is from "Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam Engine," published in London in 1829; Vol. II., page 467.
"At last he had recourse to Watt's engine *, with a cylinder 4.5 inches in diameter and a 9-inch stroke; the beam was omitted; the boiler 2 feet long, 15 inches wide, 12 inches high, consisted of 8I tubes each an inch in diameter; his boat was 25 feet long and 5 feet wide. This was tried in May 1804, and had a velocity of 4 miles an hour; after having made repeated trials with her, his son undertook to cross from Hoboken to New York, when unfortunately, as the boat nearly reached the wharf, the steam pipe gave way, having been put on with soft solder. This boiler being damaged, the next one was constructed with the tubes placed vertically. The engine was kept going for a fort-night or three weeks, the boat making excursions of 2 or 3 miles up and down the river; for a short distance he could make it sail at a rate of not less than 7 or 8 miles an hour."
The following extract, in relation to this twin-screw vessel, is from a paper by Dr. James Renwick, written in 1858, addressed to Frederick De Peyster, of New York, and read by the latter at a meeting of the New York Historical Society; and then published, in August of the same year, in the " Historical Magazine " No. S, of Vol.II. Doctor Renwick was Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in Columbia College, New York, for many years; and was the author of several treatises on the steam engine, among which was a much-quoted article "On the Steamboats of the United States of America," contributed to Tregold's "Treatise on the Steam Engine," published in London, 1838:
"The first time that I ever heard of an attempt to use steam for propelling vessels, was from a classmate of mine who resided during the summer months at Belleville, in New Jersey. He had, in the summer of 1803, seen an experiment on the Passaic River,
* The reciprocating rotative engine.
which he stated to have been directed by John Stevens of Hoboken. According to his account, the propulsion was attempted by forcing water by means of a pump from an aperture in the stern of the vessel.
From some vague indications, it would appear that the elder Brunel, afterwards so distinguished in Europe, was in the employment of Mr. Stevens on this occasion. In the month of May, 1804, in company with the same young gentleman and another classmate, now the distinguished missionary, John H. Hill, of Athens, Greece, I went to walk in the Battery. As we entered the gate from Broadway, we saw what we, in those days, considered a crowd, running towards the river. On inquiring the cause, we were informed that 'Jack Stevens* was going over to Hoboken in a queer sort of a boat.' On reaching the bulkhead by which the Battery was then bounded, we saw lying against it a vessel about the size of a Whitehall rowboat, in which was a small engine, but there was no visible means of propulsion. The vessel was speedily under way, my late much valued friend, Commodore Stevens, acting as cockswain; and I presume that the smutty-looking personage who fulfilled the duties of engineer, fireman, and crew, was his more practical brother, Robert L. Stevens.
A few years since, at the last fair of the American Institute, held at Niblo's, I was asked to serve on a committee to report upon a boat and engine, exhibited by the Messrs. Stevens; for the purpose of sustaining the claim of their father to the honor of being the first inventor of the propeller. The circumstances I have just recounted, had taken so strong a hold on my memory, that I at once recognized the engine exhibited as that which I had seen at the Battery nearly fifty years before.
In respect to the propeller I could say nothing. One of my colleagues on the committee, however, Mr. Curtis, at that time United States Inspector of Steamboats for the port of New York, recognized, as distinctly as I had done, the engine, the propeller, which he had seen in the hands of the workmen by whom it was manufactured. The dates corresponded, the apparatus was avowedly making for Stevens of Hoboken. Thus it happened, that an accidental choice had placed upon the committee, two persons
*John Cox Stevens.
who were, by the union of their testimony, capable of establishing the fact into the truth of which they were directed to inquire."
In relation to this twin-screw propeller, Dr. Thomas P. Jones, Superintendent of the United States Patent Office up to the date of its reorganization under the law of 1836, at which date Commissioners were substituted for Superintendents, says, in the Journal of the Franklin Institute for 1838, page 38:
"The late Colonel Stevens of Hoboken (near) New York, in the year 1805, informed the writer that he had tried such wheels in the stern of a boat, first using a single wheel in the center. The tendency of the boat so tried, was to move in a circle; a result due to the lessened resistance, as the vanes rose towards the surface, in consequence of the greater ease with which the water was removed out of the way. Subsequently, two such wheels were tried, side by side, revolving in reversed directions."
This tendency of a single-screw propeller to turn a vessel is also mentioned in Colonel Stevens' letter to Doctor Hare, given below, and is now well recognized; a right-handed screw turning the bow of the vessel to port and a left-handed one to the starboard.
In the year 1844, by the direction of the sons of Colonel Stevens, this twin-screw engine and its boiler were overhauled by Mr. Isaac Dripps, then General Superintendent of Machinery on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and afterwards in the same position on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The directions to Mr. Dripps were to make no alterations or additions except in minor parts where worn.
The defects of the soldered pipes and joints were then remedied. The parts added in 1844 are shown on the machinery, colored yellow.
As the original boat had decayed in 1844, a new one was then built to receive the engine; and the boat with the engine then in it, was exhibited at the fair held at Niblo's Garden, Broadway and Prince Street, New York, in October 1844, and tried on the Hudson River, where it attained a velocity of 8 miles an hour.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE
NEW YORK, April 7., 1893.
Francis B. Stevens, Esq.
"DEAR SIR : You ask me to give my recollections of the propeller boat of Colonel Stevens of Hoboken, N. J. exhibited by his sons at the Exhibition of the American Institute held in Niblo's Garden in 1844; although so many years have elapsed, it is as fresh in my memory as if it occurred yesterday.
The boat was about the size of our Whitehall boats, and had a rod on each side extending to the stern on which was attached propellers.
A supplemental report of the invention of Mr. Stevens for that year 1844 is now in the Archives of the American Institute, the report was made by Gen. Thomas W. Harvey the Chairman of the Committee of Judges.
Yours respectfully,
JOHN W. CHAMBERS,
Fifty-eight years with the American Institute."
Extract from "Supplementary Report of the Judges Appointed on Steam Engines, Etc., Seventeenth Annual Fair of the American Institute '':
"The execution of its work shows the age of infancy in mechanical construction in this country and on this account it is a gem; it equally shows the marks of ripe intellect and skillful adaptation to the object sought to be attained. still unsurpassed by present maturity.
In reverting back to the time of its construction we can discover the cause why this masterly Conception was laid up as useless, at that time. * * *
Respectfully submitted by your Committee.
New York. October 18, 1844.
Signed: THOMAS W. HARVEY, GEORGE N. MINES."
The twin-screw engine and its boilers are now in exactly the same condition as when exhibited in 1844. They were preserved in the Stevens Institute at Hoboken, N. J. until a few years ago, when they were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.
As the boat built in 1844 has also decayed, a third boat, of the same size has been lately built, and the twin-screw engine has been placed in it.