Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

368 GEOKGIA AND GEORGIANS
extending over a period of twenty years. The proposition at first ex
cited only ridicule. As an indication of this popular attitude, the musty
old volume in which the patent is,recorded in the secretary of state's
office contains this entry, on the first page of the index: '' Briggs and
Longstreet: Steam Nothing', 245." On the page thus indicated in Book
"C," Bills of Sale and Deeds of Gift, this earliest patent for a steam
boat is recorded as follows:
"AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND PRINCIPLES OF BRIGGS' AND
LONGSTREET 's STEAM ENGINE, FOK THE EXCLUSIVE USE OP WHICH
A PRIVILEGE WAS GRANTED TO THE INVENTORS, FOR FOURTEEN YEARS,
BY AN ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE PASSED AT AUGUSTA, THE FlRST DAY
OP FEBRUARY, 1788.
'' This engine consists of a Boiler, two Cylinders and a Condenser, con
structed in the following manner, viz.:
THE BOILER
"Consists of two metallic vessels, globular, or nearly so, placed one
within the other, so as to leave a small interstice between, in which
interstice the boiling water is contained. The inner vessel contains the
fuel, the flame of which passes through a spiral flue winding round the
outside of the outer vessel from the bottom to the top. The steam is con
veyed by a pipe from the boiler into an interstice between
THE TWO CYLINDERS,
"Which are placed, horizontally, one within the other, from whence
it is admitted alternately into each end of the inner cylinder, in which
it impels a piston to vibrate both ways with equal force. It is also
admitted alternately to pass from each end of the inner cylinder (all
the communications, to and from which, are opened and shut by a single
cock) by means of pipes into
THE CONDENSER,
"Which is a metallic vessel having a large surface in contact with
cold water. The condensed steam or warm water is drawn out of it by
a pump.
"I. BRIGGS,
"WM. LONGSTREET.
"Recorded 30th Jan. 1789."
When the renowned inventor, James Watt, in 1774, perfected a
patent which embodied the essential features of the modern steam engine,
an effort to apply its principles to navigation followed at once. Simul
taneously, in various places, men with a genius for mechanics began to
make experiments. James Rumsey, on the Ohio, in 1784, and John
Fitch, on the Delaware, in 1785, both succeeded in obtaining definite
and brilliant results. However, it may be gravely doubted if either of
these pioneer inventors forestalled AYilliam Longstreet. The Georgian