The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

FIRST HEAD OF STEAM. 25
made capaWe of any usefal application, nor did he
imagine that he possessed a knoWledge of a power that
was in future ages to produce such important results.
A knowledge of some of the properties of steam
seems to have been understood during the flourishing
periods and even to the decline of the Koman empire.
In the reign of Justinian, the architect Artemius, of
that empire, gave sonie experiments to demonstrate the
power of steam or vapor of boiling water. He arranged
several vessels containing water, each covered with the
wide bottom of a tube, which rose to a narrower top,
with pipes extending to the rafters of an adjoining
house. "When fire was Mndled beneath the vessels, the
rafters were raised from their positions, and the house
shaken by the force of the steam ascending the tubes.
Cardan is the earliest modern author in whom we
detect any hint of a knowledge of the mechanical power
of steam. He gives a description of the eolipile, in a
work dated 1571. The instrument showed how a cur-
rent of air was made to follow the course of the steam
that issued from the neck of the eolipile. Modern
writers speak of various others who seemed to have
ideas of the mechanical power of steam. The most
worthy of notice are Baptista Porta, a Neapolitan,
Brancas, a Frenchman, and De Coss. Brancas proposed
to direct the current of air issuing from an eolipile upon
the leaves of a wheel which, being set in motion, might
serve to move machinery. This method was imperfect
and wasteful, yet its attempt is deserving of praise,
inasmuch as he is the first person who entertained a
hope of realizing the vast benefits that steam has since
conferred upon the world.
One Marion de Lorme, in a letter to the Marquis
de-cinq Mars, in 1641, describes his visit to the mad-
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