The first engine in France was set up at Passy, near Paris, at about the same time as the York Buildings engine. It is described and illustrated in Machines et inventions approuvées par l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Vol. IV). In the French accounts of this engine it is said to be by MM. Mey and Meyer. Mey, however, was one John May, an Englishman, probably a resident in Paris, and Meyer, without doubt, was John Meres, one of the Committee of the Proprietors of the Invention. In the Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission on the MSS. of the Earl of Egmont (VII, p. 248) is a letter, dated Paris, May 4, 1726, from D. Dering to Lord Percival, in which it is stated that: "The writer went to see Mr. Meres' fine engine at Passy. A cord and half of wood serve 24 hours, and it throws out of three pipes, 24 inches wide, near 16 muids of water in a minute. Meres computes that when going to perfection it casts about 25,000 muids in 24 hours. Captain Savery in England gave the first hint of this machine." It appears from his will, which was proved June 6th, 1726, that Meres died in Paris soon after the interview recorded above. At about the same date, 1726, it is said that an engine was erected in Toledo and another in Sweden. The latter by Martin Triewald, a Swede, who had spent several years at the coal mines of Newcastle. Newcomen lived to see his engine employed in the mines of most parts of England, in Scotland, and on the Continent. The royalties paid to the Committee in respect of the engines in England must have been, at least for those days, a considerable amount. What proportion of them, if any, came to Newcomen is not known. Indeed, no material whatever has been discovered to throw light upon the position of Newcomen in relation to Savery and to the Committee. It is clear that the Committee were levying royalties upon Newcomen engines, but whether this was by a voluntary arrangement on the part of Newcomen, whether he himself regarded his invention as an improvement upon Savery's, or as coming within the terms of Savery's patent and Act, or whether he had been coerced by the threats of a powerful syndicate, or by actual litigation, are unsolved problems. It is quite possible that it may have been held that Savery's grant included not merely the particular apparatus which he had devised, but all other methods of raising water by fire. The Committee would very naturally take the view, and foster the idea that they were working Savery's invention; see, for instance, the concluding remark in Dering's letter about the engine at Passy, quoted above. The Newcomen engine is ascribed to Savery by Dr. Dalton, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and other writers. It may be asked: To what extent was Newcomen an original thinker? Did the principle of the engine-the condensation of steam under a piston, originate with him? Briefly, the sequence of ideas may be set forth thus: In 1654 Otto von Guericke, of Magdeburg, carried out an experiment to show the pressure of the atmosphere, in which he used a cylinder and piston; he connected the piston, by a rope passing over pulleys, to a heavy weight; then, by means of a small air-pump worked by hand, the air was exhausted from the cylinder, whereupon the weight was lifted by the pressure of the atmosphere upon the upper side of the piston. In 1678-79, Huyghens essayed to apply this idea to a motive power engine, and constructed an apparatus in which a vacuum was produced under a piston by the explosion of gunpowder. Papin, in 1687, developed further the application of gunpowder, and then, in 1690, he proposed to produce the vacuum by the condensation of steam. To Papin then belongs the distinction of first giving to the world the principle of the atmospheric engine. Whether Newcomen became acquainted with this proposal of Papin, or whether he arrived at it independently we do not know. The apparatus devised by Papin for carrying out the idea was of a very crude character, and, while perhaps suitable for laboratory purposes, was altogether unsuitable for use as an engine. Newcomen, on the other hand, embodied the idea in a practical form and produced a successful engine. It is by no means easy for us to-day to realize the difficulties which Newcomen had to surmount. Mechanical engineering as we understand it had not come into existence. The smiths had attained to a high degree of skill in their craft, but workmen for other branches were untrained; while the range of materials available for construction was quite limited. Newcomen grasped what it was possible to do under the existing conditions, and he devised a machine which it was possible to build with the materials, tools, and men at his disposal; a machine which when built worked successfully. Upon the expiry of the Fire-engine Act, which took place a few years after the death of Newcomen, the use of the engine grew apace. It continued to be made without change in any of its essential features until 1769, when James Watt introduced the separate condenser. This invention, according to which the steam instead of being condensed in the engine cylinder was condensed in a separate chamber, resulted in a very considerable saving of fuel. Watt followed it up with a series of other important improvements; but engines of the Newcomen form continued to be built for some time, and at least one of them is in use to the present day. The labours of James Watt brought the steam-engine to a high pitch of perfection, both as to economy in operation and to mechanical construction, but it would seem that his admittedly great merit has been allowed, in the public estimation, to overshadow the pioneer work done by Thomas Newcomen. APPENDIX. NOTES ON THE GRIFF ENGINES FROM THE BOOKS AND PAPERS AT ARBURY, NUNEATON. From the coal-pit accounts, 1722–27 : From a list of yearly totals of the coal-pit ac £625 10 0 1 Meres died in 1726. Cornelius Dutch was one of his executors. From other account-books: The fire-engine rent for 3 qrs. due at Lady To a years Rent for 2 engines at Lady Day, 1729 Entries relating to the sale of the engines : 1729. Mr. Pilkington for a Brass Cillender fier engine 1733. James Morrice for old geers at ye Engine 1734. Lead in part from the fier engine Iron Lead from the fier Engin John Wise for a Cillender Payments: 1729. Expenses selling & delivering ye Brass To Carriage of it to Mesham 1732. Expenses selling Boyler & Cillender Expenses at Coventry receiving ye Expenses receiving ye remdr at Bedworth To Mr. Townesend for assistance in sell- To Richd. Hardy for taking down engine 1734. Spent selling the last fier engine Expenses in setting a new boiler, 1728. Week ending Sept. 21, 1728: Six bricklayers 28 turns putting in ye new Men and lads 55 turns serving them Drink for bricklayers & Servers DEVON COUNTY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. PART III. THE LATER PLANTAGENET PERIOD (1399–1485). BY J. J. ALEXANDER, M.A., J.P. (Read at Tavistock, 23rd July, 1914.) I. INTRODUCTION. AT the close of the fourteenth century Devon was far from possessing the distinguished place among English counties which it attained two hundred years later. It is true that some of its towns were notable in national affairs. Exeter could boast a long succession of eminent bishops, strenuous diocesans like Grandisson, or experts in statecraft like Brantyngham and Stafford. Plymouth, Dartmouth, and Teignmouth had striven and suffered greatly in the French wars. But it is idle to pretend that the county as a whole occupied a position of political prominence. It was sparsely populated and little known to the bulk of Englishmen. As greater opportunities for foreign adventure presented themselves, so the prestige of Devon rose; and in the achievements of those of its earlier members who have been rescued from obscurity we can detect some germs of the adventurous spirit for which the county was later on to be famous. The deposition of Richard II., with which our period commences, possesses some points of resemblance to the deposition of James II. in 1688. There was on the part of the ruler the same blind obstinacy, the same inglorious termination of a career which promised well at its outset ; on the part of the nation an instinctive and almost universal uprising, undertaken not without reluctance, in the interests of liberty and good government. It is of course |