(108.)

During the early part of the last century the [Pg181] manufactures of this country had not attained to such an extent as to render the moving power supplied by water insufficient or uncertain to any inconvenient degree; and accordingly mills, and other works in which machinery required to be driven by a moving power, were usually built along the streams of rivers. About the year 1750 the general extension of manufactures, and their establishment in localities where water power was not accessible, called the steam engine into more extensive operation. In the year 1752, Mr. Champion, of Bristol, applied the atmospheric engine to raise water, by which a number of overshot wheels were driven. These were applied to move extensive brass-works in that neighbourhood, and this application was continued for about twenty years, but ultimately given up on account of the expense of fuel and the improved applications of the steam engine.

About this time Smeaton applied himself with great activity and success to the improvement of wind and water mills, and succeeded in augmenting their useful effect in a twofold proportion with the same supply of water. From the year 1750 until the year 1780 he was engaged in the construction of his improved water mills, which he erected in various parts of the country, and which were imitated so extensively that the improvement of such mills became general. In cases where a summer drought suspended the supply of water, horse machinery was provided, either to work the mill or to throw back the water. These improvements necessarily obstructed for a time the extension of steam power to mill work; but the increase of manufactures soon created a demand for power greatly exceeding what could be supplied by such limited means.

In the manufacture of iron, it is of great importance to keep the furnaces continually blown, so that the heat may never be abated by day or night. In the extensive ironworks at Colebrook Dale, several water-wheels were used in the different operations of the manufacture of iron, especially in driving the blowers of the iron furnaces. These wheels were usually driven by the water of a river, but in the summer months the supply became so short that it was insufficient to work them all. Steam engines were accordingly erected to [Pg182] return the water for driving these wheels. This application of the engine as an occasional power for the supply of water-wheels having been found so effectual, returning engines were soon adopted as the permanent and regular means of supplying water-wheels. The first attempt of this kind is recorded to have been made by Mr. Oxley, in 1762, who constructed a machine to draw coals out of a pit at Hartley colliery, in Northumberland. It was originally intended to turn the machine by a continuous circular motion received from the beam of the engine; but that method not being successful, the engine was applied to raise water for a wheel by which the machine was worked. This engine was continued in use for several years, and though it was at length abandoned, on account of its defective construction, it nevertheless established the practicability of using steam power as a means of driving water wheels.[23]