(4.)

In the year 1826, M. de Navarrete published, in Zach's Astronomical Correspondence, a communication from Thomas Gonzales, Director of the royal archives of Simancas, giving an account of an experiment reported to have been made in the year 1543, in which a vessel was propelled by a machine having the appearance of a steam engine.

Blasco de Garay, a sea captain, proposed in that year to the Emperor Charles V. to propel vessels by a machine which he had invented, even in time of calm, without oars or sails. Notwithstanding the apparent improbability attending this project, the Emperor ordered the experiment to be made in the port of Barcelona, and the 17th of June, 1543, was the day appointed for its trial. The commissioners appointed by Charles V. to attend and witness the experiment were Don Henry of Toledo, Don Pedro of Cardona, the treasurer Ravago, the vice chancellor and intendant of Catalonia, and others. The vessel on which the experiment was made was the Trinity, 200 tons burthen, which had just discharged a cargo of corn at Barcelona. Garay concealed the nature of his machinery, even from the commissioners. All that could be discovered during the trial was, that it consisted of a large boiler containing water, and that wheels were attached to each side of the vessel, by the revolution of which it was propelled. The commissioners having witnessed the experiment, made a report to the king, approving generally of the invention, particularly on account of the ease and promptitude with which the vessel could be put about by it.

The treasurer Ravago, who was himself hostile to the project, reported that the machine was capable of propelling a vessel at the rate of two leagues in three hours; but the other commissioners stated that it made a league an hour at the least, and that it put the vessel about as speedily as would be accomplished with a galley worked according to the common [Pg017] method. Ravago reported that the machinery was too complicated and expensive, and that it was subject to the danger of the boiler bursting.

After the experiment was made, Garay took away all the machinery, leaving nothing but the framing of wood in the arsenals of Barcelona.

Notwithstanding the opposition of Ravago, the invention was approved, and the inventor was promoted and received a pecuniary reward, besides having all his expenses paid.

From the circumstance of the nature of the machinery having been concealed, it is impossible to say in what this machine consisted; but as a boiler was used, it is probable, though not certain, that steam was the agent. There have been various machines proposed, of which a furnace and boiler form a part, and in which the agency of steam is not used. The machine of Amontons furnishes an example of this. It is most probable that the contrivance of Garay was identical with that of Hero. The low state of the arts in Spain in the sixteenth century would be incompatible with the construction of any machine requiring great precision of execution. But the simplicity of Hero's contrivance would have rendered its construction and operation quite practicable. As to the claims to the invention of the steam engine advanced by the advocates of De Garay, founded on the above document, a refutation is supplied by the admission, that though he was rewarded and promoted by the government of the day, in consequence of the experiment, and although the great usefulness of the contrivance in towing ships out of port, &c., was admitted, yet it does not appear that a second experiment was ever tried, much less that the machine was ever brought into practical use.

Solomon de Caus, 1615.