THE
NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES.
AN EXPOSURE OF ITS CONDITION, AND THE
CAUSES OF ITS FAILURE,
CONTAINED IN A SPEECH DELIVERED TO A
otq# n1v thn flw cfyrw e eot oa tur   hidtrit Ef (olmbnXia,
BEFORE
CHIEF-JUSTICE CARTER.
BY
EDWARD N. DICKERSON,
Of NTew-York,
IN THE CASE OF
MIATTINGLY vs. THE WASHINGTON AND ALEXANDRIA
STEAMBOAT COMPANY.
jEPO_ TE]3D  B Y  JAMIEES O. CLEPIHANE,
RtEPORTER OF THE COURT.
JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS,
FIRE-PROOF  BUILDINGS,
CORNER OF FRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETS.
1 8 64.








PIREFACE.
To IrY COUNTRYMIEN: I trust that I shall not be thought insincere, when
I say that the publication of the following pages gives me no pleasure. As
an American, proud of my native land, with whose prosperity, for seven
generations, my family has been identified, I can not contemplate this
picture with any other feeling than pain; and although I have the consciousness of having done my duty, and have received the most flattering
marks of the approval of my countrymen from all parts of the United
States, both by letters and by verbal communications, yet these sources
of gratification afford me little compensation for the destruction of an entire navy and the general disgrace to the country of this exposure.
My connection with the trial which has thus resulted, was apparently
purely accidental. I received one day a telegram from Washington, signed
by Mr. Mattingly, a gentleman with whom I had had a slight previous acquaintance, in these words: " Isherwood has sworn that there is no advantage in a cut-off. Important. Come on at once." How or in what proceeding he had so sworn I was not advised, nor did I suspect; but I knew
that if I could once get him on the stand, where the law would hold him
till I had done with him, it would be mere child's work to expose his ignorance and his corruption; for both are of so conspicuous a kind as to be
obvious to the dullest vision. I at once went to Washington, and the following pages show the consequences: The jury rendered their verdict for a saving of thirty-four per cent, produced by the Sickels's cut-off as claimed.
The story of the decay of our navy is a short one, and ought to be understood. Before Mr. Welles undertook to change the system, our naval
engines were built on the plans which the experience of the world has
proved to be good; and all worked steam expansively with an independent
cut-off. The plans for each ship were furnished by the builders, and a rivalry was established between the different shops in the performance of
their contracts. The Department made conditional contracts, by which the
contractors were stimulated by contingent compensation, in proportion to
the success they achieved in speed and economy; and the general result
was, that our navy was equal to any in the world in the excellence of its
machinery. The Department also had spent some money on experiments,
as the Government ought to do; for private persons cannot afford to risk the




4
loss of an entire engine, in order to test some new improvement; whereas, if
the promised advantage is important, the Government can well afford to
take the risk of an entire loss, either to gain the advantage or to establish
that it cannot be gained. On this principle, the governments of Europe
spend enormous sums yearly, and, of course, gain in the end by expenditures,
which, in particular cases, may seem to have been wasted.
Under this wise system, such ships as the Iroquois, made on well-established plans, and only differing in some trifling details from others, had
been produced, and could go about thirteen knots an hour;-and the Pensacola had been made as an experimental ship, and had shown that her peculiar plans were capable of producing an immense advantage over the old
methods.
At this point of time Mr. Welles took possession, and at once reversed
the whole system, refusing to use what experience had proved valuable,
and authorizing Isherwood to construct an entire navy upon an hypothesis
of his own; the most striking features of which were: first, that it had never
been suspected in the world till within a year of the time when it was thus
adopted for an entire navy; and secondly, that it did not promise any ad-,vantage; for there is no pretense made by Mr. Welles or by Isherwood,
that a gain will result by discarding the principles upon which all the navies of the world and all commercial steamers are built; but they claim
that by this method they can get within eighteen per cent as much power
from a given amount of coal as by the old method, and their theory is, that
this eighteen per cent is not worth saving at the cost of the extra machinery called an "independent cut-off."
It was apparent at once to the most limited understanding, that this
change must prove fatal; for almost every man in the country knows of
some case where, by the use of a cut-off on an engine in some factory, a
great saving has been effected; and I at once busied myself in the effort to
arrest this mad career. I wrote letters in the papers, and to the Secretary
himself, and I laid them before the Congress, in the hope of arresting this
fatal work. The effect of my efforts was, that Isherwood was rejected last
year by the Senate when nominated for the office he has thus abused; but
by pressure from the Department he was finally confirmed, and entered
upon his career of destruction and fraud, with the entire approval of his
superiors.
Soon, however, the ships he had made began to tell the story of his ignorance, and those of them which could be made to go at all, could not be
driven at a higher rate than sixty revolutions a minute, while the printed
contracts on which they were built required.them to,go ninety; and the
reports of officers came thick and fast upon the Department, condemning
the whole fleet. In this situation, it occurred to the fruitful brain of some
of the party to have a white-washing committee; and one was called, composed entirely of Isherwood's contractors, who were building these very
engines, with one exception —Charles Copeland-and to him the Navy Department gave an order to have some work done for the Government about




5
the time they selected him to pass judgment on their work, although he
was not a manufacturer of the thing ordered. But this committee would
not serve the purpose; although it would be impossible to choose men whose
circumstances would naturally make them more pliant; and their report
condemned these engines as strongly as men could be expected to do, whose
future prosperity was to depend on pleasing their employers. That report,
I am told, has been " accidentalty mislaid" in the Department; but the
venerable Secretary has said that he "'understood it was very favorable to
Mr. Isherwood."
Still they went on in the same course, and now the shops are full of engines, building on'these ignorant notions, while the ships are to be filled with
boilers, in the hope of making them go.
What is to be done? The answer is very plain. Stop all the contracts
just where they are. Spend not another dollar on engines which, if completed, must be useless, and must come out of the ships if put in. Have
them reconstructed on well-known and tried plans — like the Iroquois,
with such improvements as experience has shown valuable-and then go on
as before this reign of ignorance and presumption began. The country cannot afford to do this work over twice. What is already done must be undone
and done again; but let us have no more to undo. It is far better to submit
to the delay of changing now than to throw all this money away. And, moreover, there will be no delay; for the Department, as if for the purpose of
raising prices, has been bidding against itself, and has " shingled" the shops
with contracts on which a blow cannot be struck for months to come-so
that there is time enough to get the engines right. And it is cheaper to
build the engine when right than to make them wrong. Such as the Iroquois, weigh less, take less room, and cost vastly less money than these
abortions do, to produce the same power; so that it is economy of money,
space, and weight, to alter them-to say nothing of coal.
And then there is another important change which the Congress should
make, and that is in the so-called Engineer Department. It is an absurd
system as now arranged, by which a person, arrayed beyond the glories of
Solomon, is supposed to be an engine-driver. We don't want such men for
such work-they are entirely too costly and too elegant. We want mechanics-such men as our engineers in the merchant service, and such as run
engines for England and France-men who know how to chip, and file, and
finish; and who are not ashamed to be seen with greasy hands and soiled
clothes performing their honorable and responsible duties. What an ab.
surdity is it to have a man with a sword and epaulettes, and more blue
broadcloth and gold lace than an Admiral wears, to run an engine! If such
a system is preserved, I would suggest an act regulating the sword-and I
think I could draw the bill with advantage-by which the sword-handle
should be made detachable from its blade, and fitted for a monkey-wrench,
a picker to clean out oil-holes, and an oil-can to grease the machinery-for
these are the appropriate tools of an engineer.
But the way in which the Navy Department operates now is this: They




6
hire mechanics under the name of " first-class firemen" - intelligent men
who understand their business-and these are expected to act as dry-nurses
to the gold-lace gentry and to run the engines. I learned a lesson on this
subject one day, when I went on board one of Isherwood's boats, and noticed that the "starting-gear " was in a very inconvenient place, and much
nearer to the fire-room than to the engineer's place. I remarked the fact to
the engineer in gold lace, and wondered why the starting-gear was not
placed more conveniently. " Oh 1" said he, " we don't have any thing to
do with that. The muscle does that"'-by which he said he meant the firemen. It was plain to me then why the " gear" was placed where it was.
The true system should be to take into the Navy apprentice-boys just
out of their time from the shops, and put them to the duty of engine-driving,
as apprentices; and then advance them, as is done in the merchant service,
as they acquire skill, to the different grades; affording them a uniform suitable to their employments, and a position such as a good mechanic is entitled to hold, where he will be respectable and respected.
As it is now, when a youngster can answer the questions out of a book,
and has bought one of Isherwood's volumes, he is qualified; although, like
Isherwood himself, he never has laid hands on a piece of machinery in his
life, and knows nothing of the art or tcrade for which he is to be employed.
For running an engine is a trade or art, and not a science; and it does not
assist a man the least bit in practising that trade, that he has read Isherwood's nonsense or Regnault's science-that he can answer questions in
algebra and knows the meaning of a logarithm. The qualifications for running a locomotive are much higher than those for running a steamer's engine. More presence of mind is needed, and more serious consequences
depend on correct judgment. The changes in a ship's engine and boiler are
very gradual, and a man can go to sleep over his work without much danger;
but in a locomotive they are very rapid, and constant vigilance is required.
Then as to engineering - not engine-driving - let the Government do as
England and France do —employ the best ability which the country affords,
just as any merchant does; and if one man knows more than another, go to
him and pay him for his services. Isn't it perfectly absurd to suppose that
$3000 a year will pay for the services of an engineer, to sit in an office at
Washington and answer the bell of the Secretary? Why, a good engineer
can get more than that from any merchant for superintending one ship.
The whole system is wrong. Let us have a better one, such as rational
people would have in their private business; such as England and France
have in their public affairs.
For myself I see no personal advantage in all this, and I know the vengeance which will pursue me; but if I can avert further disgrace from the
country I shall be content.
NEW-YORK, January 1, 1864.             EDwARD N. DICxKEsoX.




ARGUMENT.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOR AID GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY:
I congratulate you that the tedious investigation to which
you have listened draws near its close. I have no doubt that
many of you, as you have said, have suffered great inconvenience from the confinement incident to it, the withdrawal
from your business, and from attention to a subject which
could not have interested you in many of its details, as it necessarily must have interested me and others who are connected professionally with the art to which it relates. But I feel
sure, gentlemen, that no one of you-and perhaps I might say
that not all of you together-have suffered a personal inconvenience greater than that which I have borne in prosecuting
this inquiry.
I am not here, gentlemen, as a retained counsel to argue
the cause of a client. I have other and different motives in
being here, and other and different pursuits wlich call me
away; nor do I receive any compensation from this plaintiff.
And while I respect and honor the profession of the law, of
which I am nominally an humble member-while I look upon
it as the great means by which the riglhts of men are vindicated, and without which in a free country the rights of men cannot long be preserved-yet my tastes, my habits of thought,
and my inclinations, all lead me in a different direction; and
knowing that I am not capable of wielding with great power
these weapons, which before a court of law and in the hands
of honorable men are so potential for right; but so fatal for
justice when in unworthy hands; I yet feel that there is a department of human learning and art in which I may hope to
do some good to the day and generation in which I live, and
in that I prefer to labor and, if need be, to suffer.




8
The learned gentleman who opened this case on the part of
the defendants did me too much honor; although the compliment he paid me-if it were intended as such-was accompanied with so much of bitterness as to repress any vanity that
I might have felt rising up within me. Yet he did me too
much honor when he told you that I was here as an advocate
of my own peculCiar views; that this was a controversy in
which I on the one hand was urging my opinions, and Mr.
Isherwood, who has been upon the stand, was presenting his.
But I aspire to no such distinction. The honor is too great
for me. The principles which I stand here to advocate are
those which have made immortal the name of James Watt,
who discovered them; of M14arriotte, and Biot, and Gay Lussac,
who defined them with approximate accuracy; and of Regnault, who has thoroughly explored them and fixed them forever in the great magazine of human knowledge. If I were
entitled to the dignity and honor of calling these my " peculiar views," I might claim to have my name recorded in that
niche of the temple of fame now filled by that of James Watt;
and if I had even added a single truth to those discovered by
him, I should rank a peer of those other great men whose
names I have mentioned, and whose glory is the pride of
modern science. But a far lower pedestal than that on which
they stand is too exalted for me; and a far humbler monument than that proud one in Westminster Abbey, which is
honored by the untitled name of James Watt, will mark the
spot where I shall sleep when my hour shall have come.
No, gentlemen. I stand before you the docile pupil of
those great men who first explored these deep secrets of
nature-who first drank of the pure fountain at its source -
who have borne in their giant arms the genius of modern civilization, from the hour when it breathed its first feeble breath
from the printing press of the German printer, and through
successive stages uttered its first loud cry from the gunpowder mortar of the German monk, felt its first throb of warm
lifeblood in the steam-engine of James Watt, and thrilled
with nervous energy in the electro-magnet of our own Henry.*
* It is a subject of pride to Americans that the electric telegraph, both in its suggestion and its
completion, is purely American. Our great countryman Benjamin Franklin, suggested the idea of




Nor do I stand here because these great truths are questioned in the world of science and of art; but because an ignorant charlatan, having climbed into place and station by
the practice of his base devices, has cast upon the American
people the unjust accusation that they have defied these great
principles, and has compelled them to give him their resources that he may make war upon all that is now settled by
the science, the art, the experience, and the commercial success of a half-century.  Let me not misstate the position.  I
read from his own book, in which he informs the world with
unblushing impudence that he, and a couple more of enginedrivers, have at last found out that the whole world has been
ignorant through all these years of light, and life, and power;
and that the monuments which a grateful posterity has reared,
to those great men should be pulled down from their pedestals and trampled into the dust of oblivion.  HIear him:
" The law of lMarriotte, when practically applied to the useof steam  expansively  in   an  engine.... s  so  specious, ancl'
apparenztly so conelusive, thiat zp  to witl7in  the last one or  two-,yecars the assumption of economy passed unchallenged by the
engineering profession."
And see him draw his own portrait and daub it over the"canvass where the immortal Newton still shines brighter and
brighter as we recede from him:
"' The true characteristic of scientific genius, and which hascontributed most to the advancement of human knowledge, is
communicating by electricity over insulated wires at a distance; but the means were not discovered by which that could be done, and his suggestion slumbered for new discoverers to carry it out.
Two things were needed-the battery of Galvani, and the compound electro-magnet of Professor
Henry. Oersted discovered, in 1820, that the galvanic current would magnetize soft iron, and
Ampere traced the laws of the relation between galvanism and magnetism; but it was reserved
for Henry to make the discovery upon which the success of the telegraph depends, and to invent,
the telegraph itself. ilis electro-magnet exhibited such sensibility to the galvanic current that it
could be affected at great distances; whereas before it was invented the whole power was lost 
in a short and practically useless distance.
When Prof. Henry had made this discovery he erected a practical telegraph by its use in his
lecture-room in Albany, where he had some miles of wire in action, and where he employed a bell as
the means of communicating the signals. These facts he published, and they furnished Mr. Morse,
the material by which he made his out-door machine.
Mr. Morse is entitled to the credit of inventing a recording instrument instead of a sounding
one, and of contriving a set of signals which are understood by the operator; although now this 
recording apparatus is generally out of use as a recorder, and the message is communicated by
the " click " of the instrument as by the bell of Prof. Henry.
If Prof. Henry had patented his magnet and his Albany apparatus, as he might have done, hisname would now be the one popularly associated with the electric telegraph.




10
that happy tact, so wonderfully possessed by Newton, which
recognizes general principles throughout the multitude of
various and apparently discordant objects in which they are
enveloped."
No, gentlemen; this conflict is of an entirely different
character from_ that which my learned friends would have
you believe; and I thank God that he has given me the power, the means, the education, and the opportunity to come
here at this time, when so much good can be done by stripping off these falsehoods which conceal the truth, and, as was
done yesterday with that statue of Freedom on the Capitol,
exhibiting in their majestic beauty those principles discovered
by the brightest intellects which ever shone over the darkness
of this world, and which have been adopted and used for a
half-century to the great good of all mankind.
It seems to me, gentlemen of the jury, that there was a
Providence in all this. I think I have seen, within the last
wtwo or three years, more evidence that the great Creator looks, down and smiles upon our efforts in this country to struggle
up to the light, than I have ever seen before in the whole history of our past, prosperous as it may have been. I say it
-seems to me that there is a Providence in all this; for heretofore, when this insignificant cause was tried in this court -;this little squabble between two parties, one of whom was. endeavoring to defraud the other out of a few dollars earned
under an honest contract-this question of the merits of expanded steam was never opened. But just now, when so
much good can be done by exposing the gross imposition
iwhich has been practised on the country, my learned friends
opposed to me persuaded his Honor to admit the proof, and Isherwood went on to the stand. Bearing with him the sanction
of the American Government-telling you that the United
States had discarded the knowledge and experience of the
past, and upon his newly discovered theory, unsuspected by
man till within "' one or two years," was spending hundreds
of millions of our money-he spoke with tremendous weight.
It could not be conceived possible that these momentous responsibilities should have been assumed by the Navy Department unless the foundation were stronger than adamant; and




he carried you away with him, as I confess upon all human
probabilities, he was entitled to do. In this dilemma, when
he had killed and nearly devoured poor Mattingly's case, I
was sent for; and when I heard of the position in which he
had placed himself, I came quickly. I saw the door open
wide through which truth might again enter those very portals whence she has been so rudely thrust, and our country
be saved from this eterinal disgrace and this impending irretrievable loss and ruin.
When I reached here and entered this court-room., I felt
that you were all carried away; for this human intellect of
ours throws out its feelers upon the atmosphere surrounding
it, and knows how other minds respond. I had read the testimony of Isherwood, and appreciated its effect; and when I
entered this room, there stood upon that stand one of the cubs
of this lion-an engine-driver from the Navy Yard-sent here
to devour whatever fragments had been left from the destructive meal of the day before. He was a gorgeous creature as
he stood before me; resplendent with gold lace, his delicate
white hands unsullied by vile grease, and unhardened by vTIlgar toil; his magnificent apparel shedding an effulgence of
glory around him, in which the rings of Saturn encircling his
arms vied with the splendors of Mars all over his body ifor
supremacy. There he stood as
"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee."
I never behold one of these magnificent visions without
thinking how striking is the resemblance between an enginedriver in the United States Navy of this day and the lilies bof
the valley. Not, perhaps, from any peculiar modesty which
they have in common; but because, like them,'" they toil not,
neither do they spin; but I say unto you that Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these."  Just then Isherwood entered, and I dropped the offspring to seize the parent of these wrongs; and you know the result. Many days
have been occupied in the investigation, but not wasted; and




12
when my learned adversary, Ml[r. Brent, complained before
yon that we had taken so much time, and said that but for me
this case would have ended two weeks ago, he reminded me
of the complaint of the rebels after they had stolen Fort Sumter-that we would insist on trying to recover it, and would
occupy time, to their great inconvenience, which they had
hoped to spend in enjoying the prize they had thus seized.
No doubt if I had not come, this case would have ended long
ago; and my learned friend, having pocketed his fee, would
have retired to his office, and, like any well-behaved spider,
been occupied in again spreading his net for some other fly.
One of the amusing consequences of the struggle, however,
was exhibited this morning, when my learned opponent, Mr.
Davidge, withdrew Isherwood from your notice as a man of
science. Said he: A' Gentlemen, itr. Isherwood is not a man
of science, but only a practical man; and we rely upon his
practical facts, and not upon his theories, for a verdict.'
What a fall was there, my countrymen! What! this lion
that roared so lustily when I came here, no lion at all! but
only such an one as Shakespeare's lion; who, lest he might
alarm his audience too much, lifted up his lion-skin mask and
exclaimed:
" You, ladies —you, whose gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now, perhaps, both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that 1, one Snug, the joiner, am."
So it seems, after all, we have got no one but Isherwood,
the engine-driver, and no man of science at all-only " Snug,
the Joiner."
Now, gentlemen, so much for the incidents of this controversy; so much for those insidious attacks of my learned
friend who opened this cause yesterday, and attempted to disparage me and the interest I represent by insinuations unjust
in themselves, unfit to be made in a court of justice, and unexpected by me. But I have no unkind thought nor unkind
word for my learned friend. I can imagine how disappointed
he must have felt at this sudden destruction of his well-laid,




1v
plans, and I am always willing to be called hard names by a
man who has no other consolation at hand.
Now as to the case itself. This contract, on which this suit
is brought, is just such an one as James Watt used to make,
which led to the famous litigations of Bolton and Watt, in
the Court of Common Pleas in England. James Watt had
made that great improvement on the steam-engine which rendered his name immortal. He was not the inventor of a
steam-engine; for a steam-engine was used before James Watt
ever saw one; and I will tell you how it operated. It had a
cylinder and piston, just as it now has; but the cylinder was
not covered overhead as now. The steam was let into the
cylinder at its lower end, and under the piston, which, by its
pressure, was forced up against the pressure of the atmosphere;
and thus one stroke was made. But, in order to make a second stroke, the steam now confined in the cylinder had to be
condensed, or turned into water, alid that was done by throwing cold water into the cylinder itself, and thus cooling it and
the steam it contained. This was a very tedious and costly
process; for at each stroke, the cylinder, thus cooled, had to
be reheated to a temperature at which it would permit steam
to remain in it before another stroke could be made; and all
this heat was lost at each stroke. No very useful steam-engine could be thus made.
At this point of time James' Watt, the Shakespeare of mechanics, appeared-a man whose equal as an engineer has not
stood on this earth since, nor do I see any prospect -that another will come; a man on whose intellect the Almighty had
impressed that intuitive knowledge of his great physical truths,
as he had impressed upon the intellect of Shakespeare an intuitive knowledge of his great moral truths. tHe was an humble man in station; but, illumined by the light of genius,
he rose into grandeur which will never fade. He looked
upon a steam-engine, and at a glance saw its faults. Said he:
" Take away this cold water from this cylinder; don't turn
your steam into water in the cylinder; pnt your condenser on
the outside; malke a box somewhere, and carry the steam
from the cylinder to that box, and there throw cold water on
it and condense it, and then you won't have to reheat your




14
cylinder at each stroke; you won't have to get rid of this water in the cylinder, for the steam will flow out by itself into
the condenser, and be there condensed."
There was the first great improvement on a steam-engine,
and it was the intellect of James Watt which made it. It was
Jazmes Watt who fought the battles of civil liberty in the early part of this century. It was James Watt-not Lord Wellington-who conquered Napoleon. lie it was who, by creating that physical power, enabled England to produce out of
its internal resources those means by which she sustained herself against the gigantic strength of the great Emperor, and
carried on a war that resulted in his overthrow. Hiad James
Watt never lived, the French Emperor would have wiped out
from its place in the history of the world, and out of the catalogue of nations, that power and people who now domineer
over land and over sea. James Watt was the great pillar on
which they stood; and he it was who fought the great battles,
that maintained them in their present position; and he did
it chiefly by that simple idea.
He used to make contracts. He would go to a man who
had a steam-engine running on the old plan, and say:' I will
put an engine here which will run as well, and save largely
in fuel. All the compensation I ask will be what one half of
the saving in fuel will amount to, if there shall be any saving.
If not, I get nothing." Those were the " ifs" upon which the
great suits of Bolton and Watt were founded. Those suits
became famous in the history of the world; and they form the
dividing line between the past judicial determinations of
England and the present.
The records of a court of justice are the evidences of the
civilization of the times in which they are made-a dial upon
whose face the index hand truly points whether that sun
shines in the zenith, or lingers on the horizon. Turn back to
the early records of -the English courts, and what do you find?
Controversies about the boundaries of land; but then the
owner of the land, was the owner of the people who lived
upon the land, and their rights had no place in a court of justice. A little later, and commerce unfolded her wings; and
then the courts, under the inspiring genius of Mansfield and




15
Eldon, expanded those principles of the common law, whose
boast it is, that while nothing is too minute for its care, nothing
is beyond its power, and the greatness of England began to be
seen in every zone. Still later, when the genius of invention
had inspired creative man, the laws of patents appeared, and
in proportion to the protection they gave, marched on the progress of the arts of life; until to-day the whole world is bound
by one electric chain a common family, and the clod of the
valley is instinct with life, as if with the nerves of the Godcreated human body.
But Watt made those contracts I have mentioned; and when
the defendants, as in this case, found that his share of profit
was great-though theirs was great also-like dishonest men,
they refused to pay; and he, like this plaintiff, was driven
into the courts for redress. Thus, you see, this is but an old
story told again. It has been said that in the affairs of the
world history but reinacts itself; and it is certainly true in
regard to this matter. The moral character of the human
species never changes. Since the first dawn of the historic
epoeh- from the time when that great man Solomon wrote his
Proverbs —until now, this human heart of ours has never
changed. What was true in that distant past is true to-day,
and will be true until the " elements shall melt with fervent
heat."  We may change our customs and our laws, erect our
monuments of civil progress in every department of the human
arts; but the human heart remains constant to its original pattern, and the fall of Adam leaves its impress indelibly fixed
upon all his descendants through all time. And all these men
in England who turned against James Watt, the great benefactor of his day and generation, and refused to pay l]im what
they had solemnly contracted to pay, were just such men as
to-day turn against the benefactors of their time, and refuse
to pay what they contracted to pay, when they find that they
might have bought their advantages much cheaper if they had
not been ignorant. Of all things on earth, gentlemen, which
men hate and refuse to pay for, intellect most excites their
animosity. They will raise no objection to paying for coal,
which they can see and shovel in and burn, and the cost of
which they can find out; but to pay for intellect - for that




16
which apparently costs its owner nothing -they won't sllbmit
to that. They would have all men five feet ten inches high,
and when one man rises above the average all the rest cluster
around to pull him down. It is the old savage instinct; we
are all more or less given to it; and I suppose we cannot help
it. It will never die out in the human heart; and courts are
created to control such passions when they come into play to
the injury of society and the destruction of those principles
and laws llpon which society alone can stand. We cannot
prevent murder, arson, and all the crimes and wrongs of the
catalogue; but we can punish those who commit them.
Let me now explain to you, gentlemen, what is meant by
the " expansive power of steam," or " working steam expansively;" which is the principal subject in issue here, and of
vital consequence to the whole country. I will suppose a little
cylinder, one inch in diameter and of indefinite length, and a
piston fitting in it steam-tight, but without friction; and I will
further suppose a cubic inch of water to be poured into the
bottom of that cylinder, and the piston to be then let down on
that water; and I will suppose that on top of that piston there
is a platform placed carrying a ton weight of bricks. Now we
have the machine ready for the experiment which is to deter-.
muine the absolute power resulting from the conversion of water
into steam. Now hold a lamp under that cylinder till it evaporates that cubic inch of water into steam, and it will lift
that ton of bricks just one foot high. These are convenient
units to remember. A cubic inch of water turned into steaml
will lift a ton weight a foot high -no more, no less. That is
not precisely accurate, but it is so within a few pounds, and it
is near enough for all practical purposes. When the weight is
lifted a foot high it goes no further; and a valve must be opened
in the bottom of the cylinder, called the exhaust-valve, to permit another operation, by letting out the steam which has done
its work. That machine is simply a full-stroke or non-expansive engine, making one stroke; and for each stroke made by
such an engine all the possible power to be got is the equivalent of a ton lifted a foot high for every cubic inch of water
evaporated - no more and no less. That is a law inherent in
matter. It is the God-given quality of water and heat. We




cannot alter it.  All we can do is to obey it.  That is all we
canget out of a steam-engine without a cut-off.  But let us go
a little further with  our experiment.  In place of opening the
exhaust-valve when the ton is lifted a foot high, take one brick
off that platform. The load now is not quite as heavy as it
was before, and  the elastic  steam   compressed  by  that ton
weight will expand  a little  under the  diminished load, and
will raise the bricks a little further. It gives us out a little
more power.  Then knock another brick off; and keep knocking them  off, one by one, and up goes the piston, still carrying
up those bricks which are left, until, when you have knocked
them  all off except the last fifteen pounds of bricks, they will
have been raised  about one thousand  seven  hundred  inches
high; and  if you still'further diminish that fifteen pounds, by
knocking  other bricks off, the  steam  will keep  lifting the remainder higher and  higher, and we do not know  how high it
will lift some weight.*   Now, you will observe, gentlemen,
that all the power which has come out of that steam after I
began to knock the bricks off, is a power which is, so to speak,
a clear profit, since it costs no fuel or steam  except that which
had already raised the ton weight a foot high, and which was
unable to raise it any higher unless by this dimlinution of resistance.  James W~att discovered  this principle -  a law  of
steam -  and measured its value remarkably well; and he also:
invented  the  best form  of cut-off for carrying out this principle which has been made, except that called  the Sickels cutoff, notwithstanding  the  hundreds of forms of cut-offs which
have been invented and patented since.  That form  is now  in
use on the Cornish engines; and whenever in England  to-day
they wish to give an example of the great efficiency of steam,,
the Cornish engine of James Watt -- which depends entirely
upon this cut-off for its value-is cited as the most striking illustration.t
* This apparatus, of course, supposes the air to be pumped out from the upper side of the piston, so that a perfect vacuum exists. If not, its weight-fifteen pounds to the inch-composes a
part of the load to be lifted, and amounts to fifteen pounds of bricks in the ton. If the air be not
removed, the machine must stop at one thousand seven hundred inches of lift, because all the
bricks being then knocked off, there yet remain fifteen pounds' pressure of air, which can only be
knocked off, as is done in a steam-engine, by an air-pump and condenser.
t The word " cut-off" simply expresses the fact that the hole through which the steam from the
boiler is admitted to the cylinder, is closed before the piston has perfected its stroke; so that the
2




But yon would wish to know how this principle of diminishing the load or resistance, as in the case of the bricks knocked
off the platform, can be applied to machinery in general; and
I will explain that. It is done by the aid of the momentum of
the matter which the engine is moving - it may be the flywheel, or the steamboat itself, or the train of cars; all of
which, when once set in motion, will not suddenly stop, even
though all power were suddenly suspended from driving them,
and which, therefore, will continue to go on under the diminished pressure of the expanded steam.  Thus you see that
when the steam is cut off from the cylinder, that which is in it
continues to push on the piston with diminished force, but still
with some force; and as the piston cannot stop, it absorbs, and
through the wheels which it drives gives out again to useful
effect, whatever pressure is thus spent upon it; just as your
watch will run all day although the spring which drives it
grows weaker and weaker at each instant as it is relaxed.
The gain which can be obtained from the use of expansion
is measured by the extent to which you carry it; or, in other
words, how short you cut off the steam in the cylinder; and
the amount of saving of fuel or increased power due to the
different rates of expansion, or the different points of cut-off
has been ascertained with mathematical precision by Marriotte
and Regnault, and the law or rule which governs this rate is
called the "l Aarriotte law." I will give you a few figures settled by that law, and then pass to more general considerations.
As I have said, a cubic inch of water made into steam without
expansion will lift a ton a foot high, or whatever is equivalent
to that.  If the steam from that cubic inch, after having done
current of steam is cut4 off from the engine. The mechanisms by which a cut off is effected, are
very numerous, and are constructed with reference to the sort of engines employed. The invention called a " Sickels cut-off," is one of these forms of mechanism, and is peculiarly applicable to' poppet-valves." It cannot be applied to large slide-valves such as are used in the navy engines;
although there is no difficulty in constructing propeller-engines with poppet-valves and by that
means realizing the advantages on such engines which these valves always give to side-wheel engines. Still, if I had all power, I would not make that change suddenly, nor until the entire system of naval engineers was changed. An engine with a " Sickels cut-off" cannot be made to run
by drawing a sword on it, as if it were a coward; and would probably pay no respect whatever to
epaulettes or gold lace. Whenever the present absurd system is changed, and the navy has the
services of practical engine-drivers - such as the merchants have-who don't know algebra or
mathematics, but who do know how to run, keep in order, and repair an engine, then the navy
can have good engines; but until then, the simplest forms of slide-valve machines, with a slida
cut-off, which have no adjustments about them, must be used.




19
that work, is expanded into three times its bulk, it will by
that expansion lift another ton a foot high without calling on
the furnace for any more fuel; if it is expanded five times, it
will lift one ton and six tenths a foot high in addition to its
original lift of a ton; and ten expansions will do three times
and a third as much work as no expansion, using the same
amount of fire and steam.
Now these are well-settled facts in the world- as well as
the rate of speed of a falling body-and are not disputed anywhere, except by our enlightened Secretary of the Navy and
his enlightened Engineer-in-Chief. The navies of the world all
use these principles by the aid of a cut-off; all merchant steamers in the world do the like; and steamers go fast and produce
great results in proportion to the extent to which they use
steam expansively. Mllr. Forbes's steamer Foh Kien, of which
I was the constructing engineer, and whose capacity we proved
here before you, expands steam six or seven times; and she
went nearly fifteen thousand miles in fifty-one days and a half,
using about twenty-seven tons of coal a day, and carrying a
full load of machinery in the hold; and she is a two thousand
ton ship - much larger than those vessels in the navy, now
buildingy or built, which can not go that distance in seventy
days, nor with twice the total coal she used.  And  l Mr.
Roberts's steamer America, of two thousand tons, as we proved
before you, when loaded with coal for a voyage to the Pacific,
averaged at sea nearly twelve knots an hour, and ran thirteen
measured miles in fifty-one minutes, with an amount of coal
which Isherwood swore here could not possibly have made
her go nine knots an hour on his theory, and which would
hardly keep his twelve hundred ton sloops-of-war out of their
own way. And so certain is all this, that when the defendants
put MIr. Reeder, of Baltimore-an engineer of large experience
and intelligence - upon the stand, he was compelled to admit
the truth; although you all know how reluctantly he yielded
to my questions, (because he is building Isherwood's engine for
the Government, and fears the vengeance of the Navy Department.) I asked him:
" Mr. Reeder, isn't it perfectly certain, that if you take out
of the United States ships now building their small cylinders




20
and leaving every thing else just as it is, put in large cylinders
and an independent cut-off, you will vastly increase their
power with the same coal-double it or triple it, according to
the size of the cylinder?"
I-Ie said:
" Yes, it is certainly true."
And it is true; and to deny it exhibits an ignorance or a
wickedness beyond my imagination to conceive.
So much, gentlemen, for that part of the case. I will now
show you that there were facts connected with this alteration
of the Columbia- the steamboat to which the cut-off in this
case was appliedl, and for the saving of fuel produced thereby
this suit is brought - which render it perfectly certain that a
great amount of fuel was saved; and this, too, entirely independent of the use of steam expansively: a saving about which
they have called a witness on the stand —this nMr. Charles
Reeder, of Baltimore -for the purpose of reducing it to ten
per cent of the fuel burned; and that advantage resulted from
the fact that the Sickels cut-off valve was close up to the cylinder, while the old cut-off was remote from the cylinder, with a
large vacant space, called "clearance," to be filled with steam
and lost at each stroke. INow, gentlemen, this advantage, you
will observe, is entirely beyond that which results from working
steam expansively. I will give you an illustration familiar to
you all, by which you will see that advantage.' If you have a
barrel of sugar to sell, which weighs a hundred pounds, and
you sell it out in single pounds, you will not get a hundred
pound parcels precisely out of that barrel. If you have a roll of
cloth on your counter, measuring a hundred yards, and you sell
it out in yards, you will not sell one hundred yards of cloth from
it. Andl why?  Simply because with each pound of sugar you
weigh, or each yard of cloth you cut, you give good weight or
measure, and each time sell a little over; and the sum total of
these little excesses will always use up a considerable amount
of the barrel of sugar or the roll[of cloth. Therefore persons
who sell at retail have to add to the price to make up for this
loss. That is exactly the case of the steam-engine. The piston travels ten feet in the cylinder; but it does not travel so.as to fill up the entire space which the steam occupies. There




21
is still beyond that ten feet a space; so that when you take
steam out of the boiler at every stroke of the engine, you take
out more than the ten feet to fill up the " clearance." There
is an excess which you measure out at every stroke, and that
excess.diminishes the original supply in proportion to the
amount of that " clearance;" just as you lose cloth or sugar in
proportion to the amount your clerk overruns the yard-stick, or
to the quantity of sugar he throws into the scale more than is
needed to balance the weight. That " clearance"' is an absolute
and fixed quantity in a given engine; and how much coal it
will cost is entirely caleulable and can be ascertained by measurrement exactly; and that absolute quantity is entirely independent of whether you work steam expansively or not, although it becomes a larger per centagee of loss when running
with than without expansion.
Now, gentlemen, before I came here Mr. Isherwood had
sworn that item clear out of this case, and had said it was " infinitesimally small " -' as eighteen is to infinity."  But it was
not necessary to swear so in order to show that there was no
practical benefit in exp2ansion; because there is no connection
between these two things at all-none whatever. The loss by
"' clearance " is a loss that occurs in a steam-engine whether you
~work it with or without expansion; and you can save it just
as well upon one engine as upon another. Yon can shorten
the excess measured by the yard-stick, or the excess of sugar
that weighs down the scale; and that, I say, is independent of
the quality of the sugar or of the cloth. This man, therefore,
was under no necessity to swear as he did. What, then, did
he want? Why did he come here? He came here regardless
of the rights of these parties, for the purpose of swearing for
the verdict of a jury of his countrymen, and the judgment of
an intelligent Court, which would tend to prove that the navy
engines were built properly. That is what he came here forto attempt to prove that the laws of Watt and 1Marriotte, and
of all the eminent men who have preceded us in this great
march of civilization, are mere fallacies; that the engineering
of the world is entirely wrong; that this discovery, made within the last year or two, as Isherwood says, by himself, was entirely right. And if he could get that judgclment from this jury,




22
the newspapers of the country would be filled with telegram
after telegram, and paragraph after paragraph, to the effect
that this great man, whom my learned friends heralded here
under such flying colors, and whom they dropped so soon when
I had stripped him naked and produced only " Snug, the Joiner "-that this great man had succeeded in establishing in a
court of justice, after the most searching investigation, how he
was all right, notwithstanding the notorious fact that his new
ships cannot catch a blockade-runner; and he would then insist that their failures were not his fault, but the fault of the
workmen, and of the material nsed, and all that sort of trash
that we have heard him swear to on this stand. Because, I
observe, gentlemen, that the country has begun to be alarmed,
and the newspapers are teeming with these accounts of our
naval failures; and it is necessary for these people who have
produced these shameful results to find some means to help
themselves out of this mire; and so he came here to lead you,
and to lead his HTonor into this train that he has following him,
and to have the benefit of your support. Therefore it was
necessary, in order to have a verdict, to strike out of this engine a saving which had no more connection with the use of
steam expansively than the excess of your pound weight has to
do with the quality of the sugar you weigh. For we are entitled to a verdict for whatever saving was effected by putting
on the cut-off, even if it were true that no part of it arose out
of the use of expanded steam; and we have proved that a saving of ten per cent at least was due to the closing up of this
immense " clearance " by moving the cut-off up to the cylinder.
When, therefore, I read this man's testimony, and found
that he had set out to swear this case through at all hazards,
I at once comprehended his object, and saw how important it
was to the Navy Department, just now, when so much public
anxiety is felt at the constant failures of our navy, to have
just such a verdict as this one would be if they could get it.
But I was not a little surprised at the audacity of this particular piece of swearing; as I had in my hands a couple of
books published by this Isherwood - one of them under the
authority of this very Navy Department-in which he states
the exact value of this loss by clearance, and reduces it to




23
precise figures for different rates of expansion, according to
the well-known rules which govern this case; showing that
in some cases, where the clearance is much less than in this
engine, the loss it occasions is eighteen per cent of the total
fuel. But I will read from his book, (Engineering Precedents,
vol. ii. p. 74:)
" Collecting the above, we have in the different cases the
following for the loss of economican l efect from the steam due
to the space comprised in the clearance and-port of the cylinder, and expressed in per centum  of the effect that the steam
would have produced had there been no such space to have
been filled with it: without expansion, 6.98 per cent; with
an expansion of twice, 8.24 per cent; with an expansion of
four times, 11.70 per cent, and with an expansion of eight
times, 18.13 per cent."
This I read to him; and one would have thought it must
have arrested him in his mad career to self-destruction; but
it producedl no such effect. He tossed it off as easily as if it
were but a feather's weight.'1 Oh! yes," said he; " that was
my theory before I tried the Lake Erie experiment. It was
true in theory, but not in practice."
I asked him if it were not certainly true 2ractically, andhe swore on that stand that it was not. How true it is that
of all men in the world such as he is stand in need of a good
imemory. He had forgotten that this very item was one of
the losses stated in his Lake Erie report; and I turned to that
report, convinced that it, at least, would paralyze the tongue
that dared thus to defy this self-evident truth; but again i
mistook my man. Allow me to read to you from his large
book (p.113) his report on this subject; made as the result of
those very experiments which he had just sworn had refuted
his former calculations, and had enabled him to inform you
that no amount of " clearance" produced any loss in a steamengine. I{e thus explains it:
" There remains, lastly, to be noted one other cause in the
practical steam-engine operating to reduce the economic effect
of the fuel, and unequally for different measures of expansion.
It is due to the fact that between the end of the cylinder and
the piston, at the commencement of the stroke, there inter



24
venes the constant"space comprised in the clearance cand nozzles.  to be filled with steam of the initial pressure, less
the back pressure, the whole of which, when the steam is
used without expansion, is exhausted into the condenser at the
end of the stroke, without having produced any dynamic effect upon the piston."
Then follows a table showing how much that loss was "6 in
the case of the experiments " on Lake Erie - which he had
just sworn proved there was no loss in practice - and he thus
concludes:
" An inspection of line four of the above table will show
how rapidly the loss due to the clearantce and nozzle space increases with the measure of expansion, and how large a proportion it is of the total fuelg when the steam is cut off shorter
thanz about half stroke —"
- as it was in the case of the engine on which he swore it
produced no appreciable loss at all. That blow should have
felled a moral ox; but it never even staggered him. Let me
read the questions and answers which followed':
"Q. Did the experiment at Lake Erie show what you have
here stated it did, or not? A. I have said it is impossible for
any experiment to show that as a direct measurement.
"' Q. That experiment, then, did not show it? A. No; it is
a calculated result on it.
" Q. Then, notwithstanding that experiment, you do not
know whether this calculated result be true or false? A. It
is only as a strong probabiity. The actual experiment and
calculated result in that case are given distinctly and, separately, where direct experiment could reach."
And yet, gentlemen, in the face of a'" calculated result:" in
one book, and of an experimental result raising a "; strong probability" of the truth of that calculated result, showing a
loss of more than ten per cent from this cause, he had the
audacity to swear that no such loss exists in a steam-engine;
and that, too, in the face of Mr. Reeder, one of his own witnesses, who admitted that the saving from this cause must
have been at least ten per cent. That is what used to be
called " swearing at a mark."
If I had not known this mnan as I have known him for




25
years; if I had not watched his sinuous course with astonishmzent, and at the same time with perfect admiration at the
audacity and impudence with which he has pursued this
career, that has brought our navy to its present degradation,
I should have been appalled at these things, as you were; but
I knew the man, and knew that these were but trifles in compaaison with what was yet to be done.
But there was still another cause of saving in the case of
the Columbia, for which the change made, by applying the
Sickels cut-off, was entitled to credit, and which was also independent of the principles of expansion; and that arose from
the fact that the old cut-off valve on the boat was simply a
damper turning in the steam-pipe-just as a stove-pipe damper
is turned to shut off draft - and which, from its nature, must
leak enormously; whereas the Sickels cut-off valve was a single poppet-valve-that is, a tapering or conical stopper set into
a corresponding hole, which it fits, and upon which the steam
to be stopped presses, thus making it tighter and tighter as
the pressure is greater and greater. Now. it is plain enough
that this cause produced a saving; and so MVIr. Reeder admitted, and said that the old damper-valve could not be made
steam-tight, as, indeed, you must see yourselves, without his
aid. But Isherwood had to swear that fact out too, for he
was bound to get your verdict; and he swore that there was
no difference whatever in the tightness of valves, and that
with equal workmanship the damper was as tight as the plug.
Now, as Isherwood is no mechanic, and never struck a blow
as such in his life, he might have been ignorant of this simple
truth, to which MIr. Rteeder, a good mechanic, testified; and
therefore, I looked again to his book to see whether he had
not written down this fact about valves there-for every man
who ever saw a steam-engine work knows this obvious truthand behold, as in the case of the "' clearance," he has fully
stated the whole matter, and tells us that this single valve is
the only one which can be made tight. I read from page 59
of his Precedents:
"Freedom from leakage, however, is from physical causes,
and the forms habitually given to valves, acnzost can i'mJossibility; and of the large number of indicator diagrams that I




26
have examined, from many engines of various types and proportions, I have never seen one which did not evidence a very
considerable leakage."
I-le then proceeds to describe the various valves in use; and,
as if to prepare for his own destruction in this case, he thus
concludes: " The single poppet-valve," (namely, the valve on
the Columbia,) " which is one flat, thin disk, cacn be ground
tight; but it is now scarcely ever employed." Thus proving
that, when he swore these valves were all alike, he knew better,
and had published his knowledge to the world. This same
subject will become important hereafter, and I pass it over
now without further comment.
And there was still one other cause why fuel was saved on
the Columbia by the Sickels cut-off, which was, that by its use
the valve cutting off the steam was closed very rapidly after
it began to shut, whereas the old cut-off valve closed comparatively very slowly. Again, Mir. Reeder, their witness, admitted this to be a cause of saving; and again, Isherwood was
called to discredit their own witness, and to deny that self-evident proposition; and again, he was ready for the emergency.
The loss by the slow closing of the valve results from what is
called "wire-drawing"' the steam; a phrase which suggests
that when the steam has been forced through a hole too small
to pass the quantity required, it must lose some of its strength
in forcing itself through-just as a wire is reduced in strength
by being forced through a smaller hole. ]But Isherwood swore
solid that there was no loss of power due to moving steam
from the boilers to the engine; and when I put him the case
of a steam-pipe a mile long and an inch in diameter, through
which the steam had to travel from the boiler to the engine,
as compared with a pipe of the usual length and size, hle unblushingly swore that no loss of power would result, and that
the steam at the end of the pipe would drive the engine just
as well as in the ordinary way; for, said he, "steam  has no
friction,"' whereas if it were water-to which I compared ithe admitted there would be a loss due to the friction of water.
Again, I had but to turn to his book to prove him to be false,
and not ignorant; and again he was overwhelmed, but not
abashed. I read from page xx of his large volume.




27
" According to the well-settled laws of thermodynamics,
steam, in overcoming any force of any kind, must suffer condensation.  For instance, in rising in vacno in a vertical col
umnn against gravity, exclusive of overcoming any resistance
except that due to its own weight, it will condense. It will
condense in trcansporting itself from the boiler to t/he cylincer,
and fronl the cylinder to the condenser, and in following the
piston down the cylinder, supposing the load to be carried by
an external power. In fact, it cannot produce movement in its
own particles of any kind withtout expenditure of mnechanzical
force, and consequently transmutation of heat and resulting
condensation."
And it follows, of course, that the greater are the difficulties
to be overcomle-the longer the distance over which the steam
must " trcnsport itself "-the greater will be the loss of " mnechzaniccal power," and the less will remain to be used for some
useful purpose at the end. It is not true, however, as he ignorantly supposes, that the steam is condensed, in thus losing its
force; it only loses its pressu.sre or te;nsion, but it renains steam
all the same unless cooled by external radiation. It does not
become water.
I now approach the great.question whose importance brought
me here; a question whose magnitude is no less than to include in its consequences and its decision-not by you, gentlemen, but by the persons acting in behalf of the government
of the United States-the efficiency of an entire navy-that
great arm of our public service upon which, in our struggle
for national existence, above all others we must rely for our
safety, and in the superiority of which during the last war,
exhibited at that time in fast ships like the Constitution, we
were able to defy the mistress of the seas and to carry our flag
in triumph to victory. It is the decision of this question:
whether James Watt and Marriotte, and all those other great
men whose names have been mentioned here, are to be annihilated by a newspaper reporter with a single dash of his pen,
which just now interests the country-interests you, and me,
and all of us, to a degree that is almost incalculable. It is the
question of how the great Amnerican people are to stand hereafter before the peoples of the world. It is the question of




28
how, as a nation, we are to appear on the ocean, either as an
ally to be courted or as an enemy to be crushed. In the great
conflict that I see in the not distant future, looming up over
yonder convex ocean, when the combined powers beyond it may
think it their interest to endeavor to put their foot upon the
flag of this young eagle of democracy in its ascent to greatness
and power, upon which arm of the service is it that we must depend for our most effectual defence?  Is it not the navy of the
United States?  Therefore, as an American citizen, I feel so
deep an interest in this question; and out of love for my country
I have come here to expose and drag out into the light of day
tile wrongs under which we are suffering, and the causes that
have produced them. And when my learned friends sneered so
bitterly at the motives I asserted for myself, I felt that if their
sneers were well foundedlif they were justified in assuming
that in this country there was no man left who would spend a
little of his time, and a little of his money, to serve his country for his country's sake-all that I could do, or you, or any
one of  us, would surely be in vain. I felt, however, that from
their point of view, standing as they do the representatives of
this man Isherwood, they told God's truth when, in the utterance of that sneer, they conveyed the idea that no man, to his
knowledge, would do any thing friom an honorable and patriotic motive; and it grieves me to think that such a belief, from
such a source, should be so boldly avowed. But, gentlemen,
I do not assume for myself any peculiar patriotism. I should
be ashamed to claim for any such sacrifice of time, labor, and
money, as I have made in this case the smallest of the rewards
due to those who in this dark hour are exhibiting their real patriotism. When I see half a million of my brethren exposing
their bosoms in the carnival of death to the leaden storm that
is beating arouncd them; when I see them leaving their wives,
tlheir little ones, their comforts, and their gains, to sacrifice
their lives, their health, their homes, and their dearest affections on the altar of their country- I feel that no man who
stays here, whatever good he may do, or however necessary
he may be, has any right to assert for himself any peculiar
patriotism.  What do I risk? Nothing; or, at most, an imprisonment in Fort Lafayette, if this man has as much power




29
now as he has had with the government, and the fruitless
loss of a few days of my busy life diverted from its accustomed
pursuits.
But, gentlemen, I thank God that in this land I do not stand
alone as the only man who is willing to serve his country for
her dear sake. Thank God that the sneers wivhich came out of
the mouth of Isherwood's counsel here do not properly apply
to the American people.
" Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!"
But, gentlemen, when my learned friends came here before
you and attempted to array the mighty power of this great
people to overwhelm this little case; to tell you that this government had decided that James Watt, Marriotte, and all those
other great men were simply ignorant-that was a very imposing exhibition, to be sure. But who made that decision?
Surely not the American people, for all of their private engines
obey these laws.  vVho but that officer who sits at the other
end of the avenue, intrusted with the duty of making that
decision, and this charlatan that he has employed for the purpose of carrying it out? The one a very respectable and venerable gentleman, once discharging the onerous and responsible duties of postmaster in a country town in Connecticut
with eminent success, and now removed from his field of
usefulness and brought here to this highly important position
of Secretary of the Navy; and the other a penny-a-liner by
trade, making a scanty living by picking up news in WTashllington for the newspapers, and writing letters on both sides of
the questions of the day-entirely uneducated in this art, and.
gaining his position by intrigue and brazen effrontery. And
these are the two who have decided this question; and then
my learned friends came into this court and held them up as
the great American people, at whose bidding even the powers
of nature must yield, die, and shrink into insignificance, no
more to assert themselves on this side of the waters, whatever they might do anywhere else.
And what, gentlemen, is the foundation, in fact, for this de



30 
cision against the laws of nature, thus pompously paraded before you?  Why, it appears upon the testimony of this man,
and by his books here in court, that it stands upon a certain
experiment tried by him and two or three other engine-drivers
on an old steam-engine on Lake Erie, with the vessel tied fast
to the dock; the results of which experiments are put into a
book and printed. Upon that experiment-tried by these
three or four obscure men, the leader of whom my learned
friends, his counsel, at last told you was not even a man of
science at all- has the whole navy of the United States been
constructed in direct opposition to all the science of the world
and all those splendid commercial steamers, which are the
pride and glory of our country, and which carry our flag to
the distant ends of the earth, under the auspices of private
gentlemen-men of intelligence, who have risen to fame and
fortune by obeying God's laws and not by fighting them.
Now, gentlemen, I will tell you why that experiment on Lake
Erie was made. I will let you into the motives of all this horrible
conduct which has been thus exposed before you. This man,
Isherwood, came into the navy as he has told you himself,
never having handled a steam-engine, never having touched a
piece of machinery, entirely ignorant of any practical fact
about it at all; having had a boy's common education at an
academy, and having been turned out at an early age to pick up
a living as best he could. At first he got employment on the
Erie Railroad and Croton Aqueduct as a rodmlan and level
carrier, along with numbers of other boys on these works.
When he left them-and he left no enviable character on the
Croton Aqueduct, as Mr. Craven, its engineer, knows-he
camle to Washington in the employ of two newspapers, to pick
up news around the taverns, and write the usual daily letters.
In this capacity, and while advocating in one of these papers
the admlinistration, he was rewarded for his services by the
appointment of First Assistant Engineer in the navy-aan
appointment for which he had had no training whatever, and
of the duties of which he was entirely ignorant. He bought
the books and read up for an examination; and he swore that
he had passed one with credit —which proves what I have
often asserted, that under the present system no knowledge is




31
necessary to make a naval engineer, but only such parrot-like
learning as a smart boy can pick out of a book in a week. At
that time, however, there were in the navy several good
practical engineers-men who had learned their trades in the
merchant service, and had worked as mechanics in the shops,
and who were competent to drive any engine and keep it in
good order for a voyage round the world. In comparison
with them this ignoramus was utterly worthless; and he saw
that there was no chance for distinction if he had to pursue
the path which these had trodden before him, and had to
submit to the laws of nature as they were received by all
mankind.  His success in getting into a place for which he
had not the first qualification, and his confidence in his own
powers of intrigue, led him to look forward to promotion above
his fellows, who had no practice in his arts.t  HIaving read
that  the pen is mightier than the sword," and holding that
The daring youth who fired the Ephesian dome,
Outlives in fame the pious fool who reared it,
he undertook to attain notoriety, at whatever cost.  Leaving,
then, the beaten track, in which he was infinitely behind the
practical men of the navy, he arrayed himself in opposition to
the principles on which they were practising, and astonished
his little world by announcing that he had made a grand discovery in science; which was in substance that James Watt
was ignorant and 3Marriotte a fool.  In that attitude, at least,
he might be notorious; and although he knew that he must
* It is amusing to see how ingeniously and laboriously this Isherwood, having crawled into this
place, has attempted to secure himself perpetually in it; and he had supposed that his success
was complete. His method was to procure an Act of Congress by which the Engineer-in-Chief
must be appointed friom the Engine Drivers of the Navy; and when the choice is limited to them,
he concluded that his tenure of office must be perpetual; for no one would suppose that any of
them was capable of the duties of a constructing engineer-between which and the duties of
driving an engine, there is no more relation than there is between the science and art of making
a chronometer and the knowledge necessary to wind it up and keep it running; while, he having
scribbled a couple of books, might claim to possess the requisite scientific knowledge to deal with
these difficult problems. On the stand, before his cross-examination, his arrogance was stunning;
when with a majestic wave of the hand he demolished his own witness, Charles Reeder, of Baltimore-an educated engineer from boyhood-with the remark: "Mr. Reeder only displayed by
that answer that he was utterly ignorant of the grandest discoveries of modern physics!" It can
easily be seen how such presumption, when practised upon imbecility, might be eminently suce
cessful. In Mr. Reeder's case it failed; for it was applied to that testimony of Mr. Reeder in
which he swore there was no foundation for Isherwood's deduction of sixteen per cent on account
of " Joule's equivalent;" and on that point Isherwood was compelled to confirm him on crossexamination, out of his own book, both theoretically and practically.




32
be crushed by the principles he defied at some time or other,
he had meanwhile the satisfaction of dishonest distinction and
the chances for gain which it afforded.  As he stood here on
the stand, swearing  down the laws of the great Creator, he
reminded me of the bull who took  a fancy to stop a locomotive-pawing the earth, with head down and tail np, roaring
defiance at the great machine which must roll on in its fixed
track forever; and the remark of the Hibernian came to my
mind with  comical effect: "Och, hony, I admire your courage, but the divil take your discretion."   His first dash at the
locomotive was made by  publishing  his "'Engineering  Precedents," in which he demolished James Watt and Marriotte
without any trouble.  In that book he used up just one half
of the power of expanded steam  by the very original and ingenious reason that because the coal in the furnace does not
evaporate as much water as it ought, the economy of using the
steam  made from  it could not have any effect on that portion
of the coal which was wasted; or, in  other words, because
your wages are not so high  as they  ought to be, it is not
worth  while to  economize in their expenditure.  This complicated nonsense, however, was so well stated that the London Artisc;na  adopted it for sense, and republished it with  approval; and Isherwood was becoming famous. I exposed it,
however, in a letter to  the  Secretary  of the Navy, written
about a year ago-a part of which I have read to you —and
after that even Islherwood's impudence  could not carry that
deception further.  How  he explained it to the Secretary I
never knew; but he so far satisfied him  on the subject that,
although  the Senate rejected Isherwood when nominated, lihe
was not withdrawn, as is usual, but forced through  by  the
Department in spite of the rejection.*
* This act has the darkest look of all which have characterized the Navy Department in this
business. The rejection on the first nomination was founded upon statements made to the Senate
of the real condition of the ships built on this new discovery, as well as upon circumstances which
clearly pointed to corruption; and it was generally supposed that a successor would be named.
As the choice was limited by'the general act to the Engine-Drivers of the Navy, and as I had
taken an active part in procuring the rejection, I signed the petition of Mr. Wood for the appointment; although I had just then publicly protested in writing against his official conduct in endeavoring to prevent Mr. Webb from having a cut-off in his "Dunderherg;" and I signed it for
the purpose of showing that I had no friend to propose for the place, and because I understood
from Mr. Wood's friends that if he were there he would not undertake to dictate any new system
for the navy engines, but would go back to the well-settled plans on which the navies of the world




33
When I presented this book to him  on the stand, it was
comical enough to hear him  claim  the protection of the court,
and insist that I should not cross-examine him  on it, but should
confine myself to his second book, which, he said, was all right;
but he soon found out that he was in a court of law, before a
judge, and not in the Navy Department, before the venerable
Secretary.  How  he was to explain this swindle I could not
imagine; but his resources never failed.  "That," said he,
" was an error; and it got into that book by accident.  It
was intended to be published in another place." "How did
it happen, then, that in the article containing the error which
used up one half of MAarriotte's law you should have announced
its presence in the commencement of the paper, and restated
its effect in the final resume 2"  Htis answer to that was a
paragon of its kind; let me read it: " That portion of the subject," said he, "I admit is confused and mixed up;" and for
once, gentlemen, I agree with  him.  But what an excuse is
this! He is detected in passing counterfeit money, and he
exclaims: "Oh! I knew it was bad, but I didn't mean to pass
it on you; I meant it for your neighbor.'  The article is false,
he admits; but he claims he meant to print it in some other
book, not in this.  His moral obliquity is so intense that he
could not perceive that the fraud would have been as great in
the other place, where he might have published this false statement, as in this book; and that for the purpose of exposing his
ignorance or his chicanery it would have been as useful to me
in any other book as in this one.
It would have been the part of an honest man to have said
that he did not know any better-that he was mistaken or ignorant-and not to pretend that this trash was printed in the
book by accident.  But his insufferable vanity would not permit him  to acknowledge what was the obvious truth, and cornare built, and on which such ships as the Iroquois and others of our navy have proved themselves
very good. But during all this time a pressure was brought t) bear on the Senate from the Department; and in spite of the fact, well kcoacsn at the time by the Departmnent, that the Ossipee, Juniata, and Lackawanna, as well as all the gunboats, were entirely worthless, and were costing immense sums for repairs before they had ever done a single day's weork-as was the case
with the Ossipee, Juniata, and Lackawanna-the Department forced Isherwood's nomination through
the Senate; and having accomplished that piece of work, they at once proceeded to reproduce
just such machines as their past experience had found to be worse than useless. How such a per,
formance as tliis can be explained to a plain man, is more than I can at present conceive.
3




pelled him to swear that he never meant to have in the book
at all, that which is all there is of the book, and without which
the book would not be any thing.%
After the publication of this absurd book, and while enjoying the triumph which the success of so monstrous a deception
must have occasioned him, it occurred to him  to give some consistency to his hypothesis by bringing to its aid an experiment;
and with his capacity for intrigue he had no trouble in moulding the Secretary to his purpose.  Instead of trying a vessel in
motion, and near the centres of commerce, where his frauds
would have been  exposed  alnd arrested, he selected an old
steamer on Lake Erie, frozen fast in the ice and tied to the
dock, where, unobserved, he might manipulate the machine and
mislead  his ignorant victims.   There, blinding the persons
whom  he employedcl, by a parade of preparation; occupying
their attention in watching and weighing the feed-water, as if
it cost money-in holding thermometers around the engine, as
if it ran by their aid, and in various other harulless employments-just as a juggler on the stage does when he is about to
deceive your senses in some other particular —he produced a
set of results which  are the most transparent swindle  that
ever yet gained a moment's credence in the world.  That report, and the figures -Twhich give it an air of reality, are in this
big book; and you have seen and heard them  exposed.
The question which he pretended to try was, whether a certain
amount of power could be derived through the aid of a steamengine withi less coal when working the steam  expansively than
it could when working it without expansion?  That was the
simple question; and it might have been tried on that engine
in an hour, and the result would have shown that the laws of
the great Creator have not fled this continent, notwithstanding
the edict of the Navy Department banishing  them  forever.
Isherwood knew this too; and it is curious to see how his silly
* Isherwood swore that he never had read the proof-sheets of this book, but was " out of town"
when they were read by some person for him. Bailliere Brothers, who published this book, will, I
have no doubt, be astonished to hear that its author did not read the proof, and that the most material part of the whole book is false, and got into the volume by accident; and the London Asrtisab,
which commended this particular piece of jugglery as full of science, will no doubt entertain an
exalted opinion of its judcment hereafter on such subjects, after heal-ing that the author they praised
has sworn the theory they lauded to be a mere error accidentally intruded into his work. It is
some consolation to know, however, that all the fools are not on this side of the water!




v5
juggle should have misled even the ignorant men he was using
for his purpose; because, gentlemen, I entirely acquit his associates of any participation in the fraud, and am glad to admit
that they were as ignorant as men in their stations of life might
be expected to be on a subject so profound as the laws of heat,
whose determination has engrossed the attention and often baffled the skill of the ablest intellects of the world. PBut Isherwood knew soime plain facts about that engine of which they
were ignorant, and in which he gained the advantage. He
knew that the valves leaked enormously; for as I have read
to you from his book, then just published, he had stated that
such valves as they were leaked " of course;" and he knew that
that leakage alone was the means whereby, under his manipulation, be could juggle the others. Now let us open his tables
and see the swindle. You-will observe that instead of running
this engine with equal amounts of power, with and without
expansion-which would have settled the case at once-he ran
it so as to develop three hundred and forty-three horse power
witJhout exCarnsion, and only eighty-six horse-power with expansion; thereby only proving that on that engine a sniall
amount of power could not be developed, even by the aid of
expansion, as economically as a larger amount could be developed without its aid; and one of the chief reasons was that
the leakarge of steam was as great in one case as in the other, and
therefore cost ruztch more coal in proportion to the amount
needed to produce a horse-power in the case of the smaller
power than the larger one. To show you that this man knew
this result would follow fronm leaky valves, I turn you to his
"Precedents," (p. 59,) where he devotes a section to that proposition under this title:
6 Of the mzodification of the theoretical resutz of expanswon
macIe by the lea7ckcye of the valves."
And, after explaining, although very ignorantly, how this
leakage woucld affect the loss, le thus concludes, (p. 64:)
" Consequently we perceive that while we have been expecting the gain due to the qrecater measure of expansion, because
the cut-off valve closedl at the proper point to produce it, we
ought, owing to the lecakcage of the valuces, to have expected only
the gain due to the lesser measure of expansion.




We are now prepared to see this leakage appear on this engine; and here it is. In table XNo. 1, (p. 100,) under the title,
" Number of pounds of feed-water pumped into boilers per
hour," we find that, when taking steam eleven twelfths of the
stroke, he used 12,040 pounds of water an hour, and at seven
tenths he used 7,335 pounds an hour; while, when cutting off
at one sixth of the stroke he only used 2,761 pounds an hour,
and at the shortest cut-off he used 2,806 pounds an hour. Turning now to table No. 2, (p. 104,) we find an account of how
much of this water thus pumped into the boilers disappeared
in the shape of steam, and therefore produced no power on the
engine; and these figures prove the fraud just as the trial balance of a set of books exposes false entries, if any are made.
Now, you see that, in round numbers, ten per cent of the feedwater disappeared when using 12,040 pounds an hour; fifteen
per cent when using 7,335 pounds an hour; forty-two per cent
when using 2,761 pounds an hour, and forty-five per cent when
using 2,806 pounds an hour. If, therefore, the loss were what
Isherwood in his book says it should be " of course," in steamengines having such valves as this one had, we ought to expect
that these variable percentages of loss should all amount to the
same total quantity; and so it is. The exact percentage given
in the table shows that the total steam leaked was 1284 pounds,
1122 pounds, 1162 pounds, and 1262 pounds an hour, at these
respective points of cut-off I have mentioned-being the two
extremes of the experiment. WVhen I had brought him down
to this plain and self-evident exposure, I then asked him the
question whether the results of that experiment were not as
well explained by the fact that the valves leaked as by his
theory that the laws of nature were mistaken by such men as
Marriotte and his associates; and by the aid of his Honor I
forced him to answer truly once, and to admit that they were.
His refuge was in denying that the valves leaked a particlea denial made in the face of his own publication, and of the
well-established fact in regard to these valves, which have no
exception in the world. As I showed you here, the best balanced valve-engine I ever saw-that of the Foh Kien-on
which no pains were spared, and which would stand all day
without heating the condenser-leaked three hundred horse



37
power out of thirteen hundred, as proved by indicated diagrams
taken to test it. And the man who invented double-balanced
valves has cost this country untold millions in coal to supply
their leakage, which Isherwood described in his book, and
which on this Lake Erie engine " in good order," amounted to
nearly one half of the steam made, when that amount was
small compared with the size of the engine.
There is also another item of loss on that engine which Isherwood charges to expansion, but which, like the leakage, belongs to another account; and that, too, like the leakage, he
knew was fraudulently charged, as I shall show you by reading
again from his book. It is the item of about twenty horsepower needed to run this large engine itself without transmitting any power to any useful purpose; and which, being a
uniform quantity, became one quarter of the power made by
expansion, while it was only one fifteenth of the power made
without expansion. So that, in order to get fifty-three useful
horse-power out of that engine, it was necessary to make and
cpay for eighty-six horse-power. And as lhe only gave the
coal credit for the useful horse-power, in stating his conclusions from these experiments, he defrauded expansion out of
this enormous loss; which, of course, did not in any degree
depend on the fact of expansion, but only on the fact that he
was using an engine too large for the work it had to do. His
associates, I admit, did not see this transparent juggle; but he
did, and I read out of his book again (page 338) to prove it.
lie there says:
"' If the engines be properly designed in themselves and for
their work, the proportion of the totalpower utilized will be a
maximzvum and the cost of the useful work done a minimum;
and just in degree as they are improperly designed, either in
themselves or for their work, will the cost of the useful work
done increase."
And in addition to these two causes, the loss by radiation and
external leakage of this immense engine and boiler, when used
to produce only fifty-three horse-power of useful worik, must
have been very great in proportion to the work; and of course
it weighed heavily against expansion, on the assumption that
it was a loss which always must attend n ffly-three horse-power




38
engine when running with ecxpansion; but as I do not find in
this book that he knew that a big boiler and engine would radiate and leak more than a small one would, I cannot say that
this was a fraudulent item  omitted.
But you see, gentlemen, that if he had carried the trick a
little further-which he was wise enough not to do, for fear
of exciting suspicion-and had cut off short enough to make
only one horse-power with this engine, he could have shown
that by expansion one horse-power would cost about two hundred and seventy pounds of coal an hour; for you see he
would have had to burn, to get this one horse-power, first,
coal enough to evaporate twelve hundred pounds of water an
hour, which was leaking; and secondly, coal enough to make
twenty horse-power, which the engine required for its own
motion; and all this would have had to be charged to the
one horse-power, and by his method of reasoning, to the fact
that expansion was carried out too far for economy.  If he
had done that, even the stupidity of his dupes would have
been alarmed, and his trick would have failed; so he stopped
just where the gain by expansion became too small to balance the enormous losses by the causes I have mentioned;
and then le had but to explain to his ignorant associates, in
the clear language of his book, that the "condensation per
see" would "cceteris pcrihuZs"  "in  rapport of fuel," produce
"bladders" in the steam, and so destroy the "law  of Miarriotte " and all other "' icdolon foris" who should come around
the Navy Department when he got to be Engineer-in-Chief;
and you can see, gentlemen, how clear that must have made
it to them.*
Now if you will follow me one moment I will show you how,
even in that engine, and in the fiands of an enemy, 1Marriotte
vindicated his law, and for a dead man made a most splendid
defence of his principle against this swindling assault. The
* This compound jargon made by collecting into a sort of bouquet what he considers the choicest
gems of his work, may be supposed to do him injustice; but I think it will compare favorably with
the following true quotation,which I make from page 139: " In physical science an inquiry into causes
is altogether vain and futile. Hume makes the keen observation, that no copula has been detected
between any cause and effect. We employ the language of causation because it is convenient, and
gives precision to our ideas, but it is gratuitously applied to that which we know only as consecutive." When Isherwood read this magnificent sentence to the Secretary, he must have concluded, that if it would not make a steam-engine go, there would be no use in trying expansion.




39
total horse-power which the engine gave when cutting off at
one eleventh of the stroke is set down at eighty-six, and the
coal burned per hour, was three hundred and seventy pounds.
Now, how much of that coal is chargeable to the power produced, and how much of it to losses which are merely accidental ones, and which do not occur in a good engine? And
first, there was a loss of one thousand two hundred and sixtytwo pounds of water by leakage. How much did that cost in
fuel? The table answers and says that every pound of coal
evaporated seven pounds and eight tenths of a pound of water.
We therefore have but to divide one thousand two hundred
and sixty, by seven and eight tenths, to know how much coal
that loss cost; and we have one hundred and sixty-one pounds
of coal an hour wasted on unnecessary leakage. The table
also informs us that one quarter of this whole power was spent
on running the engine itself, which is a clear loss in order to
get fifty horse-power; and we must, therefore, deduct one
quarter from the coal remaining, after paying for leakage, in
order to know how much the real power cost. When you deduct from three hundred and seventy pounds of coal, one hundred and sixty-one pounds for leakage, there remain two hundred and nine pounds; and from that, wlhen you deduct one
quarter for the fi'iction of this large engine with its wheels
running in the water without buckets on, (as they did,) there
remain one hundred and fifty-seven pounds of coal, which
produced eighty-six horse-power; and dividing one hundred
and fifty-seven pounds of coal by eighty-six horse-power we
have the cost of a horse-power at one pound and seven tenths
of coal an hour. Some small deduction would have to be
made from eighty-six horse-power, thus produced, to pay for
the friction of a proper engine to produce it - say ten per
cent; but, on the other hand, the radiation and external leakage
from these enormous boilers and engines would use up much
more fuel than enough to pay for similar losses on a small machine and for the little friction incident to producing so small
an amount of power - thereby still further reducing the cost
of horse-power by expansion, and showing that James
Watt and his pupils are not the idiots which this penny-a-liner
would have you believe them to have been. By the law of




40
Marriotte the cost of a horse-power -  supposing steam to be
expanded as much as is shown in this table, and coal to evaporate as much water as is here claimed for it, and supposing
the machine to be perfect in all its parts, and to lose nothing
by radiation-should be one pound and thirty-five hundredths
of a pound of coal an hour; while here we find that it costs
only one pound and seventy hundredths an hour, after deducting from the amounts falsely charged to it those quantities whose magnitude the table itself gives us, and making no
allowance for losses other than those.
So much, gentlemen, for this famous Lake Erie experiment;
which was a discredit to the government under which it was
made, and a disgrace to the one by whom  it was published to
the world, under an official sanction, as containing a new
truth in science worthy to be received by men as something
more than a mere juggler's trick.
But when Isherwood found that his first book was exposed
to public contempt, and that his Lake Erie juggle was beginning to be discovered-for several others besides me have taken
some pains to expose its fraud-he bethought himself of a new
trick; and it appeared in the shape of this second great volume.
One half of his old battery for beating down James Watt had
been spiked, and then there was urgent need to find a new one,
whose guns might be so concealed by learned jargon that no
one could unmask and capture them.  And to effect this concealment he dragged to his assistance what you have heard so
much about, under the name of "Joule's equivalent," and by
which he proposes to use up James Watt and M1arriotte, instead
of by the old trick of the imperfect combustion of coal in the
furnaces, which I exploded.  I-Ie has, besides these, a hlalf-dozen
other weapons not yet brought into use, which, when this battery is spiked, he will probably produce.*
* On page 1388 of his book he thus parades his spare store of weapons: "The causes of the great
discrepancy found to exist in steam-engines using steam with different measures of expansion between the economy as promised by the law of Marriotte and as realized experimentally, may be
summed up as follows, premising that the same initial and back pressures are supposed to be4 employed in the cylinder, namely:
" 1st. The law of the expansion of steam is not rigorously that of'Marriotte, even when condensation is prevented by superheating; the pressure decreases in a higher ratio than the volume increases.
" 2d. The condensation of steam in the cylinder due to the production of power.




41
Now I will explain this simple matter to you, as it is just
now much talked of in the world, and but little understood.
It had been supposed, long ago, by profound thinkers, that
"3d. The condensation of steam in the cylinder due to superheating the back pressure vapor as
a gas.
" 4th. The condensation of steam in the cylinder due to its expansion per se.
"5th. The condensation of steam in the cylinder due to external radiation.
" th. The condensation of steam in the cylinder due to the re-evaporation of water deposited on
its internal surface.
"7'tt. The loss of dynamic effect in the cylinder clearance and steam-passage.
"8th. The influence of the back pressure in the cylinder resisting the stroke of the piston.
"9th. The influence of the pressure required to work the engine per se.' 10th. The difference of dynamic effect due to an equal weight of steam used at the average cylinder pressure and at the boiler pressure."
Now, each and all of these statements are either false "per se," or do not affect the economy of
eexpansion any more than the economy of non-expansion.
Ist. The first one is false "per se," and as I show on page 47, Isherwood knew it. Expanded
steam increases its pressure-not diminishes it-in a higher ratio than the volume increases; and
this is the discovery of Regnault.
2d. The second one is false "per se;" no such condensation occurs; but if it did, as Isherwood
on p. 126 of his book shows, there would be "no difference of practical consequence," between expansion and non-expansion. This is exposed on pp. 47, 48, and 49.
3d. The third one is of itself immaterial, and not adverse to expansion. Isherwood thus describes it, (p. 131:) " And we have seen that the loss by superheating the ec7panded steam
and back pressure vapor is not only very small, but sensibly equal, ewhether the steam be
uesecd woitlh or without exz9pansion"-thus proving that he knew it was a false charge to make
against expansion.
4th. This is mere trash. If the steam does not condense by expansion in an engine, as Regnault
shows it does not, and as even the crude experiments at Lake Erie proved it does not, it probably
will not condense in Latin-per se, or otherwise.
5th. The loss by external, radiation from the cylinder is too insignificant to mention; but Isherwood says of it that " the radiation from the exterior surface of the cylinder and the condensation
by the interior surfaces will be about the same," whether expansion or non-expansion is used.
(Precedents, vol. 2, p. 51.) So he knew that this was a false charge.
6th. This division is disposed of on page 50 of this book, where the reference is given to Isherwood's own statement in regard to it, and where he wrote that this loss was to be excluded from a
comparison between expansion and non-expansion. But no such effect is produced-no " water is
deposited on the interior surface of the cylinder," and of course none is re-evaporated.
Tth. The loss by " clearance and steam-passages" of an engine has always been one of Isherwood's arguments against expansion, and all his books abound with its explanation. In the " Columbia," however, these clearances had been materially lessened by the use of a Sickels cut-off, and
a saving had been thereby effected; but Isherwood swore that all his calculations were false where
he had charged losses from clearance, and he said that in practice there was no such loss. He
is false, however, both in his calculations and in his assertion that there is no loss. The truth is,
that the total loss of power by clearance is perfectly calculable, but is less with expansion than
without it, although it is a greater per cesntage of the total power with expansion than without it.
A few figures will make this plain. Suppose a cylinder with one tenth of its stroke in " clearance."
Now, if you use steam woithosst expansion, there will be a. loss of one tenth of the power; but as
steam without expansion only does one duty-only lifts a ton a foot high for each cubic inch of water evaporated-there will remain only nine tenths of onee ton lifted afoot high for each cubic
inch of water evaporated. If, however, the steam is expanded ten times in that cylinder, then no
work will have been done by the boiler pressure at all, because the steam will be cut off after it has
filled the " clearance," and before the piston has moved; but by its expansion it will raise two tons
and three tenths of a ton a foot high for each cubic inch of water evaporated, which is two and
a half times as nzuc7l work as the non-expanded steam performed. But if there were no " clearance," the same steam would lift three anod three tenths tons a foot high; so that by clearance
more than one third of the power is lost. Yet there remains so much more than the wvhole power




42
there was somewhere in the universe a measure or standard by
which all the causes and effects seen in physical phenomena
might be bronught to some common unit; just as all the things
we buy and use are brought to the standard of a pound weight
or a pint measure. Dr. lMayer and Count RIumford investigated the problem with great effect, and they ascertained very
closely the true ratio which exists between motion and heat;
but it was left for Mr. Joule, a careful and laborious experimnenter, to fix with precision the standard and to give his
namne to the fact thus ascertained.  The phrase, "Joule's
equivalent," now signifies what Mr. Joule discovered, that the
mechanical power required to lift seven hundred and seventytwo pounds a foot high is the eqcuivale.nt of the heat needed to
raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree of
Fahrenheit;  and  that is  all it means.   This beautiful discovery is the first step in the bright* pathway of light by which
man, created in the image of his vMaker, will some day disclose
the now  hidden links which bind us together, and will be
able to  show  scientifically, as with poetical inspiration the poet
hath taught us:
of non-expanded steam as to enable it to lose this enormous per centage and yet give twice and
a half the power of non-expanded steam. A man worth three millions can pay a tax larger than
the whole property of one worth a hundred thousand, and yet be much richer than he, afterward;
and that is this case.
8th and 9th. The back pressure against the piston and the friction (done in Latin) have been favorite arguments of Isherwood against expansion; but I do not find in his book that he knew them
to be false, so I must assume them to have been ignorantly used. The answer is that the back
pressure and friction are just like all other resistances which oppose the steam in its effort to drive
down the piston —just such resistance as the friction of the boat going through the water, or of the
mill-stone which grinds the grain-and by whatever means any of these resistances are overcome with less steam than otherwise would be needed, by that same means all of these resistances are overcome more economically. Thus, if in a given engine the piston is required to exert a
force of a hundred thousand pounds moved ten feet at each stroke, and ten thousand of these pounds
are needed to overcome the "' back pressure," ten thousand to overcome the " fiiction," and only
eighty thousand are finally used to grind corn-then if that hundred thousand pounds of force is
got without expansion, it will cost just twice as much steam or fuel to produce it as if the steam
were expanded three times; and it is obvious that this saving of half the fuel will produce its effect
as well upon the back pressure and engine friction as upon the grist-mill stones, and that the cost
of grinding grain will be reduced just osse khalf, and not some less amount.
But " back pressure" is diminished by increasing expansion-that is to say, a lower "v accossen"
is produced by cutting off short than by following full stroke-and therefore, in respect to this item,
there is a reduction of resistance to be overcome, effected by the very act of economizing the means
by which it is to be overcome.
10th. I trust I shall not be considered intensely ignorant when I confess that I don't understand
what this means-either philologically or scientifically considered. It may be an " idlolon fori,"
which Isherwood describes in his preface; but whatever it is, we can only pray him not to let it out
on the steam-engines of the country till after the war is over, for at present they need all the power
which by the laws of nature they can possibly develop.




43
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul;
That, changed through all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all-life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full as perfect in a hair as heart;
As full as perfect in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns.
To Him no high, no low, no great, no smallHe fills, He bounds, connects and equals all."
From  this discovery of Joule many erroneous conclusions
have been drawn; among which is the assumption that because
heat and power are found to be equivalent to each other in a
certain ratio, therefore the one is converted or transmuted into
the other. This is not true, any more than it is true that when
a roll of greenbacks disappears out of your pocklet and a barrel
of flour appears in your kitchen, the greenbacks are transmuted
into flour.  They are the equivacent of flour and you can buy
flour with them, but you can't "transmute " them into flour.
Isherwood, however, considered that as this subject was a little " confused and mixed up," like his book, he miglht use it as
a cloak to cover his new juggle; and so he asserted that, in
consequence of Joule's equivalent, the steam in an engine was
condensed into water and lost, and therefore that there was no
benefit in expansion.  In his first book there was no room for
this theory; for already lie had used up all the benefit of expansion by other devices of his active imagination, and although
he knew of Joule when he wrote that book, lie did not assign
to him any of his losses; for if he had, he would have more th/eat
used up all the benefits and left poor Watt in the minority
entirely. But when I spoiled his first book, he produced Joule
to fill up the ranks; just as a fiesh regiment is brought forward,
after a crushing discharge of artillery, to carry on the fight.
And here opens a chapter of barefaced fraud, which has no
precedent in the history of tlme world in this department of
swindling.  In this book it appears that this fellow, by delib



44
erate false entries, made with an entire knowledge of their intention. and effect, simply "fobrced the balances," and wilfully
published the fiaud to the world-published it under the sanction of the great people of the United States of Amrerica, and
under this imposing title:
" Experimental Researches in Steam Engineering, by Chief
Engineer B. F. Isherwood, United States Navy, Chief of the
Bureau of Steam Engineering, Navy Department, etc. The
whole being original matter composed of extensive experiments
made by the United States Navy Department.'
In this book lie attempts to retrieve his falling cause by asserting more boldly than ever that there is no practical benefit
in expansion. I read his own statement of its object, (p. xv.:)
" A large portion of the volume is devoted to experiments
made to ascertain by practical results the relative economy of
using steam with different measures of expansion.  These results are so opposed to the popular belief in the great economic
gain to be obtained from the use of steam with high measures
of expansion, according to the hypothetical law of MVarriotte,
which hcas been so long can 2ndi8pted carticle in the creed of engineeJring, that a reformer exposes himself to the usual fate
given by the worshipper of an icldolo fori to those who attempt its overthrow. Nevertheless when the subject is properly
examined, subject to even the erroneous assumptions of the law,
considered as the expression of a physical truth, it will be seen
that the fallacy of this expectation can be demonstrated by a
plain application to the case of a steam-engine.  Such an application, made by silnple crithmetic cancd level to the zneanest capcacity, will be found in the following table, in which are given
the data and calculated results, showing the relative theoretical
economy in rapport of fuel of using steamn of forty pounds per
square inch total maximum pressure in a condensing engine
with different measures of expansion under normal conditions."
Was there ever any thing more fair than that! Who would
expect to have a forgery passed off on him under such an introduction?  Yet that is just what is done. Before coming to
his table, however, he yet devotes some pages to still further
allaying suspicion, and finally thus states his results:' It is interesting to know, however, that with the pressure




45
actually employed in the besZ 2prcetice with  condensing engines, and with the engine properly proportioned in size to its
work, the commercial theoretical value in fuel of using the
steam at the most advantageous point of cutting off (one fourth
of the stroke of the piston from the commencement) is only
seventeen and three quarter per centum more than when cutting it off at two thirds of the stroke of the piston from the
commencement.  That is to say, using the steam with an expansion of four times, is, theoretically, only seventeen and three
quarters per centumr more economical than using it with an
expansion of one and a half time. Practically, there must be
made from  this seventeen and three quarter per cent the
very serioues redactions due to the well-known and considerably
greater condensations in the cylinder, additional to that included in the table, when using the steam with the higher measure
of expansion, leaving it doubtful whether gain or loss will be
prcctically realized by cutting off shorter than about two
thirds of the stroke of the piston from the commencement,
and nmakig it certain that the difference upon either side
will be practically insignificant."
This is a plain declaration that no gain of importance can
be got from expansion by cutting off at less than two thirds of
the stroke of the piston; and that the true theory, as shown
by the accompanying table, will prove the position. Then follows the table, which of course but few men would attempt to
dissect after so bold an avowal of its contents, and of its simplicity; but which, as you have seen, is a plain forgery. It
commences by giving twelve columns of figures, purporting
to state the different values of expanding steam, at twelve
different rates of expansion; and the first one assumes the cutoff to shut at one twelfth of the stroke, while the last one assumes the steam to follow the piston from the boiler for the
entire stroke, without any cut-off. Intermediate are various
other rates of cut-off; but we will use only the extremes to avoid
confusion.
Now, by the law of Ji[arriotte, steam expanding twelve times,
should give three and a half times as much power from a pound
of coal, as it would do if it were not expanded; so that to
equalize or balance these two columns it is necessary to destroy




46
twice and a half of the total power of unexpanded steam which
twelve expansions produce.  This task did not appal this man;
and acting upon the theory that " paper will not refuse ink,"
he found no trouble. The first fraud in the table consists in
assuming that the "clearance and nozzles" of a twelve foot
stroke engine are etqual to one foot of the stroke of the piston;
which is utterly unwarranted by any engine in the world; and
by which (notwithstanding he had sworn that these clearances
were of no consequence) he reduces the economy of expansion
about twenty per cent. But I pass that; it is only the petty
cash account in a set of books vwhere balances are forced for
thousands and the money has been stolen. The first grand
fraud occurs on the fourth line of the table, where he proposes
to make this reduction:
" Per centum of tlhe steam entering the cylinder condensed
to furnish the heat tranismuted into the total power of the engine."'
Now, Isherwood knew, first, that in theory there was no
such " condensation;'" and secondly, that in.pracctice there was
none.  The true theory, founded upon the researches of Watt,
Mi-arriotte and Regnault, is, that steam when it expands, instead
of growing cooler in proportion to its pressure and condensing,
grows hotter; or, to use the term of science, is " superheated."
This Isherwood klnew as well - as I did when he asserted the
contrary in this table; and I cross-exanmlined him on his knowledge. I read the questions and answers:
" Q. I ask you the simple question whether lRegnault has
not stated in his memoir that the expanding of steam, in place
of cooling it superheats it? A. No, sir; lie has not stated
that anywhere in his memoir.
"6 Q. Now, think awhile. Did not hle state that in consequence of the fact that there is more heat in high steam than
in low, when you expand down from the higher to the lower
pressure you liberate that excess of heat, and that it then operates upon the steam with which it is mingled to superheat
it  A. Hie does not state that anywhere."9
Of colrlse, as in the former case, I had but to turn to his
book to convict him of a deliberate -falsehood, and I read it to
you, (p. 1_25:)




47
" The experiments of Regnault have determined that the
total heat of steam increases with its pressure; consequently,
when the same weight of steam is expanded-that is, reduced
from  a higher to a lower pressure-there is less heat required
to maintain it in the vaporous form  than before, anzd instead of
being concldensed  it will be sa2per/heatecl.   Sutch, indceed, is  the
dedctioCz0    nzcade by Jegynaczbt in his celebrcated  rmemoir."
Therefore, gentlemen, when he undertook to make a charge
for this condensation, he knew  it was made  against the theory
of the world.
But lie knew  that practiccally the pressure of steam  in an engine under expansion almost exactly agrees with  the  pressure
required by Asarriotte's law, and that there was no such deduction to be made on any engine in use.   I read again:
C" Q. You found on the Lake Erie engine, as a matter of fact,
that the steam  did give  the  pressure which the law  of l~Iarriotte requires, with a trifling difference, did you not?.A. That
the  mean  pressure  in  the  two  cases  was  substantially  alike.
The curves did not agree.   In one case the curve is smaller at
one  extremity and  larger at the other; but in the  main  they
are nearly alike."
And by referring to his table of the Lake Erie  experiment,
you will find that the  actual pessures  there  set down do not
vary from  the MI/arriotte pressures, also  stated in the  next line
of the  table, mnore than  one per cent; so that he had  before
his eyes the experimental fact settled that there was no deduction to be made fromn Afarriotte's pressures.*
And yet in this table, on line three, he sets down the  pressure, which, by Ml[arriotte's law, ought to be produced; and then
* The following is a copy from the table No. 2 of the Lake Erie experiment:
11   7 41 3 4   3  1  1   44
) 1T TI I             W  T 4
Mean total pressure onipiston in pounds per square inch, by   34. S31.3 2.s  23.i 21.2 1i.2 12.6
Marriotte's  law,......................................
Mlean total pressure on piston in pouncds per square inch, by    34.0 31.1 2i.1 22.9 20.1 16.4 12.5
oxpeims.e,.nt,.............................................
This is just such a result as any engine in average condition will give; and it proves how true is
MIarriotte's law, when such results can be produced on such a machine, showing an almost perfect
agreement'between it and practice.
But when he came to construct his" Tse/1e Theoretical " Table, by which the young men of the
Navy were to be educated, he found that lie could not destroy expansion by any theory le could invent, which recognized the truth of his own experience, and he was compelled to resort to the
fraudulent method I have expoced. Here are the two corresponding lines of his" Tsst, ee" Table:




48
has the impudence to make a deduction for this condensation
which both theory and his own experience forbade, and to
strike the false balance in line five under this title:
"T'rue theoretical mean  pressure  of the  steam   above  zero
during the stroke of the piston in pounds per square inch."
But even this fraud would not serve his purpose; for you
see, gentlemen, that if you deduct the same per centage from
two numbers, the remainders will yet bear the same ratio to
each other as if no deduction had been made; and, therefore,
a still further fraud  had to be  practised, and  that consisted in
deducting from the expansion column sixteen per cent of its
power, while from the non-expansion column he only deducted
five per cent.   Here these forced balances began to tell on Marriotte, and his column began to shrink; but again the forgery
was nailed to the counter by his own book. Before turning to
it, however, I indulged him with another opportunity to swear
falsely, which  he, of course, embraced, and  I read  the  question:
" Q. I find on line four that you strike out from  the non-expansion column only fie per cent of steam for the power produced, whereas on the expansion column you strike out sixteen  per cent.   Do  you  mean  to tell this jury that it is a law
which Mr. Joule, or somebody else found out, that the more
you expanded steam the larger per centage of the steam was
condensed into water?
"c A. On the theoretical law  of Miarriotte, assuming it to be.   B    4 t 3 1  1'1~1  2   2i 1 2   T    43 15     2
Mean pressure of the)     
steam above zero dur- I
ing the stroke of the  
piston, by AMarriotte's  14.63 20.25 24.75 28.52 31.53134.00 36.03 38.51 38.61 39.42 39.81 40.00
and Gay Lussac's laws,
in pounds per square                          l
inch................
True theoretical mean                                I
pressure of the steam 
above zero during the  12.22 17.891 21.663 25.32 28.38 30.85 32.96 34.57 35.88 36.79 31.401 8.71
stroke of the piston in  
pounds per square in.
It will thus be perceived that he deliberately, in the face both of theory and of practice, with
the practice recorded in the same book, wrote into a set of tables the necessary amount of false
entries to make the tables agree with his hypothesis. If this were done by a bookkeeper, who had
need of the money to support his family, the penitentiary would be thought not too good; but
here, when it is done merely to keep in office, and at the cost of a ruined navy, this man is sustained by the Department, and kept in place in the face of a rejection by the Senate,  0 temn.po
Gra! O elos6es!




49
true, which that table does, the more expansively you use steam
the larger will be the per centage of its condensation to produce the power."'
When I had thus gratified him, I turned to his book (page
126) and thus read:
"' As regards the condensation of steam by the transmutation of heat into the power developed by the engine, it is plain
that as the quantity thus condensed does not vary greatly fromi
the direct proportion of the power developed, it will be so
nearly proportional to the total weight of water evaporated,
whether the steam be used with or without ecpansionm, that no
cif ereznce of pcracical conseu7e6nce cccan r9esztt in the two ccses."^
Trhen this was read to him I watched his countenance closely,
and, so far as I could perceive, he never blushed or faltered.
In all my experience in courts of justice, where I have often
before seen men thus convicted, I never saw one so utterly
insensible.  I-Ie stood as if cast in monumental brass by my
friend ATills, and as if, like his statue of Jackson, he was
self-poised by the eternal principles of truth and justice.
But this was only the beginning, and I lost all further interest in him, satisfied that conscience in him was dead beyond
the power of mann to awaken it, and I passed on to the other
necessary exposures of his frauds.
You see, gentlemen, that the immense gain by expansion
can endure an enormous amount of this sort of loss before it
compares wi-th non-expansive steam, and that Isherwood yet
had heavy work before him to make his table agree with his
introduction to it; but he fondcl no trouble in doing it. I-e
knew that b"paper would not refuse ink."  Accordingly, on
line ten of the table he makes another grab at expansion, by
which le reduces it three times as much as he reduces non-expansion, inder this title:
" Additional fuel required to re-evaporate the water due to
the condensation of the steam in the cylinder, to furnish the
heat transmuted into the power of the engine, in per centum
of the weight of steam entering the cylinder to produce the
pressures."
Now, in plain English, this means that one sixth of the steam
4




made by the immense boilers and furnaces of an engine is first
condensed in the cylinder into water, and then that the cylinder and water are together hot enough to re-evaporate it into
steam; which is, of course, sheer nonsense. But Isherwood,
when pressed by some questions addressed him by his Honor
from the bench, in order to give this assertion an air of practical reality, swore that unless this water were re-evaporated,
no steam-engine could run a hundred strokes, for that it
would be overflowed by water. On cross-examination I had
this repeated thus:
G "Q. And you asserted yesterday, did you not, that if this
water was not re-evaporatedc  a steam-engine could not work
one hundred strokes without being stopped by water a'
"A. Yes, sir."
When this was all settled, again I opened his book, and
again he stood before you convicted, but without a quiver. I
read friom page 126.
" Further, it is nearly certain that the water of condensation
due to this cause is not deposited at all lupon the cylinder surfaces, but remains suspended amid the steam like wacter bladders, or as a fog or cloud is suspended in the air. For the condensation must take place throughout the entire mass of the
steam, as would happen by sending a chill through it. If the
water of condensation due to this cause should not reach the
cylinder surfaces, as it is nectrly certain it does n2ot, it can have
no effect in producing any further loss by its re-evaporation
from those surfaces. Consequently, in cozmparinq tihe cdiferent
condensations wohens usi~ng steam with ancd without expansion,
or with cdifferent mneasures of expansion, the comparison should
properly be confined to the quantities that remain qfter ortissoon of what is due to the _productio~n of the _power. "
When this was presented to him, Isherwood took it with his
-usual composure-just as if it were one of those misfbrtunes
of life from which no man is exempt-and contented himself
with the explanation that one of these statements was practical and the other theoretical; as if true theory were any thing
but a generalization from the facts of the world.
But after all these forced balances-and another which I




will not talke time to review,-yet the benefits of expansion
were  forty-five  per cent greater  than  non-expansion;  and
another trick had to be resorted to, to conceal that fact, which
you will see by inspecting  the footings of the table.  If the
unit of comparison had been taken at either end of the line —
that is, at twelve expansion, or at full stroke-then the number
45 would have appeared in one of the  columns, and the trick
was to keep it concealed; so he assumed his unit of comparison about the  rmiddle of the line, and  ran  out the  comparative figures each waiy from  it.   On one side of this lmit, which
is marked with  a zero, the gains by expansion  are indicated
by a cross-which in algebra means that the number is to be
added; and on the other side of the unit the losses by nonexpansion  are  marked  with  a  dash, which  means  that the
numbers are to  be subtracted.   But it is not every man who
would wish to know  the  true  facts about steam   who  undclerstands algebra; and  such  men would naturally read this line
of numbers as if they were all of one quality; and in doing
so the highest is twenty-eight and  the lowest five; but when
read by their true signs the  twenty-eight on one side must be
added  to  the seventeen  on  the other-making  forty-five per
cent as the difference  shown  on  this table between expanded
and non-expanded steam.  And this balance  stands admitted
after defrauding  expanded steam   of more  than  half of its
power, well established  by the scientific investigations of the
world, and shown to belong to it by these very experiments on
Lake  Erie, which  are now  tortured  to disprove  it -   experiments whilch  Mr. Reeder, their own  witness, swore "neither
proved nor tenrced to prove " any thing  regarding  the laws of
expansion.  And  yet, gentlemen, you have heard him  swear
here several times that there is only eighteen per cent of pos~' * That other fraud consisted in assuming in the table that the back pressure in the condenser
would be five pounds, and the same whether the steam was used full stroke or cut off at one
twelfth. By that false assumption he reduced the expansion column fearfully. It began with an
average pressure of 14.63 pounds. It was then reduced by the "Joule's equivalent" fraud to
12.22 pounds. Then it was assumed that five pounds of back-pressure would be found in the condenser to resist this 12.22 pounds of plus pressure; and the result is, that the average pressure is
reduced to 1.22 pounds to the square inch, or less than one hAalf. In fact, the reduction ought not
to have exceeded two pounds for back-pressure-and I have engines running whose back-pressure
is less than two pounds-and then the average pressure would be 12.63 pounds to the inch; whereas, by these false entries, it is reduced to about five pounds.




52
sible saving to be affected by the best cut-off, over no cut-off
at all!
Another fact came out in this case, in connection with these
experiments and this book, which sheds a flood of light upon
them, and exposes the Secretary of the Navy in a most unfortunate position to the country. After all this immense expense had been incurred; after the Department had built a
vast number of steamers on this new discovery, and after
those steamers by their failure to run the speed which they
were specified to run, had proved the truth of the laws they
were built to defy; but while untold millions were yet being
expended in every shop of the country on the assunreption
that Isherwood had refuted the world of science-the Department asked and received last winter from Congress an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars to try these experiments
again. It seems to me that the Secretary ought not thus to
have acknowledged his own doubts of the truth of that theory upon which he had already staked tens of millions of our
money, and upon which he was still proceeding to squander
much more.  In that situation he shouldl have concluded,
with M~acbeth:
"f —  or mine own good
All causes shall give way; I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far, that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
PBut he did the next best thing; and that was, to so arrange
the matter that the deception might be carried out till his
back was turned on the Department, and lie no longer could
be arraigned in Congress or before the country; and his plan
was well conceived.
I asked Isherwood the question, and he had to admit here
before you, that when this appropropriation was made, he himself,
in his own handwriting, wrote the order placing that money
in his own hands and in those of one of his contractors, who:n
he nominated to assist him, in order that they might bring
the past acts of the Navy Department to the test, which the
appropriation contemplated, and that the Secretary signed
that order just as he wrote it. When lhe mentioned the
name of Horatio Allen as the colleague he had chosen to




assist him in this new juggle, it occurred to me that I had
heard that name before; and I do remeumber that some years
ago such a -person had, like Isherwood, blown hlimself up into
immense  proportions, filling the whole world with his pretences that he could defy the principles of the universe, and
"Like little wanton boys who swim  on bladders,
These many summers in a sea of glory,
But far beyond his depth,"
he, too, had found his high-blown pride at length break under
him, and had suddenly disappeared from the sight of men.
And I do recall the fact that, as I happened to be near at
hand when the explosion occurred, I was suspected of having
pricked those bladders; though quite unjustly, for they burst
from  their own excessive pressure.  But, however that may
have been, he disappeared, till now he again appears in this
fitting company, again to renew the battle in which he so
signally  failed  long  ago.*
* This Mr. Horatio Allen is no novice in the business of trying experiments to establish an hypothesis to order.  He performed the principal part in such an operation about 1854, on what was
then called the " Cloud engine;" in which the object was to sell stock in Wall street, which object
was accomplished. I had occasion to publish this matter once before, and I quote from that publication:
This' Cloud engine' enjoyed a remarkable existence at the Novelty Works, about as long as
its relative,' The Vampire,' both belonging to the genus humbug.' Cloud' was ushered into
public notice with more imposing circumstances than'Vampire,' however-Mr. Horatio Allen
starting it out with a'first-rate notice,' every line of which was redolent with wisdom.  After
giving some rows of figures for the purpose of appealing to the popular credulity, which is expressed in the maxim,'figures can't lie,' the certificate concludes as follows:
"' What the proportion of saving is to be remains to be determined by more extensive use; but I
am constrained by the facts which have been developed by these trials to state my belief, that the
Cloud combination will take the place of the high-pressure engine, and prove itself one of the most
extraordinary and valuable inventions of the age.
"'Yours, respectfully,                iHORATIO ALLEN.'
"And again:' As the result of the trials referred to, I have to state the increase of pressure arising from combination of steam and air is proved beyond a doubt; and that the increased useful effect resulting
from this increased pressure, as shown by these trials, is over fifty per cent.
"' In building a high-pressure engine for myself, or for parties who would leave the question of
the  isncg  of engine to me, I would unhesitatingly adopt the Cloud engine; and in taking this position I rely upon the facts which have come to my knowledge in the trials made under my directions.                                                                   HoRATIO ALLEN.
"' Novelty Works, New- YorE, July, 1854.'
"This was satisfactory to the proposed victims, and numerous gentlemen in Wall street, relying
upon the'sagacity' of that paper, invested in the'Cloud,' which has gradually but rapidly
been dissipated into thin air, and now no longer obscures the daylight of truth.
"A similar humbug, about the same time, called the'Bi-selbphate of Garboss Engine,' under the
auspices of another distinguished engineer, and sporting his certificate, vied with the' Cloud' for
public favor. It would be curious to know which one cheated the most people.  The certificate of




v4
Gathering wisdom, however, from the past, and from Isherwood, it appears that they have concluded, with the Scriptures, that G"no man goeth to war at any time at his own
cost," and they have called upon the American people to
furnish them with $20,000 of their money to make another
attempt on James Watt and Marriotte.
What an  exhibition  is  this!  Either it is  established, by
certain cdemonstration, that all the navies of the world, and
all the private steamers in existence, are, and always have
been wrong, and that only Secretary Welles and  slherwood
are right, or it is not.  If it is, why do they take our money
to test this settled question again?  If not, how have they
dared to build an entire navy as boldly as if they had the
experience of the world, and the common consent of mankind
in their favor? And then, how do they dare thus, in the face
of the world, to become their own triers, and to pronounce
judgment on their own works, by the use of money which, if
it were. appropriated for any thing useful, was appropriated
to expose these monstrous frauds and to arrest these fatal iniquities?
the' Novelty Works' was, on the whole, the more imposing indorsement, but the hard name of
the other, so scientific and sonorous to the ear, was almost as good. I should be rather inclined to
back the' Bi-sulphate' against the' Cloud,' notwithstanding the odds in favor of the indorser of
the Cloud.'; The example of' Vampire,' proves that it takes about eighteen years for one of these animals
to revive and afford its happy owner the means of' turning an honest penny' by making up a
stock company, and, on the strength of a certificate, selling out to others. Wle may, therefore,
expect' Cloud' and' Bi-sulphate' back again in that time with a new certificate; leaving again,
as now, in their trains, an army of victims, who ever afterward will look upon a man who claims
to have invented something useful, as a knave, and will slam their doors in his face.  Thus real
merit is sacrificed that charlatans may grow rich! "
Of course this " Cloud engine " certificate was as sheer a humbug as Isherwood's books, and the
machine itself has disappeared forever, to the intense disgust of the victims of this certificate.
Mr. Allen is now ready for Isherwood's case.
One of the consequences, however, of this former exposure has been that Mr. Allen has devoted
his talents to infringing Mr. Sickels's patents, with considerable success, in several ships of the Pacific Mail Company; although the machines, by reason of the ignorance exhibited in the infringement, will not give within twenty-five per cent, at least, as much power from a given amount of
coal as they would do if properly made; but he has his revenge.  Not long since it was proposed
at the Board of the Pacific Company, that these improvements should be used in their perfection,
as now exhibited in the most successful steamers in the world; but Mr. Potter, representing
Brown Brothers & Co., who are the advocates of Mr. Allen, protested against it, and said, as I am
informed and believe, that if these improvements were adopted by the Company his principals
would sell their stock; for, he said, they never would consent, after my exposure of Mr. Allen, in
the case of the Metropolis, to have me do any thing for a company with which they were connected.
What a charming thing it is, to have a great concern like the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to
participate in one's private quarrels, and pay the losses incident to the gratification of one's private malice I However, I presume the business of that Company is profitable enough to stand it
and the stockholders ought to be thankful that it is no worse.




55
The appropriation itself was absurd enough; for you might
as well appropriate money to build a new leaning tower of
Pisa in order to refute some fool who should deny the laws of
gravity, as proved by Galileo from that curious monunent of
architectural art; but infinitely more absurd is it to see those
scales, thus paid for by the people, held  in  the  hands of Isherwood and one of his contractors, while in the one basin sits
Gideon Welles, Esq., and in the other James Watt, Marriotte,
Regnault, all the navies of the world, and all the commercial
steamers in existence.   Isn't that a picture for an artist!
But I follow these gentlemen into their operations with this
$20,000 of our money. I4ave you asked my opinion, said I,
or the opinion  of _Ar. Coryell, or of any other engineer who
is known to denounce your naval blunders, as to how these
experiments ought to be tried?  Oh! no; not they! But,
gentlemen, I have seen their programme-it is printed, and
on its face it is a plain preparation for a fraud?.     They do not
even propose to try this experiment with a steam-engine at
all; (by which I mean an engine whose piston works in  steam,
and whose power results from  the difference between the
pressure  of steam  in  the  boiler and  in  the  condenser, commonly called a " low-pressure engine";) but they propose to
use a mixed steam and air engine, (by which I mean an engine
in which the steam drives the piston on one side and the air
resists its motion on the other side, commonly called a " highpressure engine');) by which instrument any thing can be
proved which is desired by the juggler who uses it. You
can prove by it that expanded steam won't drive a steamengine at all, if you please, although your boiler may be' I saw it accidentally in Captain Comstock's ofice, where it was brought by one of the persons
favored with a copy, who was building engines for Isherwood, and was not expected to interfere,
therefore, with this nice little scheme. The moment I read it I saw the trick, and, as Captain Cornstock will remember, I pointed it out then, and denounced it as a fraud.
I presume it needs no argument to convince any honest man that if Mr. Welles had really desired
any other result than a juggle, he would have invited some engineer-Mr. Coryell, for example-who
was in the Board called by him to examine these Isherwood engines, and who denounced them, to
furnish the plan of an expansion engine to be brought into competition with a non-expansion one,
to be made by Isherwood. Or he would have invited the Academy of Science to take charge of the
experiment, and decide how it was to be made. If he had done either of these things, an engine
woridng expansively would have been produced, which would have done three times the work for a
pound of coal that can be done by any non-expansion engine possible to be made. But to let Isherwood appoint himself, and one of his contractors, to take that money to try himself with, and then
to allow them to spend it on a half air, half steam-engine, is monstrous. The Cloud juggle which
stuck Wall street in 1154, is hardly worse than that!




ready to burst with pressure; and to do it you have but to
cut off so short that the average of the steam  pressure will be
less than the pressure of the air-that is, less than fifteen
pounds to the square inch-in which case the engine would
stand still.  And of course, if you can make an engine so
that it will stand still, you can make it go as feebly as you
please, and at whatever cost of fuel you may choose; and if
you are prepared to charge expansion with the consequences
of your own fraud, you can show that it is even less than
valuable.  In his book, Isherwood had prepared for the perpetration of this new swindle by announcing this sort of machine to be the true one to try this experiment with.  I read
from page 123: " In fact, all accurate experiments on steam
should be made with non-condensing engines, and with steam
noot expanded below the atmospheric pressre.'."
Is it not time, gentlemen, that such outrages as -these should
cease?  By way of consoling us, however, Isherwood told us
that they intended this time to report the results truly —no
balance is to be forced nor false entries made on this experiment.  That was an unnecessary assurance, surely., No one
who has heard Isherwood examined here would ever suspect
* That Isherwood understands this juggle perfectly is proved by his Precedents, p. 66, where he
shows that if the back pressure is sixteen pounds to the inch, the usual amount of a high-pressure
engine-a case can be made in which non-expansion will excel expansion immensely. He gives
the figures in detail, to show how this can be done, and thus generalizes his result: " That is to say,
the economical effect of the steam used cwithoWcS ewpacsioie exceeds that which is obtained from
the steam used crit7c exjpcacnsiosr in the ratio of 3I to 2."
It must not be assumed from these remarks, however, that expansion will not give as good results
relatively to non-expansion, on a high-pressure engine, as on a low, if the comparison is honestly
made. Thie high-pressure engine is only a convenientinstrument to make a d~is7oonest comparison.
Thus, for example, if the problem on a high-pressure engine is to obtain an average steam pressure
of thirty pounds to the inch on the piston, (which being resisted by the air, and the friction of the
escaping steam,would leave about fourteen pounds for effective work,) that pressure can be got more
economically by expansion than otherwise, in the exact ratio of the laws of Marriotte and Regnault.
But if you will get 30 pounds average pressure witrozut emcpancsiocn, which gives 14 pounds to
do work with, and then get only 17 pounds s0itlh expacsiome, which gives only 1 pound to do useful work with, and then compare the cost of the Ursefuel'corok, it will be found that the expansion
is the more costly; but the fraud is plain, and consists in charging expansion with a much larger
per-centage of useless work than is charged to non-expansion. But if a stean, engine were used,
this trick could not be played so well, for the back pressure would go down with the increased rate
of expansion, and the per-centage of cuseless work done by the steam would be more nearly constant, for both cases.
Of course any engineer will see at a glance-but the people on whom this self-appointed Commission is about to operate will not see-that if the two pistons are to be resisted by the atmosphere,
with its constant pressure, it is necessary, in order to make a fair comparison, that they should be
impelled by the same amount of mean pressure; and then, as the back pressure is a uniform per
centage, it is immatelial how much it may be, for the remainders, whatever they are, will preserve
the true ratio to each other, and expansion will be found to be what Marriotte has said it was.




57
him of making false statements. We have heard him here
admit under oath that if a steamboat could go faster with
expansion than without it, he was in error and the navy all
wrong; yet when we went to the Potomac river and tried
that very experiment on the first boat we came to, and it
showed that with six hundred pounds of coal an hour the
wheels would turn twenty-seven revolutions a minute when
using the steam with expansion, and with seven hundred
pounds an hour the same wheels could only be turned twenty
revolutions a minute without expansion, he still came back to
the stand, and without pretending to explain or question the
fact, he repeated the oath with which he started, that no such
thing was possible.*  We have heard him admit that if the
* No more striking illustration of the ignorance or the villainy of this man could be found than
this fact presented. That he could be ignorant of so simple a truth about a steam-engine as that
without a cut off it is almost disabled when it has to rely upon the usual amount of boiler-steam for
a supply, is almost incredible; for there is scarcely an engine-driver in the United States whose
experience has not shown him that, as we proved by numbers of them on the stand. Andl yet how
he should dare to deny it tinder oath, if he knew better, when it is capable of being proved on any
steamboat, in a few minutes, anywhere, is equally remarkable. Ills usual cunning forsook him
on this occasion, for he probably did not anticipate that I would try an experiment, or that I could
produce the witnesses. His usual answer to such facts is, that they prove nothing-that an experiment is of no value unless it is tried for an " entire cycle;" which in his jargon means, for seventy-two hours. But here he did not use that shield. I quote lly questions and his answers:
" Now take another instance-take the steamer Foh Kien, she is 38 feet wide, 275 feet long, and
draws 14 feet of water. She has the Sickels cut-off, as well as the others," (meaning other boats
which had been named,) " and if there is no difference between working steam expansively and
non-expansively, except eighteen per cent, that is the only advantage. Now if, with the cut-off,
the wheels of that ship, 82 feet in diameter, will turn sixteen times a minute, and without the cut-off
will turn only twelve times with the same furnaces, and under the same circumstances, is it possible
your theory is true?"
"A. Not if these facts are true; but they cannot be true. I have no hesitation in answerinUg
that. "
"Q. Then if it be true that with a given engine in a steamboat, burning its fire in the same
manner, at the same time, under the same circumstances, that when you make the cut-off shorter
and shorter, the engine goes faster and faster, while at the same time, and under the same circumstances, when you let it out it goes slower and slower, is your theory true?"
"A. Not with these' ifs.' It is the same thing as saying that if a thing is smaller and smaller,
it will be smaller and smaller."
Upon this state of the testimony I proved the truth of the assumption in regard to the " roh
Kien,'7 and also tried the experiment on the " Collyer;" both of which showed his profound ignorance or his knavery. Now these experiments may be tried any day in the year, on almost any
steamboat, with similar results; and to my certain personal knowledge Isherwood has known it
to be so for several years; for I have shown him such facts and invited him to go with me and see
them for himself, which he refused to do; as they refused to go in Washington, although we invited
them, and challenged them to allow the court and jury to be witnesses of this obvious fact.
What conclusion is left for the country to draw, which is consistent with common integrity, when
we see the Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy admit on the stand that his theory is false if certain facts
can be proved; and yet, when these facts are proved, and can be seen by the Secretary himself
any day in an hour, our millions are yet spent right on in accordance with this false system, just as
if it were Lunquestioned in the world! It requires charity enough to qualify a man for the next
world, to attribute such conduct to mere ignzbecility.




steamship America could make seven hundred revolutions of
her wheels an hour, then he was all wrong, and the navy a
botch; and yet when we proved more than that here —when
we proved the hours of her run, and the distances made over
measured miles-all much greater than the facts I assumed,
which he swore to be impossible —yet he still adheres with
brazen effrontery to his text; as if he were the chief witness
for the defence to prove an alibi after an Irish murder, and
conlld hope to defeat the eternal laws of nature as he might
have cheated the laws of man. No doubt he is reliable to
report any results of experiments which he might make!
What has been the result of all this ignorance upon the
ships built by the navy? You have heard lir. Isherwood explain that the various failures have been occasioned by the
bad workmanship and the poor material of the engines-all of
which is an idle pretence. Merchants use the same materials
and the same workmen; but their ships go when they are finished and never stop till they are worn out. iBut the fact still
remains that all of these sloops-of-war, built on the plans of
this man, have been weeks and months at the docks of Philadelphia and New-York undergoing repairs and alterations,
after they first got steam, before they could go to sea. The
Juniata had her officers and crew in commission for several
weeks ready to sail, during which time they tried frequently in
vain to nmake her go; and at last she was put out of commission, and her crew ordered to another vessel, while a telegram
was published stating that the engine was all right, but the
ship leaked. The Ticonderoga was six weeks in New-York
being altered, after she was first tried, before she went to sea;
and the Lackawanna broke down at the dock, and had extensive repairs before she could go. The Ossipee reached WXashington from 13oston, on her trial, broken down, and remained
here months for repairs. One of these vessels-the Ticonderoga-went from New-York to Fortress Ifonroe, and was forty
hours on the passage, or seven miles an hour; and the Lackawanna took thirty-six hours to run from Sandy Hook to Cape
Henry, which is at the same rate or less. The Sacramento attempted to catch a blockade-runner and broke down twice in
the effort-although she was only running sixty turns a minute




-and gave up the chase, as Captain Boggs reported to the department about ten months ago;* and the Ossipee, in the
Gulf of Mexico, starting at ten o'clock in the morning in pursuit of a blockade-runner, was overtaken and passed at about
ten o'clock at night by the De Soto, an old New-York and
New-Orleans packet, which certainly cannot go twelve knots
an hour, but which, starting five hours later than the Ossipee,
from the same place and in the same chase, went, in eight
hours, further than the Ossipee could go in thirteen, and captured the prize which the Ossipee could not overtake; as imay
be seen by a report on file in the departmnent, made by the
captain of the De Soto.  Off Wilmington the fastest blockader now is an old New-York ferry-boat. And I heard the
commanding officer of the Mobile squadron declare in the
Navy Department that schooners would run away from these
United States steamers with jib and mainsail set; and say;that he would like to  have a steamler which at least would
compel themn to set their foresails.
* After his magnificent fight with the Varuna on the Mississippi, in which he fired his guns while
the turbid stream swept his sinking decks, Captain Boggs was ordered to the Juniata, at that
time nearly completed, in order that he might have an opportunity in a fine ship to reap some subl
stantial reward for his gallantry, out of the prizes he might capture. The ship, however, wouldn't
work, although she was in commission several weeks at Philadelphia, making frequent trial-trips, and
always becoming disabled; until at last Captain Boggs and his crew were removed to the Sacramento, another one of the same breed, which-was then ready.
After various efforts she got away from Boston, and it was a subject of considerable rejoicing at the department, that she went to Fortress Monroe without breaking down. When she
went to her station, however, she was found utterly worthless. I had written and printed a letter
to the Secretary, a year ago, and long before these vessels were brought to the test of service, in
which I said:
"And any attempt to drive these engines ssp to the poes. qo the boilters will result in disabling
them in a few hours, as every engineer knows who knows the machines; so that it is p2esfectly
certaisn that these engines inzst comee out ouf tfe seisips, and new ones take their places, before the
vessels can be used for any purpose which requires the orcisccary speed of slach sh~ips-which
result no human ingenuity can avert. Of course, if the ships are not required to go at the usual
speed, or are left at the dock, the engines are as well polished and handsome as any in use, and as
useful."
When the Sacramento undertook to chase a blockade-runner, she proved the truth of my prophecy by breaking down; and it was soon found that it was useless to attempt a pursuit, after the
vessel escaping had passed; for then the further they went the more they couldn't catch one.
Complaint was made by the Admiral to Captain Boggs, and a correspondence ensued, in which
the entire inefficiency of the ship was asserted; but the Admiral went down to the Wilmington
station to see for himself, and came back satisfied. The Navy Department, however, was not satisfied that Captain Boggs should tell the truth about these miserable abortions of theirs; and he
now is suffering under their displeasure, on shore-duty; but the department is making as many
more of such engines as they can get built.
I would add, in justice to Captain Boggs, that these statements are made without his knowledge
or consent, and that I have not the pleasure to know him personally; although I should be most
happy to add my mite to the great flood of admiration which overwhelmed the hero of the Varuna,
whenever it is my good fortune to meet him. I hope, therefore, he won't be punished any more
for what I now say.




In the printed specifications issued by the department, under which these sloops Nwere built, their engines are required
to run ninety revolutions a minute, at which rate they would
go as well as such vessels usually go; but in fact they do not
exceed sixty, and that speed they cannot maiutanta.in   At that
speed their screws run but ten and a half miles an hour on
their average pitch,* supposing they were running in a solid
block, instead of in water; and, after deducting the G" slip," the
speed does not exceed nine knots an hour; while the Iroquois,
a ship built under the last administration, whose engines were
made in New-York on well-known plans —such as are used
generally by the English and French navies-can go thirteen
knots an hour, as her logs show, and as her sailing-master,
Captain McRae, will at any time prove to any one who chooses
to ask for the information.t And all these facts have been well
* The " pitch" of a screw means the distance between two consecutive " threads" measured on
the length of the axis of the screw; or, supposing the screw to be like an ordinary "wood screw,"
the "pitch" is the distance it will enter the wood at each turn the screw-driver gives it. Thus
when the " pitch" of a ship's screw is known, and the number of times which the engine - the
screw-driver-turns that screw in a minute, the speed of the screw through the water is ascertained
by multiplying the " pitch" by the number of turns. But the ship does not go as fast as the screw
runs through the water; because the water being mobile, does not resist the thrust of the screw as
a solid block would do; and this loss of motion is called " slip." It is generally about twenty per
cent on usual screws, but may be much more. On the Ossipee and her class it is not less; although
Isherwood swore that those ships went faster than the average speed of their screws. Their average pitch is seventeen and a half feet; which, multiplied by sixty revolutions a minute, produces
one thousand and fifty feet of motion of the screw through the water a minute. And as every
Ablsetsedfeet ac ssinqte is cc kszot cass floser, within a trifle, tes cacfd a /ctif h6'nesed  feet a
reniszcZte are tee? acnct  a 7balf  inot8s an Leoe6r', supposingsthere were no " slip."  Deduct about
twenty per cent for slip, and the true speed of about eight and a half miles an hour remains.
t1 The Lackawanna averaged about seven knots from New-York to Cape Henry; but Isherwood had an "official report" that she went tzoeve.  In order to go twelve, however, she
must have gone about two knots an hour further than the screw went through the water which
drove her-which isn't a very great excess; for when you have once produced an effect greater
than the cause which produces it, there is no limit in nature to the excess, and it might as well be
reported a hundred knots a minute as any other amount, and I wonder at the modesty which limited it to two knots an hour. The following comical cross-examination of Isherwood occurred in
regard to this performance:
" Q. The Lackawanna, for instance, came fiom New-York to Fort Monroe, and there was an
official report made of the trip, was there not?
"A. Yes.
" Q. You have seen the log?
"A. I do not recollect of seeing the log; I saw the official report.
" Q. And that official report was the twelve knots an hour?
"A. Yes, sir.
"Q. Does a vessel go any faster than the screw moves through the ewater?
"A. It does not.
" Q. Does it go any faster than any part of the screw?' A. It may.
" Q. Does it go as fast as the eneas of the screw?
"A. It may go faster than the mean.




61
known to the Navy Department for a year or more-are well
known to the country-and yet they are now building a vast
number of ships on the same plans to produce the same results;
refusing to listen to any one, and utterly ignoring their own
experience of the past, the lessons of all the navies of the
world, and the self-evident truths of science which you have
heard in this case. Finally, however, goaded to madness by
their shocking failures, the department is determined to have
speed at any cost; and to accomplish that they have put out six
cotratcts for engines, whose cost is seven,hundred and eighty
thousancd dollars eact  engtine, which  are  to  fill up  tile  entire
ships below deck with boilers and machinery, so that the coal
has to be carried on the berth-decks, where men usually live;
and to accommodate the crew thus driven out by having their
quarters turned into coal-bunkers, they are building forecastle
"Q. Does it in fact?
"A. I suppose the speed of the vessel goes about midway, or with the mean of the screw, and
that is about eighteen feet motion.
"Q. Then there is no slip at all for two thirds of the screw?
" A. No slip at all, though at the same time it is necessary to explain that the screw does not
drag, although it does not slip. I suppose, however, the laws of the screw are not in question in
this action.
"Q. Then sixty turns a minute of the screw would give ten knots an hour through the water?
"A. It would go ten and eight tenths knots.
"Q. And yet the vessel in question was reported as having gone twelve and a half knots?
"A. The maximum speed was reported as twelve knots an hour-that was the report of the
officers.
"Q. If they reported the vessel was going twelve knots and the screw was only making sixty
unms per minute, was not the report necessarily false?
"A. I think not. I knew nothing about the circumstances.
"Q. Is it possible for these ships to go more than ten knots an hour with only sixty turns to the
minute?
" A. I suppose about ten and a half knots."
Here then we have an explanation of the jugglery by which these ships are reported as going
twelve knots. The truth, however, is much worse than Isherwood makes it out to be-bad as his
showing is. If the ship could go ten and a half knots an hour, they could capture any blockaderunner I have yet seen. But, in fact, when the screws are turning ten knots and a half an hour
the ship cannot go within about twenty per cent as fast-that is, the slip is about twenty per cent
on such models as these are-and the speed is less than nine knots an hour.
But why should this be left in doubt? A year ago I wrote to the Secretary and begged him to
have one of these ships run over a measured distance, say from Sandy -look Light-Ship to Delaware Light-Ship and back for a day, and by that means, ascertain the speed, but he won't do that.
Whenever that is done nine inoze  ots as? houzr qoill beat the ship. But until that is done, any
amount of lying can be resorted to, and as in the case where Isherwood swore about it, the speed
can be made up to order, even at the expense of performing impossibilities. These figures have
all been before the Navy Department for several months, and their certain den-onstration exhibited,
which Isherwood was compelled to admit; and yet the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and!Mleans, of the last House, told me that the Assistant Secretary of the Navy had assured him that
these ships did go more than twelve knots an hour-and that, too, long after these very figures
showing its impossibility, had been explained to him.
When I talk to these people, they don't make such pretences to me, but say: " Oh! Isherwood
hIas made mistakes just as others have."




62
and poop-decks above to swing hammocks.*  And all this is
done upon the insane idea that a steam-engine can be made to
go by enormous boilers; which in these cases fill up tile ships
below, but which will not give speed, for the plain reason that
as the steam is to be used without a cut-off, on this new discovery, so much more weight of boilers and coal is needed to
produce the increased quantity of steam thus required, that the
load thereby produced will more than neutralize the power incident to the steam so wastefully and fruitlessly used; and the
more boilers a ship has after a certain point, the slower she goes.
Isherwood's idea is the same as that of a fellow, ignorant of
horses, who proposed to drive a horse from New-York to Philadelphia and back in one day. "Why, you cannot do that,"
said the livery-stable man.  ";Vy not," said the cockney;
"' ve've got a vip?"  So Isherwood thinks that if he only has
got a;" vip," his engines must run, whether they can use the
steam or not; and in this case, his "( vip" is composed of boilers having more grate surface to burn coal thafi the Adriatic,
the Foh Kien, and the America all together, while his ships
* This outrage exceeds all its predecessors. Grown bold by impunity, they seem to think that
even shame need no longer deter them. After having succeeded in reducing the speed of the navy
from about thirteen knots to less thcsan tens, notwithstanding the assurance often given by the
Secretary himself to numbers of persons, that the ships they were building would be the fastest
and best in the world; the Secretary one morning ordered the same people who had been so successful in that direction to make a number of sloops-of-war which could go  fftees  sEcots ca/o
h7oser; just as if such things could be bought in a corner grocery-although it is true that there
is no s/Jip now in existence, whether it be a passenger or war vessel, a side-wheel or a screw-propeller, which can go, when carrying its coal for a voyage, fifteen knots an hour.  Even the
" Scotia," which crossed the ocean last sumnmer in eight days and three hours from Queenstown
to New-York, never on that voyage made fifteen knots an hour for a single day-her longest run
having been three hundred and fifty-six knots in twenty-four hours. The size of the ships proposed
to be built was three hundred feet long, forty feet wide, twenty-two feet deep, and to draw sixteen
feet of water; carrying a light battery on the spar-deck, which was to be flush. When Isherwood,
however, had calculated out the quantity of boilers which on his ignorant idea were necessary to
drive such a ship at that speed, it was discovered that the machinery could not go into the length
proposed, and the ships were ordered to be about three hundred and twenty feet long instead of
three hundred.  And when the weight of this immense mass of boilers was taken, it was
found that instead of sixteen feet draft, the ships would go down about eighteen feet in the water.
Mr. Delano, of the Brooklyn yard, was ordered to build one of these "beasts of burden," and
made his model-a very good one-laid his keel, and had begun to get out his frames, when he
received the drawings of the engines from Washington, and found that they would not go into the
ship. He was in the situation of the Vicar of Wakefield with his picture. After remonstrating in
vain, he had to stop work, reconstruct his plan, spoil his model, and swell out his ship at both ends
in order to include these boilers - that is, he built a box around the machinery. But when the
distribution of space began to be made, it was found that the coal had to be carried on the berthdeck, and then it became necessary to find other accommodation for the men; and I am now
informed (the other facts I know myself) that they are to build forecastle and poop decks to
accommodate the men.
Now, to show the absurdity of all this. The Adriatic is nearly twice as large as one of these




63
are only about sixty per cent of the size of the Adriatic alone.*
Thus folly is added to folly by this combination of imbecility
and knavery, until, unless checked by the country, we shall
have squandered all our money on a navy whose value will be
ships, and she has about eight hundred square feet of grate bars, which were found in her to
be too much for the engines. These sloops have one thou8scind one hltzdcred acndforty square
feet of bars. The advertisement called for eight blowing-engines, but I am told they do not
mean to have them. If they do use blowers, those furnaces can burn sixty pounds of coal an hour
to each square foot, (on Long-Island Sound they burn seventy with blowers,) which will enable the
sloop to use up thirty-four tons of coal an hour, or to burn all she can carry in less than a day.
If she does not use blowers, she can burn fifteen pounds an hour on a square foot; and then she
can burn eight and a half tons an hour, or two hundred and four tons a day. The Adriatic, with
natural draft, could burn on eight hundred square feet of grates one hundred and seventy tons a
day easily, and did it.
But a man-of-war differs from a merchant ship in this essential particular - that a man-of-war
should have the capacity to go slow with great economy, so as to stay at sea a long time, combined
with the capacity to go fast when the emergency requires it, without regard to the economy of fuel
during that emergency; whereas a passenger-ship is required to go her full speed all the time withl
as much economy as may be. By using blowers to force the fires, any amount of steam can be
got, but not so economically as if the fires burnt with natural draft; and therefore in a merchant
ship, where the largest amount of steam is needed all the time, (except in storms,) it may be advantageous to carry boilers enough to make it without blowers, (although I think differently even
there;) but in a man-of-war, where the greatest amount of steam may never be needed an hour in
her existence, and where her usual speed in cruising ought not to exceed eight miles an hour, it is
the height of folly to fill up a ship full of boilers, to the utter destruction of her value for a manof-war, which will not give more steam with natural draft than one third of them would give under
blast. In the Ossipee and her class there are blowers; but they cannot be used because the engines
cannot work off the steam which natural draft would make; and so if blowers are put into this
ship, they cannot be used because the engine cannot work off the steam they would make; and
indeed they cannot work off the steam of natural draft.
The only advantage of this arrangement is, that it makes an enormous job, and is a gold mine
for some one. Four million six hundred and eighty thousand dollars for six engines will make
several people rich.  The entire original cost of the Adriatic did not exceed the cost of one of
these engines alone.
These are the ships to which the Secretary refers in his recent report, in these words, "' We
need and should have steamers of high speed, constructed of wood, with which to sweep the ocean
and chase and hunt down the vessels of an enemy. Fortunately we are able to supply ourselves
with vessels of this description; and a competent aned healtlhfl compretitiozn exists for
their co"nstructzio?"-from which one would infer that the Department had invited competition
in regard to the plans and means for producing speed; whereas in fact nothing of the sort exists,
and the shops are allowed to do nothing but bitldc from  drawings frnizshed by the Department.
* The Navy Department has had a lesson on the folly of attempting to make an engine go with
a "vip," in the cases of the Ossipee and her class. Their cylinders are built on the new hypothesis, and are much smaller than the cylinders of the Iroquois. When running at their respective
rates-that is, sixty and eighty-the cylinders of the new sloops open to the steam a cubic space,
which bears the ratio of thirty-two to fifty-one, as compared with the Iroquois. Yet the new
vessels have 8950 feet of heating surface in boilers, while the Iroquois has only 7500; and they
have blowers to drive their fires, and she has none. But they can turn their screws, whose average pitch is but seventeen feet and a half, but sixty revolutions a minute; while she can turn her
screw, whose average pitch is twenty feet, eighty-six times a minute. That is to say, the screw
of the Iroquois runs through the water 1720 feet a minute, and the screws of Isherwood's boats run
only 1050 feet a minute; and deducting twenty per cent from each for " slip," which is about
the true allowance, one ship will go tsirteen and a half knots an hour, while the other will
go eight ane a half. All this while the " vip" is of no use, because the animal is doing all he
can.
The attempt to make an engine go on this principle is like attempting to get more power out




less than the raw material of which it is composed, and will
find ourselves a prey to the first naval power which chooses to
drive us off the ocean. I verily believe that if our navy had
of a water-wheel by overflowing it with water, or to utilize the power of Niagara by putting a
water-wheel under it. The measure of power is not the steam, but how much of the steam the
engine can use seith, acdvasctage. It is a very common error to suppose that power may be increased with an engine of given size by increasing its boilers beyond a certain limit. In the Lake
Erie Report this ignorant notion is presented as a valuable discovery, where it is asserted that an
engine taking steam for seven tenths of the stroke is producing its " maximum power, " as well as
its maximum economy of fuel. But the fact is, that if steam cost'.nothing —if one had the Atlantic Ocean for a boiler, and the fires of Pandemonium for a furnace-there would be no increase of power derived from an engine by following the piston with the steam more than halfstroke; and when the question of the economy of power comes in, then the shorter the steam is
cut off, the more power results from a given amount of it.
Ignorance of the first of these propositions is not uncommon; but of the second, the Navy
Department has the monopoly-no one else disputing their claim. An explanation of the first
one-that an engine is giving all the power it can yield when cutting off at half-stroke-may be
instructive; and, at the risk of prolixity, I will give it. The power of an engine is derived from
the relaxation of the temperature of combustion, in two ways: first, by the conversion of the
water into steam; and, secondly, by the-expansion of that steam after the cut-off valve has separated it in the cylinder from the boiler. Both of these operations are attended by a fall in teislperature; the steam which comes out of the water is not so hot as the heat which entered the
water from the furnace; and the steam, after expansion, is not so hot as it was before expansion.
These are the losses of temperature which " Joule's equivalent" represents. Now it is ignorantly
supposed by Isherwood in his book-and many paragraphs are devoted to exhibiting his ignorance
in this particular-that the steam in the cylisJvder, so long as it is in communlication with the boiler,
does some eooc-k; and he tells us how, by reason of doing that work, it is condensed. But, in
fact, it does no soorfk until after the cut-off valve closes, and it begins to expand. Till that time,
it might as well be hot mush, or oil, or any other mobile substance: it only performs the office of
a plug, or filling, through which the steam, which is rising out of the water in the boiler,
pushes the piston-which steam,!after having:done its work, takes its place in the row, to be
pushed forward, stroke by stroke, through the pipe and cylinder till it is exhausted. The work,
therefore, of an engine taking steam for the whole stroke, is done ectirely in the boiler, and the
only qeuality of the steam in the engine which is of any value is its mobility; and this is true
of so much of the stroke of the engine as is performed by means of the boiler pressure, and before
expansion has begun in the cylinder. This fall of temperature produces an amount of power equal
to one ton lifted one foot, for one cubic inch of water evaporated; and no more can be got out of it.
But the second, and the most important operation, is performed when the second fall of temperature occurs; which is after the cut-off valve has shut, and the steam in the cylinder ceases to
be a mere plug or filling to transmit power, and begins to give out the power by expansion which
was compressed into it by the heat of the furqace. Then the question is, how much of this fall
have you got; and how much will you use? The higher the steam is carried, the higher is the
fall; and the longer the expansion is carried, the more of that fall will be utilized. It is exactly
the case of a pond of water, with an overshot water-wheel so many feet high-the higher it is, the
more power may be got from the water; and how much power will be got depends upon the size of
the water-wheel used. If the wheel is as high as the fall, all the power will be got; if only hailf
as high, the water will fall half-way without doing any thing for yose, and only half of its
power will be used. So with steam: if the pressure is forty pounds to an inch, and it is expanded
down to one pound-say forty expansions-all of the power due to that head of steam will be
-untilized; if it is expanded only once and reduced to twenty pounds in the cylinder, and then
thrown away, only so sszcu7 of its power will be utilized.
Now a steam-engine is like a water-wheel in another particular —it is troubled by " backwater," that is, by back-pressure steam, or steam which is in the condenser, and which resists
the piston in its motion through the cylinder-just as the back-water in a tail-race piles up on a
water-wheel and resists its motion, if too much water is poured over the wheel. And there is
a point where an increase of steam in the cylinder, or of water on the wheel, will cease to produce power, and only cost steam or water for nothing. In a steam-engine as generally organized —




65
been effective on the blockade, this rebellion would have been
crushed long ago; but as it is, the rebels have their supplies
from abroad, and if any of their blockade-runners ever pass
that is, with the usual condensing capacity, or tail-race (to carry out the illustration,) that point is
about half-stroke, beyond which steam gives no power, and is wasted.
A few figures and the accompanying diagram will make this plain. Suppose an engine to be
running with a boiler-pressure of forty pounds to the inch-that is, twenty-five pounds above the
atmosphere; and suppose the back or condenser-pressure to be five pounds, which Isherwood assumes in his tables, and which is correct enough for full-stroke engines, although too much for
expansion; and suppose that engine to be run, first, with the cut-off closing at half-stroke, and
then with the steam-valve open to the end of the stroke, so as to give full pressure to the piston all
the way to the end. Now that engine will use just twice as succh steam and fuel in the latter
case as the former, and do no more work. To show that, a comparison must be made between the
powers produced in the two cases. In the first case-that of half-stroke-the piston will be pushed
down half-way, with the pressure of forty pounds to the inch, and then no more steam is taken;
but the steam then in the cylinder will still drive the piston to the end of the stroke with a diminishing pressure, whose average will be twenty-eight pounds to the inch during the second half of
the stroke; and consequently the average of the whole stroke will be thirty-four pounds to the
inch; or the effect will be the same as if'the piston had a pressure of thirty-four pounds to the
inch, from end to end. But when the exhaust-valve opens to let out the steam into the condenser,
its pressure is only twenty pounds to the inch, and its temperature has fallen in the proper ratio;
so that it is condensed rapidly and got out of the way of the returning piston-just as the water
which falls out of the water-wheel into an open tail-race, runs off with little resistance to the
wheel.
But in the second case-that of full-stroke-twice as much steam is taken from the boiler, and
the piston is driven down with an average pressure of forty pounds instead of thirty-four pounds;
that is to say, one half the steam with expansion gives eighty-five per cent of the power of the
whole steam without it; and to get that additional fifteen per cent costs as much as it cost to get
the first eighty-five per cent. But there is a heavy loss to be encountered, which will use up all of
that fifteen per cent, and leave the engine no gainer by the double quantity of steam thus used.
And this loss arises from the difficulty of condensing twoice the steam at towice the pressure,
which, in this case, has to go into the condenser; for it will be seen that, whereas in the- halfstroke steam, the pressure was only twenty pounds to the inch at the end of the stroke, it is
forty pounds in the full-stroke steam, and there is also twice as much steam in quantity. The result is, that the condenser is unable to condense this double quantity at double-pressure, in less
than four times as much time as in the former case, and the back-pressure incident to this difficulty
uses up the fifteen per cent of advantage which was derived from thus wasting twice the steam.
Practically I have tried the experiment frequently to exhibit it to others, and any engine properly
constructed will show it.
The annexed diagrams will make it clear to any one. The figure represents two indicator diagrams, taken from the same engine working-under the two conditions above supposed. Without
going into a full explanation of them, it is enough to say that the areas contained within the lines
here shown represent powcer, and that the power is exactly in proportion to the area contained
within the boundary lines in the two cases. In the first case, the piston is driven from A to B
with forty pounds pressure to the inch, and from B to E with  an average of twenty-eight pounds,
which the falling curve represents; while at the same time the area F, L, K, D, represents the loss
by back-pressure, which leaves the area A, B, E, F, C, D, to represent the actual available power
which was got firom that stroke.
But if the cut-off were not applied, then the piston would be driven all the way to G with forty
pounds pressure, and so far would have given the increased power in the ratio of forty to thirtyfour; but when the exhaust-valve opens and the steam has to be condensed, then, instead of
falling as at E to F, and so getting out of the way, it must take more time, and get out of the
way more slowly; for it is twice as much steam and under twice the pressure, and it falls in
the curved line G, C, producing the area A, B, G, C, D, which represents the power of the fullstrolke steam; and it will be seen by inspection that the corner G, B, E, which is gained on the
pressure side of the piston by going full-stroke, is about balanced by the corner G, F, C, which
represents an amount of back-pressure incident to the use of this large quantity of steam.
5




66
our ships, they never are overtaken, although none of the
captured ships that I have seen ever did or ever will go ten
knots an hour with a load.
While Isherwood was writhing under the cross-examination
whichl was unmasking his villainies, his vengeance got the better of his discretion, and he thought to sting me by calling up
the " Pensacola" —a steamer the engines of which he said I had
built, and which had turned out a "complete failure," even
after I had sent a man to [New-Orleans who had put them in
"complete repair."  When he said "Pensacola" I thanked
him for that, as you heard, and at once sent to NTew-York for
the proofs which have exhibited to you the atrocities commintted by this man and the Navy Department on that ship, in
order to enable him  carry out his other designs on the
navy. The " Pensacola " was built during the last administration as an experimental ship; not for the purpose of finding
out whether there was any benefit in expansion; for, as these
books tell you, no fool in the world doubted that, till long since
the time the Pensacola was begun; but for the purpose of
testing whether various plans which are in successful use on
Such diagrams as these I have in my possession, taken from engines, and any one can try the
experiment in five minutes, and find the result I have stated.
Still it is obvious that the steam can be put through the engines, and although they won't
go any faster, they will take the "vip" —just as the poor horse has to do at the hands of some ignorant brute, who thinks to force him by its use beyond his powers. But even if this fifteen per
cent could be all got without any loss, how absurd it would be to get it at the cost of double the
fuel, as Isherwood is proposing to do on these six ships, when the same fifteen per cent might he
got by enlarging the cylinder a trifle, and shortening the cut-off a trifle, with one half the coal.
Upon the infinitely stupid idea of using cylinders full of steam, these engines are being built,
having no cut-off; simply repeating the Ossipee, and her class, made worse by increased size and
by a ship-load of cog-wheels.
A. Bioiler Pyessere                   I.,
{Atmos epioP ressnre  
Ao-Presswne.                                              _ 




67
side-wheel engines could not be applied to screw steamers; and
among other things whether these tight valves, called " single
poppet-valves," could not be used instead of the leaky slides
now generally employed. The ucnderstanding with the department was, that-when the ship was completed we should have
her for six months to experiment with; for it was conceded
by all the engineers of the government of that day-and it does
not admit of doubt-that if these plans could be made to work
on a screw propeller, they wolld vastly improve the efficiency
of the navy. *  Unfortunately, however, the ship was not finished till this man came into power; and he knew that if she were
completed and succeeded there was an end of his carefully prepared scheme to climb into place and wield the resources of
this nation to his own great profit. So he at once began to fill
the papers day by day with little telegrams from Washington
that Chief-Engineer Isherwood pronounced the Pensacola's engines a failure-and all this before they ever had steam. Mr.
Sickels was here attending the completion of the engines, and
* It was expressly for the purpose of experiment that this ship was built. MIr. Toucey took the
true view of the subject, which is, that wvhenever any real advantages are conceded to result from
certain improvements, if they can be made to work, and there is a fair probability of their working,
the Government ought not to hesitate in trying the experiment on a scale sufficiently large to test
the result. Upon this idea all the enlightened governments of the day spend large sums of money
in experiments; some of which prove that the proposed thing ctanot be done, and some that it
can-but in either case the result is important; for it is often as valuable to know what can't be
done as what can. The chief question on the Pensacola was the use of poppet-valves, which all the
engineers of that day declared could not be used in a screw engine, but which they all admitted to
be vastly better than slides if they could be used. The Pensacola has settled that question, and on
the stand Isherwood did not dare to say that there was any trouble about the poppet-valves.  Several other valuable ideas were tested by the Pensacola; and the only good things in the recent
ships are copied from her drawings, which were made for her against the most earnest opposition of
the whole Navy Department except the Secretary; and if the Pensacola were to sink to-morrow,
sle has paid the country by those improvements copied from her, and adopted in the navy. In
order that the importance of the experiments on the Pensacola may be appreciated, it should be
understood, first, that the Pensacola is at least fifty per cent larger than the Ossipee and her class;
second, that she has only five thousand square feet of boiler surface against nine thousand feet in
these ships; and that she has run more than twelve knots an hour with these conditions, whereas
they can't go ten. She has turned her screw more than fourteen knots an hour, while those small
vessels can only turn theirs about ten knots, and she cannot be made to burn more than half the
coal they can burn. But there are in that ship a dozen of untried experiments, all of which are important, and all of which, I believe, have succeeded; although it might well enough have been expected that some would not have succeeded. The fact that they were experiments implies the possibility of their failure. If the ship had been put in our hands when finished, and we had been allowed to give her a fair trial, she would have produced results which would have astonished the
country; and as it is, in the hands of the enemy and disabled, she does so much better than Isherwood's ships can do as to make them ridiculous. When, as they showed on their own logs, produced in court, she went seven knots an hour on a thousand pounds of coal, they showed the reason
why they would have her destroyed; for the ship has a cross section of seven hundred and forty
square feet, and no socch result as that oeas ever pgrodueodecd i  the world betbre.




68
I was coming to make the final adjustments, when all at once
Mr. Sickels was imprisoned by an order from the Navy Department on board the ship; and it began to be given out from
that delectable place that Mr. Sickels and I were traitors-that
we were preparing this ship to fall into the hands of the rebelsand that my well-known intimacy with Mr. Yulee, Mr. Mallory, and other leaders of the rebellion, accountecld for the fact
that the Pensacola was not ready.* Isherwood had studied
the great villains of Shakespeare for a model, and had selected
Richard for his instructor in this part of his plot; who, when
he was about to murder the princes in the Tower, by way of
preparing the public mind, thus instructed Buckingham:
"There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
Infer the bastardy of Edward's children."
And so he prepared for the atrocious work he had to do by
thus slandering us, who had done him no harm. All this while
I submitted without a word; for it was a dark hour in our
country's fate, and private griefs had no right to raise their cry
for justice.  But I staid away from Washington, as my friends
all know, because I would not submit to this gross indignity
of imprisonment by this fellow; and Sickels, who knew my
nature well, bade me stay away; for he said they would probably shoot me if I should rebel at this outrage. Sickels, however, had no redress; no kabeas coptus could reach him, and,
choking down his indignation, he finished the engines as well
as he could, surrounded by hostile people, and hearing day by
day how Isherwood's vengeance was to overtake all who helped
him.
* This piece of villany has made MIr. Sickels an exile from his native land. When he got out of their
clutches, he came to New-York utterly disheartened and disgAsted', and just ready to faint by the way.
He knew that the ship was to be destroyed; he had had fair notice of it, and had told Captain Morris
so; but he knew that there was no use to struggle against it. It was the dark hour of our country's
fate; and such villains as Isherwood could revel in their crimes with impunity-and how Isherwood
did gloat over this triumph! It is true that they even made Sickels pay his own board while they
kept him a prisoner; and then refused to pay him $1200, which, under the contract, he was entitled
to, and they still refuse it. Isherwood had his revenge, with interest, on poor Sickels, who having
paid Isherwood $400 out of his patent fee for putting his cut-off on a United States steamer, refused
to pay him $400 more, which Isherwood demanded on the pretence that he had to bribe some other
officer, and so would get nothing himself unless his promised twenty per cent were raised to forty.
When Sicke's saw himself in this man's power, and felt that remonstrance was in vain, he resolved
to go to England, where such outrages as this could not be done-where personal liberty at least is
safe-and he went, taking with him more knowledge of steam-engineering than exists in all Europe
besides. Thus it is that it becomes necessary for the success of ignorance that merit should not
only be ignored, but destroyed.




69
At last the engines started, and you now know the result.
They ran the screw of that ship at a rate which Isherwood on
the stand admitted must have taken the ship near fourteen
knots an hour; and, in fact, she ran from Indian Head to
Washington in five minutes' less time than the mail steamer's
schedule time from Accquia creek. But where was Isherwood?
He has admitted to you that he refused to go on board the ship
on her trial, and exultingly boasted that he would have nothing to do with her. lie, the Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy, refused even to look upon the performance of a ship which had
been built to test important principles. It was wise, if not honest,
at least; for his mouth would have been shut if he had seen
what our witnesses have proved about her. And we all know
how she ran the Mathias Point batteries, which the rebels said
would stop her; and their papers were full of accounts of her
great speed, by reason of which they could not strike her.
Now all these things we have proved here and munch more,
uncontradicted; while the two men, HIibbard and Magee —the
one the chief engineer and the other an assistant in the ship,
who were with her at this time and during the other outrages
committed on her —were both in Washington, in Isherwood's
office, where they are receiving the reward of their share of
this dark business; and, although I have called daily for their
production, neither of them has dared to show himself here.
And the reason why, I will tell you. If Mr. Hibbard had appeared I should have asked him this question: Did you not
say to 3IMr. Sickels that you regretted that you could not do
justice to these engines, but that you were in Isherwood's
power, and had to obey his wishes for your own protection?
And Mr. Hibbard would have seen the State prison on one side
if he had said no, and himself publicly disgraced if he had
said yes-which would have been the truth —and he did not
come. And if Magee had appeared I should have asked him:
Did you not swear vengeance against Mir. Sickels, because he
exposed you in defrauding the government by having a hundred dollars overcharged on a bill of gauges which you were
sent to New-York to buy for the ship; and was not this transaction brought by him to the notice of the captain on the quarter-deck; and did you not publicly say that you were not afraid,




7O
for that Isherwood had received, to your knowledge, fifteen
hundred dollars apiece from  the Novelty Works for the two
gunboats just then building there, and that you thought you
might get a little hundred dollars out of these gauges? And
as this was just the transaction as it occurred, Mr. Isherwood
did not want to see:XMagee on the stand, and so he did not come.*
But let us follow this ship in the hands of this precious
party on her voyage.  She struck on Florida Keys, and there
remained eight days, beating on the rocks, until her armament
and stores were taken out, and she was got off with great difficulty.  In this operation the ship was "hogged," and her
"skin " broken between the engines and condensers; so that the
pipes which connect the engines with the condensers were torn
out of their fastenings, and the air admitted to the engines.
Still, when the ship floated, the engines worked in that disabled condition, and she went on. Finding that the engines
would not break down, even under this trial, there was one
thing left to be done, and that was to take away the oil from
the machinery; and that was done, as we have proved.  But
even then a person in the engineer's department, whose name
I will not mention, because he is still in the service, and I do
not wish to subject him to the vengeance of the Navy Department, but who can be produced when needed, used privately
to smuggle oil from the tank to the journals, and so kept her
going; but he could not be there always, by night and day, and
at last, in his absence, the brasses were melted with fervent
heat, and ran off in great drops of molten metal; and the
machine stopped with a shriek, as if it were a living thing,
reproaching its murderers.  But still the engine did not break
down, although in all probability it should have done so, and
the ship was got to New-Orleans. There she lay at anchor in
this disabled condition, and the attempt by the Department
was made to have her condemned and sold for old iron there.
At this point of the proceedings, my friend, Mr. Forbes, offered
to buy these engines to be used in a private ship-for these are
the best propeller engines which now are running - and that
* One of the evils of having such a man as Isherwood in office is the utter demoralization of the
entire service under his control; for when the subordinate knows such things as this Magee asserted
that he knew, and publicly states them, all restraint is at once thrown off, and a reward is offered
for corruption.




baffled the scheme to have them destroyed; for Isherwood
knew that if they went into a private ship, their record would
condemnn him forever, and that could not be allowed. But
they reported from 1New-Orleans that the engines could not
work and that the ship was useless; and at the request of Mr.
Forbes I consented to send a machinist there to put them in
such order as that they might be brought to New-York; although
I warned him  and the Government that the machinery was
badly disorganized by the breaking of the ship, and could only
be got right in the dock and where there were shops and good
workmen. When Mr. Cameron went there, he found, as he
told you here, that the condensers were full of mud, of which
he took two hundred and four buckets full out of each one;
that the pumps were all choked up, and had been cut to pieces
by running them when the packing was screwed down so hard
that the brass itself was melted into globules; that there were
no tools in the ship, not even a chisel to cut a piece of metal
with; and that he had to send ashore for so simple a thing as
a cold chisel. There, however, he worked with such facilities
as he could get, doing such things as the engine-drivers of the
ship ought to have done-or rather such as they ought not to
have made necessary to be done —until he got the engines into
such order that they could work; but he reported expressly in
writing, and here are the papers on the table, that the engines
could not be put in order until the ship went into dock, and
there was repaired and brought into line. When ready, the
ship was run; and the log and the report of the Commodore
are on the table —by which it appears, that in that disabled
condition, with the screw loose on the shaft, with the condenser
sucking air till the vacuum showed only thirteen inches of
mercury, instead of twenty-seven, (as it would have done if the
engine was air-tight, as it ought to be,) this great ship, whose
cross-section is as large as the Persia's, went seven knots an
hour burning only one tlhosccnd poounds of coal an hour.
Now, these facts are official reports, which I drew out of the
Department by a subpoena, and which are now before you. I
should not dare to tell these things of my own knowledge, for
they are too great to be believed; but here they are proved
by the enemy, and not in question. Here I turned to Isher



72
wood's book again, and found that of the ships of which he
gives account, very little larger than the Pensacola, none of themn
are reported by him to go seven knots, and all of them burn
more than three times as much coal as the Pensacola-they being in perfect order and she disabled. I then asked him to
name any vessel, small or great, in the navy, which could go
seven knots an hour on a thousand pounds of coal; and he
swore that the Ticonderoga could, but said that her log
was not in the Department. Now, I will undertake to say,
gentlemen, that the Ticonderoga, which is scarcely half the
size of the Pensacola, but which has nearly twice as much boiler
surface as the Pensacola; cannot go seven knots an hour Awith
twice the coal used by the Pensacola; and I have no doubt her
log will show that, when produced. It will astonish the officers
of these ships when they hear that they can go seven knots
with about ten tons of coal a day; for they know that seven
knots is near their full speed, and that their coal is nearly three
times ten tons a day. And to make the record of the Pensacola's outrages complete, I proved to you by Isherwood himself, that they had taken out of her, and put ashore oqn S7/ip
slancd, the blowers by which her air-tight fire-room was kept
cool; in consequence of which the intense heat of a closed
furnace-chamber, unsupplied by the forced circulation on which
air-tight fire-rooms depend for coolness, and by which they are
the most comfortable of all fire-rooms, became insupportable;
so that they were enabled to have the assistance of the complaints of the firemen in their attempt to destroy and put out
of sight the engines of the Pensacola; which they themselves
show are capable of driving that ship seven knots with a
thousand pounds of coal an hour, and which, when in order,
did turn that screw forty-eight revolutions a minute-whereas
now they can only turn it twenty-two, and yet can produce
these immense results. The history of the Pensacola is more
diabolical than any thing I have ever read of in the world;
and its monstrous nature has deterred me from telling it except to my intimate friends; for no man who should relate it
in its simple atrocity, as it has been developed before you by
the testimony of those most interested in denying the truth
of the charges made, would be entitled to be believed; because




73
it is more probable that any one man in the world should
be mistaken in his information, or should lie, than that such
deeds as these should be perpetrated.  But Iago and Uriah
Heep are realities, and not the inventions of an overwrought
imagination. *
* The deliberate plan to ruin these engines which has been thus disclosed, has not yet been given
up, although it is probable that it is near its termination just now. What the ship did before she
was on the Florida reefs-what she did when she elicited the praise both of the enemy and her
officers - that she can do always under the same conditions; for an engine is not a thing of passions like a man, and does not change its mind. But after the ship was " hogged" by her beating
on the reefs, the opportunity for destroying the engine was favorable; and in the confusion of the
ascent to New-Orleans, it could be done without exciting much attention; for at that time, the loss
of one ship was nothing. In order to destroy the engine, they took away the oil; but on account of
the immense strength of the machine, they only disabled her, but did not break her down. The
general impression on board at that time was that Hibbard had done this from fear, and in order
to escape from the fight, and such was the talk on board; but they did not know the real motive. The ship was got to New-Orleans, and there the department had a survey with a view to
condemn her-her engineer preparing her for it by allowing her condensers to fill up with mud,
and by not repairing her disabled pumps, etc. The interference of Mr. Forbes probably saved the
ship at this time; and I sent Mr. Cameron down to put her in such order as to bring her to NewYork. The report of her performance made by Commodore Bell, was very favorable; but a man
named Shock, one of Isherwood's gang, and the fleet engineer, wrote, that in his opinion, all the
engineering skill in the country could not keep the engine going for twenty-four hours.  The
ship was then left by Mr. Cameron; and then began a new set of operations, which are now going
on, whose object is to disable the ship anyhow, and so prevent her from being brought here for
repairs; and, by way of preparation for it, the papers are publishing letters from New-Orleans
dictated by Isheiwood's tools, as was done from Washington in the first case; of which the following, taken from the Herald, is a sample: " The flag-ship Pensacola will shortly leave this port for
the North, for the purpose of effecting numerous repairs necessary to keep her afloat, if such a
thing is desirable, after the following'tr1t7sfiel statemefnt is made:.. The contract for her
engines was given to an inexperienced party who botched the whole affair by putting in engines
that would not budge a stroke. He then applied for Congressional relief and got it. He then took
out the first engines and put in others, which were only a fraction better than the first; but they
managed, with a high pressure of steam, to propel the ship six miles an hour. The ship and engines have cost the government more than any two monitor batteries now afloat. To repair her is
worse than useless. It would be money saved to the government to take her out in mid ocean-and
send her to Davy Jones's locker. A trial trip of this vessel was made a few days ago, and she
reestablished her character for slowness. She could hardly stem the current of the Mississippi."
The first thing to do is to have some suitable tools for the purpose ordered to the ship, and to
remove those whose presence might prevent it, and then the Pensacola will be used up. There is
an engineer on board named Purdy, whom I do not know, but hMr. Cameron says he is an intelligent and honest man, and he will be removed. There is also a first-class fireman named John
Martin, there, who will be a troublesome witness, and he must be disposed of. They have begun the
work, however, and Mr. Cameron has just received a letter dated on the Pensacola, Dec. 12th, from
this John Martin, which he has handed me, and which is as follows:
"U. S. STEAMER PENSACOLA,
NEW-ORLEAgNS, December 12, 1863.
"BDEn  CAMAERON: I received yours of date Nov. 10th, and was very happy to hear of the improved condition of your health. I would not write before returning home, were it not for the
circumstances I am about to relate.
" On the night of the tenth inst., the Commodore received a dispatch from Fort Jackson, stating
that a mutiny had occurred in the forts. We were therefore turned out at midnight and ordered
to get up steam with instant dispatch. I was out first, and all went on well under the superintendence of Mr. Purdy, but it was impossible for him to be present in all places at the same moment.
I heard him four (4) times within ten (10) minutes asking how much water was in the boilers. Hie
was answered that there were three and a half (3) cocks. While he was standing by the throttle



7T
But, you will ask, how does this man' count his gains" out
of all this villainy?  Again, I have but to appeal to him  for
an answer. Hie has admitted on the stand that he extorted
from  Sickels a share of the money paid to Sickels by the
Government for a cut-off put on a United States ship; and he
did it, he says, under the plea of advocating Mr. Sickels's
plans, which he then approved.  But he did not tell you all
valve, a young man, Mr. Burchard by name, was attending to the water and steam. It seems that
he was one of the number sent out from Washington who had never seen the inside of a fire-room
before; he did not know the name of the throttle-valve, as I heard him asking a coal-heaver what
it was. While he was engaged as aforementioned, he took it into his block that there was too
much water in the boiler and wished to be shown what to do. Accordingly some of the men, John
O. IHogen, I believe, showed him how to blow her down. He then blew her down below the crown
s/heets, and as soon as the flues melted or broke for want of water, all the fires in the boiler commenced blowing out on the poor fellows' faces, until they were obliged to leave in order to save
their lives-which is the same as to save the Union-and not to be blown up with boys scarcely out
of their mothers' milk, and yet strapped with sword and wearing gold band. I was not on watch
at the time. Mr. Purdy, therefore, sent for me, and told me to shut off the steam of the starboard
boiler from the port and run her with her port boiler. At this time three strange engineers came
on board by order of Com. Bell, from other ships, who acted in the place of the three (3) belonging
to this, (namely, Mr. Purdy, Golin, and Abel.) With the assistance of the port boiler and the small
boat Holly Hock, we then steamed down the river fifty or seventy miles, when a dispatch-boat
overtook us, informing us that all was settled at the fort; we then turned back and returned to
New-Orleans.
"It seems that Mr. Shock is prejudiced against Mr. Purdy, as shown from his directing strange
engineers to take the place of himself and Second Assistants. Now why not send away the three
Third Assistants? I mean the one that burned the boiler and his two comrades, and not those who
have had some experience.
" I pity Mr. Purdy from my heart, and I assure you that the engines worked admirably without the
slightest trouble. I am constantly employed about them and keep all things in good order. Four
boiler-makers are working on her now, and if Mr. Purdy stops on her, I am sure she will work
well, for then they cannot manufacture in Washington engineers by the case, and distribute them
through the fleet to criticise on what they know nothing about; all they do know being what they
read. This Mr. Burchard is one of the last imported box. We have three of the same sort. Were
it not for the old hands of the firemen who are left, I do not know what Mir. Purdy would do. I
am not sorry, in a manner speaking, as it will assist Mr. Sickels in proving the capability of the
engineers who tried to spoil his work, but only succeeded in killing and crippling firemen, and trying to condemn Mr. Sickels's work, as his noble productions in the line of steam cut-offs are too
deep for their experience to comprehend.
"In the event of Mr. Purdy's leaving, may God only pity his successor, as I am sure the firemen will not, provided they escape from the navy with their lives; this I assure you will be more
than we expect, through the incapacity of these freshly-manufactured engineers. I am, sir,
"Your obedient servant,
"ROBERT CAMERON,                                                     "JOHEN MARTIN.
"Chief Engineer, U. S. N."
Well done Isherwood; Good for Shock! Keep on a little longer, and the poor old Pensacola
will trouble you no more. Send away Mr. Purdy and Mr. Martin, and put her in charge of some
of your people fresh from Washington, and she will never come North, but will go sure enough to
"Davy Jones's locker," as your letter would foreshadow.
When the Pensacola went to sea, I proposed to the Department to appoint, and pay out of my
own pocket an engineer for her-Harry Holland, now in China-who knows more about driving an
engine than all the brass-bound, gold-laced, and sworded beauties in creation; but they utterly
refused my request; and afterwards my friend Mr. Cameron offered in writing recently to run that
ship six months without charge, and he was refused. This letter shows the reason why. Now
what is the use of Fort Lafayette and Sing Sing, when such fellows as these are at liberty?




of that story; nor all of the other cases where he has advocated other people's plans. He did not tell you that lie advocated the plans of Sewell's condensers; whose object is to
malke fresh water for the boilers, but which, from the first one
tried till now, have made no fresh water, and have left the
boilers as salt as if there were no surface-condensers, although
immense sums have been paid for the patents. He did not tell
you that he advocated Martin's boilers, the patent for which
is now owned by Montgomery, and had compelled contractors
to pay the wrong man-as, indeed, is true of the Sewell condensers, the patent for which, as now used, is owned by Barnu.111.
* This condenser swindle is the most barefaced of any yet practised. Sewell, an ex-engineer of the
navy, and a sort of go-between for Isherwood, who speaks with authority on his account, has a
patent for a very poor but very expensive way of packing the ends of the tubes used in a surface
condenser, but has no patent for the surface condenser itself. Mr. Pirsson, of this city, a highly
honorable and truthful gentleman, has a patent for a surface condenser; one of the features of
which is, that the tendency to leak is counteracted and no packing is needed for the tubes. This
condenser is in considerable use, and on the San Jacinto has worked well many years, as certified
by Isherwood himself, when he was the driver of those engines. Isherwood makes the condensers
now for the navy, which infringe Pirsson's patent, but which yet need to have their tube ends
packed, and then he requires the builders in their contracts to pay Sewell any price he may charge.
But Sewell's method of packing the tubes is good for nothing, and Daniel Barnum has the patent,
granted to him by the Patent Office after an interference with Sewell, who also claimed it, for a good
way of packing the tubes, which the United States ships are now using under the name of Sewell, and
for which he is being paid; while poor Barnum, with his patent in his pocket, is left out in the cold
and laughed at by this precious pair. Meanwhile Sewell is negotiating with Barnum to buy his
patent, while he is receiving the cash which Isherwood compels the contractors to pay him as if he
owned it; and Barnum has asked my advice what to do. I hake advised him to sell it cheap, for
I have seen enough of these villainies to be satisfied that they will rob him of all if he don't take their
price. But there is another patent which has to be used also in connection with these condensers
by which they are prevented from making any fresh water, even after they use Barnum's packing;
which consists in making one pump double-acting, and using one end of it for salt water and one
for fresh-the piston between being packed with hemp. This piston of course leaks; and if it leaks
one per cent, it passes into the firesh water an equal quantity of salt, and at once destroys the whole
effect of the surface condenser; and it is impossible on these fast-moving engines to make that pump
tight. The consequence is, that from the first one till now, each and every one has made salt water
just as if there were no surface condenser; and it has been well known for two years by the Deparment; yet they are going on reproducing themrn, and the contractors are compelled to pay Mr.
Lynch his patent fee for the means whereby the boilers are salted, and all the cost of surface condensation wasted. Meanwhile Mr. Pirsson would be glad to take for his patent fee the saving iE
cost qf coenstrsctiorn alone between his good machine and this worse than useless one, and he
cannot be heard. All this I wrote to the Secretary a year ago, but without avail.
The Martin boiler is a similar case, and almost as bad. James Montgomery in December, 1845,
took a patent for vertical water tubular boilers, so arranged as that there were water spaces each
side of the tube-boxes for the water to circulate downward. The patent was extended in 1859, and
now is alive; and it covers this peculiar hbrm, called Martin's boilers in express terms. But
when Montgomery took his patent for this general principle of construction, he had various forms
of it shown in drawings, and among other forms that in which the water-tubes are placed above
the furnace-now called Martin's boilers-and he deposited in the Patent Office a book of drawings
containing this, among other forms, by way of protecting himself against having patents issued
which might exclude him from using some of his own forms if he chose to do so. But when Martin
was Engineer-in-Chief he succeeded in getting a patent for this peculiar form of the Mongomery




In this sort of business, gentlemen, as in killing sheep, when
the dog once tastes blood his appetite is never cloyed till
the  flock  is  all killed  or the  hound  is throttled - and  so in
this case. This sort of corruption thus admitted by himselfadmitted because he knew I had the proof at hand to convict
him if he denied it-has ripened into a system and is carried
out by rule in the engineer department. They have boldly
written letters-and I have seen them and advised parties not
boiler by some mischance; the only legal effect of which, however,-even if Montgomery had not invented that form, would be to prevent Mongomery from using it, not to authorize Martin to use
Montgomery's new mode of construction merely because he had arranged it in some new form.
But as the form itself was old, and Montgomery's own invention, he applied to the office for a patent
for the same thing, and on the production of the proof that lie was its real inventor, and not Martin, the office, under Judge Holt, did him all the justice they could, and granted him the patent
over Mialrtin's head. The claim of the patent is in these words: " I claim the arrangement of the
series of the tubes placed vertically or nearly so between an upper and a lower and connecting
vertical water spaces, when said lower water space is made directly oeve the fire-chamber, aced
if the draft is returned over said lower slpaces, aed a.snoozg the vertical tubes as setforti7."
This patent issued in 185, and in 1861 Mr. Montgomery, being in embarrassed circumstances and
much out of health, addressed a letter to the Department demanding the recognition of his rights,
to which he received an answer as follows:
"' NAVY DEPARTMENT, June 22, 1861.
" SIR: Your communication of the fifteenth instant has been received.
"As the payment of all the patent fees is assumed by the contractors for the machinery, who
engage to hold the government harmless against any claims on account of patents they sapy neses
your notification should be addressed to the contractors.
"I am respectfully,
"Your obedient servant,
"JAMES MIONTGOMERY, Esq.,                                            GIDEON WELLES."
"Brooklyn, N. Y.
Now what does that letter mean? I presume no one will differ with me when I say, that it
means that the contractors were bound to find out for themselves who owned the patents which
they were to use, and to pay the fees on their own responsibility to the real owners; and so Mr.
Montgomery took it to mean. But he soon found out that the Department required the contractors
to pay Martin the patent fee for these boilers, and so put it in print in their contracts, and that no
contractor could get his money unless he could produce Martin's receipt; and so the fact remains
to this day. The Secretary of the Navy himself does not hesitate to aid in this operation, in which
the contractors are compelled to pay the wrong man, by writing a letter misleading th;e true
owner, who, in poverty and sickness, was struggling to get something out of his property, thus
lawlessly taken from him.
That these boilers are a plain infringement of Montgomery's patent of 1845, no man can question; that he holds a second patent for them specifically is apparent on reading the paper; and
yet the Department requires the contractors to pay Martin the patent fees, as if his title were
unquestioned. By what right is that done?
That this condenser they are using is a plain infringmient of Pirsson's patent is apparent on
reading the paper; and yet the Department selects one subject of a patent, and requires the contractors to pay Sewell any fee he may charge, while at the same time Barnum owns the patent for
the very thing used, and both he and Pirsson are unnoticed, except to be plundered. By what
right is this done?
If there is any doubt about the rights of parties, the duty of the Department is clear enough;
and that is to refer it to the Courts to settle who is the owner-meanwhile pay no one. And to
use their power to compel the contractors to pay any one, when there is doubt, is an outrage; but
to use it in this way to compel payment to the party against whom the decision of the Patent Office
has been had, is simply a fraud.




to submit to the wrong- in which they call upon contractors
to pay a thousand dollars for advance copies of the drawings
on which the engines they have contracted for are to be built;
and, as the contractors know that they can be much inconvenienced by this bureau by delays, as they perhaps have
workmen waiting for drawings, they pay these extortions
rather than do worse.*
And this book of Isherwood's is another sample of the
same sort of rascality: a book teeming with fraud, and of no
possible interest to any man of science on earth, except the
metaphysician and moral philosopher engaged in defining the
shadowy boundary which separates the dark regions of moral
depravity from the scarcely less obscure limits of intellectual
insanity, to whom  it would afford abundant material for researches in either direction.  This book he made the contractors publish for him at their cost-and it was very costly, as
you see-while he can compel every engine-driver in the
navy to buy them for ten dollars apiece. When he was levying this tax on the contractors, I protested against it to some
of them; saying that I did not care how much money they
paid him, but I did object to their vitiating the sources of
* The way they work this gold mine is this: A young man named Murdock, a clerk in the
Engineer's office, visited the different contractors for these engines, offering to furnish them a set of
detailed drawings in advance of the general drawings for one thousand dollars a set; which he said
were to be made by another person named Whiting, also in the office, out of office hours. The contractors took it into consideration, and soon had letters from Whiting asking for their decision:
They understood what all this meant, and said that if Isherwood approved they would do it, of
course, and he did approve. Whereupon the one thousand dollars were paid, and photographic
copies of the drawings-worth about five cents a sheet when once the originals are made-were
distributed to the shops. One concern saw the merits of the arrangement so strongly that they
took two sets at one thousand dollars each, although they are building but one engine; and
if they wanted duplicates, they could get them for a few shillings by having them traced, or copied,
as these are, by the photographers. This mine will yield between twenty and thirty thousand
dollars, as there are between twenty and thirty of these engines building; and as no doubt all have
done as those I know have done, and as they understood perfectly they must do, or suffer worse
consequences in rejected work, delayed payments, etc. The concern that took two sets, so as to
have them in the house handy-like Mrs. Toodles when she bought the door-plate with Thompson
on it-understood the game to a charm.
Time was when I should have said this was simply a piece of knavery; but I have some doubt
now, since it has been decided by high authority that the Government does not pay such moneys
as these, and that a person employed by the Government to deal with contractors may lawfully
derive any advantage he can out of the contractors' money, so that it first gets into their hands
before he receives it; whereas if he takes it directly from the Treasury before they receive it, the
transaction is fraudulent. Under that principle I cannot see how this sort of business can be
condemned; but it exhibits a sort of spontaneous eruption of greenbacks all over the engineer
department at Washington, and makes one feel so happy to think that the Government don't pay
these sums, while our faithful and deserving public officers grow rich, as it were, out of nothing,
that I am almost sorry even to disturb the arrangement by suggesting a doubt as to its honesty.




78
public information, and poisoning the channels through which
our young men coming up to this business will be compelled to
draw their instructions. And you see, gentlemen, how serious
is the consequence; for he boldly avows the patronage of the
Navy Department, and says that it 6' granted permission for
its publication;" thereby giving the sanction of our Government to all this fraud and all this ignorance, and overwhelming the minds of the unlearned and ignorant who are looking
for instruction, by the formidable authority of the most intelligent people on earth, acting through their chosen officers.
It is a most serious misfortune.
For my own part, however, I am free to admit that I have
had the full value of the ten dollars I paid for the book in its
perusal, in pure fun; for I laughed over it in my own chamber alone, as I have seldom laughed over the master-pieces of
humor or wit which have delighted the world. The farce
which amused me so much occupies fifty pages of the book,
and gives an account of an operation performed by this adroit
juggler and a solemn-looking man in New-York, named
Waterman, on a very worthy and wealthy gentleman of that
city, named Hecker. The proposition which this pair of
beauties had made to IMr. Hecker, and on which he furnished
funds for the show, was, that they were going to prove to him
how steam could " super-leat itself "- I read from the book
(p. 5) - which is all one with proving how a man could hold
himself out by his waistband at arm's length. Isherwood
describes this very worthy gentleman, Mr. Hecker, as " an
amateur engineer of considerable experience, who provided.
the furnds and gave the benefit of his advice." And it ended,
as it generally does when an amateur falls into the hands of
the " professionals," that the amateur lost his money, and they
carried off the spoils. Still, of course, steam would not " superheat itself;" although they resorted to the very ingenious contrivance which Isherwood says was the " ne pitus ultrc of simplicity," of taking the steam out of the boiler in a pipe, cooling
it off in the air, squeezing it through a small hole so as to
wire-draw it, and then passing it again in a pipe through the
original boiler steam, in the expectation that somehow it
might pick up more heat than it set out with; on the principle
of Mr. Aicawber, who always stepped back a few steps so as




to get a fair start to go ahead. And Isherwood has devoted
fifty pages of this book to explaining why it was that the
man could not hold himlself out at arm's length, accompanied
by tables in which millions of figures are spread out with the
industry of a demon, and in which coal-weights are carried out
to the one hundred  thousandth part of a pound.  And the
general conclusion is, that if the  engine had been biggerthe man larger-he might have lifted himself up with great
advantage.
The end of the business is, that Mr. HIecker is using steam
to grind grain, without expansion,  and at a cost of about sixty
pounds of coal to the barrel of flour, while his neighbors only
use about twenty; but they console him with the reflection
that his mills are like the mills of the gods, which it is said,
" grind slow, but grind exceeding fine."'
WVhen I cross-examined Isherwood, and proved by him  that
he was the son of a widow named Eliza Green, who had been
left in poverty, and had been supported by him, you perhaps
might have thought that I was intruding too far into the private relations of his life; but I had a motive which was not
mere curiosity. I had in my hand when I asked that question the evidence of the fact that on  Saturday last, when
Isherwood was in New-York " on public business," this poor
widow, Eliza Green, subscribed for eight thousand dollars of
New-York City stocks at six per cent premium; and I know
that for the last two years she had more than once aided our
New-York finances out of her great resources.  And I brought
forward the subject merely to express my pleasure that, as in
the days of Israel, we have a poor widow whose barrel never
wastes, and whose cruse never fails; and to say that I think
there should be an act of Congress compelling the families of
public officers, when they invest their immense surpluses like
these, to invest them in United States securities at par, and
* This Waterman is the person who came to the rescue of Isherwood last winter when I was
exposing these outrages in the Timces over the signature of " Vinldex," by answering me over the
signature " Crucis;" and to the extent of his poor ability he has done his share towards imposing
these abortions upon the country. In one of the letters he thus explains the resemblance of Mr.
lIecker's mills to those mythical ones I have referred to: "If the Messrs. Hecker find it beneficial
to the success of their business to conduct their milling operations by a system requiring more
power to grind a barrel of flour than the Brooklyn mill proprietors do, and if they use the power
of the engines for other than milling purposes, at the same time, then it is a commercial question
for them to decide, and not one in relation to cut-offs." They might use more power than their
neighbors, but they dozn't.




80
not to pay a premium for State stocks, by which the credit of
the Government is injured. Or perhaps I do Isherwood wrong
-and if I do I must ask his pardon-for perhaps he went to
New-York to induce this lady to invest in United States
stocks, and failed in his persuasions.*
And now, gentlemen, I have but one more remark to make,
which is this: that having exposed to the country the ignorance, fraud, and corruption, which disgrace our Navy Department; having shown you the reasons why our navy is a failure, and the certainty that these people are going on still
further to destroy its value forever; I call upon the President
to interpose his power to arrest this evil before it becomes irreparable. And if that amiable, honest, patriotic, and very
able man, Abraham Lincoln, (for I believe him to be all these,
although I voted against him,) cannot bring his mind to the
disagreeable task of cleansing this Augean stable, then let
Congress come to his aid, and abolish the Navy Department
entirely; substituting for it Commissioners of Admiralty, as
in England, and filling the commission with such men as
Roberts, or Forbes, or Vanderbilt —men who have built navies
themselves, and have borne the flag of our country, in association with their own private signals, to the uttermost parts
of the earth, with credit and profit to themselves and to our
great national honor. And I now say that such a system is
vastly better than our present one, even if such men as now
wield the power so disgracefully had never lived, or were to
die to-morrow.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your patient attention, and I
trust that our labors will not have been in vain.
* It may seem from these exposures that I have some personal or private cause for punishing
this man; but I certainly have none. Life is too short to be spent in pursuing every knave who,
in the providence of God, is permitted to afflict the world by his presence; and until their crimes
become too injurious to the public, I never interfere. I have frequently said of Isherwood, that I
consider him the right man in the wrong place; and that I would at any time sign a recommendation for his promotion to the situation where his abilities could be usefully employed-the position
of Secretary of the Treasury. And my reason is this-that beginning in poverty, and having no
visible means of increasing his store except his wages as an engine-driver in the navy, (always
excepting these little matters of advocating plans he approved,) he has grown rich, and does not
hesitate to say to his.friends that he has more money than he knows how to spend. Now if such
talents had been possessed by Secretary Chase, and applied by him to the sixty millions of gold
income which the country has, we should never have had to issue greenbacks, and the treasury
would be full of real money. But it may not be too late yet; and no doubt the patriotic and very
able Secretary of the Treasury would take pleasure in recognizing such superior qualifications-for
it is the mark of true greatness that it has no jealousies-and in resigning in his favor if Isherwond ioul(d only show him how he does it.