[Footnote 152: See Mr. Taylor's report on Herland engine, vol. ii. p. 118.]
"That your petitioner, who had been for many years employed in making steam-engines on the principle of Boulton and Watt, and had made considerable improvements in their machinery, directed his attention principally to the invention of a boiler which should be free from these disadvantages; and after having devoted much of his time and spent nearly all his property in the attainment of this object, he at length succeeded in inventing and perfecting that which has since been generally adopted throughout the kingdom.
"That your petitioner's invention consists principally in introducing the fire into the midst of the boiler, and in making the boiler of a cylindrical form, which is the form best adapted for sustaining the pressure of high steam.
"That the following very important advantages are derived from this, your petitioner's, invention. This boiler does not require half of the materials, nor does it occupy half the space required for any other boiler. No mason-work is necessary to encircle the boiler. Accidents by fire can never occur, as the fire is entirely surrounded by water, and greater duty can be performed by an engine with this boiler, with less than half the fuel, than has ever been accomplished by any engine without it. These great advantages render this small and portable boiler not only superior to all others used in mining and manufacturing, but likewise is the only one which can be used with success in steam-vessels or steam-engine carriages. The boilers in use prior to your petitioner's invention could never with any degree of safety or convenience be used for steam navigation, because they required a protection of brick and mason work around them, to confine the fire by which they were encircled, and it would have been impossible, independent of the great additional bulk and weight, that boilers thus constructed could withstand the rolling of vessels in heavy seas; and notwithstanding every precaution the danger of the fire bursting through the brick and mason work could never be effectually guarded against.
"That had it not been for this, your petitioner's, invention, those vast improvements which have been made in the use of steam could not have taken place, inasmuch as none of the old boilers could have withstood a pressure of above 6 lbs. to the inch, much less a pressure of 60 lbs. to the inch, or even of above 150 lbs. to the inch when necessary.