the chain being hauled down and rewound by the wheel on the shaft, the latter being moved by a weight. The engine was proposed to be of 6 feet stroke, and to make 15 strokes per minute, with a force of 11,000 pounds. [61] "Les Merveilles de la Science." A little later (1760), a Swiss clergyman, J. A. Genevois, published in London a paper relating to the improvement of navigation,[62] in which his plan was proposed of compressing springs by steam or other power, and applying their effort while recovering their form to ship-propulsion. [62] "Some New Enquiries tending to the Improvement of Navigation." London, 1760. It was at this time that the first attempts were made in the United States to solve this problem, which had begun to be recognized as one of the greatest which had presented itself to the mechanic and the engineer. WILLIAM HENRY was a prominent citizen of the then little village of Lancaster, Pa., and was noted as an ingenious and successful mechanic.[63] He was still living at the beginning of the present century. Mr. Henry was the first to make the "rag" carpet, and was the inventor of the screw-auger. He was of a Scotch and North-of-Ireland family, his father, John Henry, and his two older brothers, Robert and James, having come to the United States about 1720. Robert settled, finally, in Virginia, and it is said that Patrick Henry, the patriot and orator, was of his family. The others remained in Chester County, Pa., where William was born, in 1729. He learned the trade of a gunsmith, and, driven from his home during the Indian war (1755 to 1760), settled in Lancaster. [63] _Lancaster Daily Express_, December 10, 1872. This account is collated from various manuscripts and letters in the possession of the author. In the year 1760 he went to England on business, where his attention was attracted to the invention--then new, and the subject of discussion in every circle--of James Watt. He saw the possibility of its application to navigation and to driving carriages, and, on his return home, commenced the construction of a steam-engine, and finished it in 1763.