To John Adams from Patrick Miller, 19 November 1787

From Patrick Miller

Dalswinton 19th. November 1787

Sir

I had the honour to receive Your Excellencys letter of the 30th. April. In the treatise on Naval Architecture which I requested you to transmit to Congress I signifyed my intention to make an Experiment with the Steam Engine as a Power to work my Water Wheel.—

When preparing for this experiment, I conceived an Idea that the Capstorn might be employed as a Power better fitted to that purpose than an Engine to be moved by fire.— It answered my utmost expectations, and I have now the honour to send your Excellency an Account of the experimts. I made with it, a Copy of which I request you will transmit to Congress to be deposited with the Treatise—1 Be assured that I keep within bounds when I speak of Ships being made to go from four to five miles an hour in a Calm— It was my design to have communicated the Account of my experiments immediately after they were made, but coming here in a day or two thereafter I got engaged in different Improvements which occupyed and amused me to such a degree as to render Attention to any other Subject painful.—

I wish America may perceive the Importance of this Discovery— Their Wood is of a Scantling fit to build Ships on this principle of very great force— Five or six such Ships would clear the Seas of all the African Cruizers.— In Calms or light Winds, very frequent in the Mediterranean Sea during the Summer Months, they would be superiour to any number of Ships of the present Construction of whatever force— Think not lightly of this Matter because You see nothing done in Britain— You will do me the honour to own Receipt of this, that I may know it has gone to your hands, directing to me at this place by Dumfries.—2

I have the honour to be with very great Respect / Your Excellencys / most obedient & / most humble servant

Patrick Miller

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excelly / John Adams / Grosvenor Square / London”; endorsed: “Patrick Miller Esq. / of Dalswinton / ansd. 11. Decr. 1787”; notation by CFA: “19 Novr.”

1. JA enclosed Miller’s account with his 11 Dec. letter to John Jay. Miller described a 2 June experiment in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, where his boat achieved a speed of four miles per hour while five men at the capstan powered a waterwheel in a calm. Jay laid JA’s letter, with Miller’s account, before Congress on 1 April 1788 (Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789 description begins The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from … 1783, to … 1789, [ed. William A. Weaver], repr., Washington, D.C., 1837 [actually 1855]; 3 vols. description ends , 2:822– 824; JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, D.C., 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 34:127).

2. No reply from JA has been found. In a 2 Feb. 1793 letter to George Washington, however, Miller wrote that JA had assured him he would transmit the account to Congress (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987– . description ends , 12:91–93).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: To John Adams from Patrick Miller, 19 November 1787
Author: Miller, Patrick
Recipient: Adams, John
Date: 19 November 1787

Reference

Cite as: “To John Adams from Patrick Miller, 19 November 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0154. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 19, February 1787–May 1789, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 219–220.]

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