Jonathan Hulls or Hull (baptised 1699 – 1758) was an English inventor, a pioneer of

steam navigation A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

. Traditionally, he was recognised as the first person to make practical experiments with steam to propel a vessel; but evidence to substantiate the claim that he did more than propose a steam vessel on paper is lacking.

Life

Hulls was born at Hanging Aston,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. It has been suggested that the background to the efforts of Hulls was the 1734 publication in the abridged '' Philosophical Transactions'' of a paper by the French engineer Monsieur Duquet on ships and mechanical propulsion. Duquet was a controversialist also active at that time in a debate on his ideas with

Henri Pitot Henri Pitot (; May 3, 1695 – December 27, 1771) was a French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the pitot tube. In a pitot tube, the height of the fluid column is proportional to the square of the velocity of the fluid at the depth of the ...

. He died in the middle of 1758 in Broad Campden, where he had lived almost all his adult life.

Work

The protection of his invention by Hulls depended on the financial support of his neighbour named Freeman at

Batsford Park Batsford Arboretum is a arboretum and botanical garden near Batsford in Gloucestershire, England, about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. It is owned and run by the Batsford Foundation, a registered charity, and is open to the public ...

. The patent for the invention by Hulls is dated 21 December 1736, and his account of it appeared as ''Description and Draught of a new-invented Machine for carrying Vessels or Ships out of or into any Harbour, Port, or River against Wind and Tide, or in a Calm; for which his Majesty has granted Letters-patent for the sole benefit of the Author for the space of fourteen years'' (London, 1737). It was reprinted in facsimile in 1855. A

Newcomen engine The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine (see below) or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creati ...

was to be set up on a tow-boat in front of another vessel, connected by a tow-rope. Six paddles in the stern of the tow-boat were to be fastened to a cross axis connected by ropes to another axis which was turned by the engine. Hulls showed how to convert the rectilineal motion of a piston-rod into a rotatory motion. The ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' casts doubt on the traditional story about practical trials by Hulls. The '' Dictionary of National Biography'' first edition related that they were made on River Avon at Evesham in 1737; that they were a failure; and that Hulls was the butt of humour. In 1754 Hulls published ''The Art of Measuring made Easy by the help of a new Sliding Scale''; he also wrote the ''Maltmakers' Instructor''.

Influence

Augustus De Morgan says that Hulls's work very likely gave suggestions to

William Symington William Symington (1764–1831) was a Scottish engineer and inventor, and the builder of the first practical steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas. Early life Symington was born in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, to a family he described as ...

; and that Erasmus Darwin was thinking of Hulls when he prophesied that steam would soon "drag the slow barge".

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulls, Jonathan 1699 births 1758 deaths English inventors People from Cotswold District