" Amongst these are enumerated false decks, such as in
a moment should kill and take prisoners as many as should board
the ship, without blowing her up, and in a quarter of an hour's
time should recover their former shape without discovering the
secret; a portable fortification, able to contain five hundred
men, which in the space of six hours might be set up, and made
cannon-proof; a dexterous tinder-box which served as a pistol,
and was yet capable of lighting a fire or candle at any hour of
the night without giving its possessor the trouble of stretching
his hand from bed; a lock, the ways of opening which might be
varied ten millions of times, but which on a stranger touching it
would cause an alarm that could not be stopped, and would
register what moneys had been taken from its keeping; a boat
which would work against wind and tide; with various other
discoveries to the number of one hundred, all arrived at from
mathematical studies.
The means of propelling a boat against such disadvantages, to
which the Marquis of Worcester alludes, was in all probability by
steam-power. This he described as "an admirable and most
forcible way to drive up water by fire," the secret of which he
is believed to have first discovered. [Before the century was
concluded, Captain Savery contrived a steam-engine which was
certainly the first put to practical uses. It has been stated
that he owed the knowledge of this invention to hints conveyed in
Lord Worcester's little volume.
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