(Excerpt from A Disquisition on Creation, Annihilation, th...)
Excerpt from A Disquisition on Creation, Annihilation, the Future Existence, and Final Happiness of All Sentient Beings The following disquisition was commenced with the sole view of proving the immortality of the soul; but was imperceptibly extended, without regard to any particular arrangement, to oth er subjects, more or less connected with the principal design of the writer. If the premises laid down be true, and the conse quences, though met, be legitimately drawn, no injury can re sult to society from their promulgation should they be false, or should illogical conclusions have been drawn from true premis es, it is the sincere wish of the writer that the fallacy may be clearly and distinctly pointed out by some more able and dis criminating mind than he possesses, especially as the detection of: error, and the subversion of every false system, either in morals, metaphysics, philosophy, or theology, shorten the road to truth, which is powerful and will finally prevail. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Nathan Read was the son of Reuben and Tamsin (Meacham) Read and was born on July 2, 1759 on the Read estate established by his grandfather at Warren, Worcester County, Massachussets. He was of English ancestry, the first of the family in America having settled near Boston, Massachussets, about 1632. He lived at home with his parents until he was fifteen years old.
He spent three years in a preparatory school and entered Harvard in 1777. At Harvard, Read studied medicine and graduated in 1781.
With the intention of entering the ministry, he specialized in Hebrew and became such an apt scholar that, although an undergraduate, he was engaged as instructor of the class during the interval between the death of the professor and the appointment of his successor. Following his graduation in 1781 he taught school for two years in Beverly and Salem, Massachussets, and was then elected a tutor at Harvard.
Here he remained for more than four years but resigned early in 1787 to study medicine in Salem, Massachussets After eighteen months, however, he quit his studies and opened an apothecary shop in Salem. About this time, too, he became interested in the application of the steam engine to land and water transportation, and with constantly increasing zeal applied himself, through study and experimentation for a number of years, to the problem particularly of steam navigation. He first designed a new, light, steam boiler - a multitubular boiler having seventy-eight vertical tubes. He then devised an improved double-acting steam engine, and finally evolved a form of paddle wheel, the design being based upon his experiments with a manually operated paddle-wheel propelled boat which he constructed in 1789.
Early in 1790, after demonstrating his steam navigation plans before a special committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Salem, he personally presented a petition to Congress in New York for a patent on his inventions on Feburary 8, 1790. This included not only the above plans for a steamboat but also for a steam road carriage as well. Several months later Congress passed the "Act to Promote the Progress of the Useful Arts, " and Read's petition in due time came before the commissioners appointed to carry out that act. Meanwhile, however, Read learned that the use of paddle wheels was not original with him as he had supposed, so he presented a new petition to Congress on January 1, 1791, in which he described a chain wheel method of propulsion in lieu of the paddle-wheel method. He also eliminated his plans for a steam road carriage simply because Congress had so ridiculed the idea when his original petition was presented.
Seven months later, on August 26, 1791, he was granted letters patent for his three inventions, a portable multitubular boiler, an improved double-acting steam engine, and a chain wheel method of propelling boats. For a time Read made a number of unsuccessful attempts to secure financial aid to build a full-size steamboat and then turned his attention to other matters. In 1795 he settled on a farm in Danvers, Massachussets, and the following year organized the Salem Iron Factory and for eleven years engaged in the manufacture of iron cables, anchors and other iron materials for ships. During this time he perfected and patented on January 8, 1798, a nail cutting and heading machine.
In 1807 he moved to a larger farm in Belfast, Maine, and there lived for the remainder of his life, giving most of his attention to farming but occasionally indulging in invention. Beside his several businesses and his inventive work he was appointed to Congress for Essex County, Massachussets, in October 1800, to fill an unexpired term, and the following month was elected a member of the succeeding Congress for two years. In 1802 he was appointed a special justice of the court of common pleas for Essex County and after his removal to Belfast he presided as chief justice of the court in Hancock County, Maine, for many successive years.
He died in his ninetieth year in Belfast, Maine.
(Excerpt from A Disquisition on Creation, Annihilation, th...)
Read was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1791, and an honorary member of the Linnaean Society of New England from 1815.
He was married on October 20, 1790, to Elizabeth Jeffrey of Salem, Massachussets.
