John Swan was a native of Coldingham, Berwickshire.

He had removed to London, and entered the employment of Messrs.

Gordon, of Deptford.

Swan fitted up a boat with his propeller, and tried it on a sheet of water in the grounds of Charles Gordon, Esq., of Dulwich Hill.
"The velocity and steadiness of the motion," said Dr.Birkbeck in his letter, "so far exceeded that of the same model when impelled by paddle-wheels driven by the same spring, that I could not doubt its superiority; and the stillness of the water was such as to give the vessel the appearance of being moved by some magical power." Then comes another claimant--Mr.Robert Wilson, then of Dunbar (not far from Coldingham), but afterwards of the Bridgewater Foundry, Patricroft.

In his pamphlet, published a few years ago, he states that he had long considered the subject, and in 1827 he made a small model, fitted with "revolving skulls," which he tried on a sheet of water in the presence of the Hon.Capt.Anthony Maitland, son of the Earl of Lauderdale.