STEAM-17ATICIATI077. When once steam was known as a moving power, its ap plication to navigation was obvious enough: it was even to this purpose that the first attempt was made to apply it at all—that of Blasco de Garay—namely, in the harbor of Barcelona in 1543. Sec STEAM-ENGINE. The only surprising thing is, that 30 years should have elapsed—between 1777, when the steam-engine had become in Watt's hands an efficient power for other purposes, and 1807, the date of Fulton's first voyage —before a really serviceable steam-vessel was produced. The connecting link seems to be the use of revolving-paddles instead of oars. Wheel-boats propelled by oxen, horses, or men were known to the Romans, and were used for ferry-boats in modern times. Some experiments with this mode of propulsion made by Mr. Miller of Edinburgh, suggested to his friend Mr. Taylor the application of steam as the moving power, and led to the most decided step in the discovery of steam-navigation previous to the final success of Fulton.
As early as 1736 Jonathan Hulls had taken out a patent for a tow-boat to be pro pelled by a paddle-wheel set in motion by a sort of steam-engine. The project appears never to have been executed. Besides some experiments on the Seine by comte d'A nxiron. iu 1774, and Perier in 1775, the marquis de Jouffroy constructed a steamboat of con siderable size in 1789 which navigated the SaOne for some time; it was deficient, how ever, in power. In America experiments began to be made about 1783 by Fitch and Itumsey. Fitch launched a paddle steamboat in 1788 which moved at therate of 4 m. an hour; but before proceeding far the boiler burst. Rumsey proposed to propel the vessel by making a stream of water issue with force from the stern; his attempt failed.
The next important experiment was the one above alluded to, by Messrs. Miller and Taylor. It took place on a small lake on Mr. Miller's'estate of Dalswinton in Dumfries shire. A small engine having 4-in. cylinders of brass was prepared, under the superin tendence of Mr. Taylor, tutor in Mr. Miller's family, and Mr. Symington, an ingenious mechanic, and fitted on board a double boat, with a paddle-wheel in the interspace. The trial took place amid a concourse of hundreds on Oct. 14, 1788, and with perfect success. Next year Mr. Miller had larger engines fitted into a vessel, and tried on the Forth and Clyde canal, when the vessel moved at the rate of 7 m. an hour. Partly from caprice, partly from derangement of his affairs, Mr. Miller was diverted from pur suing the matter further. But in 1801 Mr. Symington took out a patent for the con struction of steamboats, and in 1803 built the Charlotte Dundas, to tow vessels on the Forth and Clyde canal. The success seems to have been complete, excepting in one respect, that the agitation of the water by the paddles was found to wash down the banks in an alarming manner. The use of the vessel was therefore given up, and it lay
at Lock Sixteen for many years.
In the meanwhile, attempts had been making at steam-navigation in America by Stevens. Livingston, and others. Robert Fulton, another American. had thought of steam as a motive-power for vessels as early as 1793. Traveling into Scotland he visited the unfortunate Charlotte Dundas,, and obtained drawings of the machinery. Return ing to America with one of Boulton and Watt's canines of 20 horse-power, he, in con junction with Livingston, built a vessel called the at New York, and in 1807 made the first realty successful voyage by steam from New York to Albany, up the Hudson. The vessel sailed 110 m, in 24 hours, against stream and wind. Fulton has thus indisputably the honor of having first proved the practical utility of steam-naviga tion. Yet nothing but perseverance seems to have been wanting to crown the experi ments of Miller, Taylor, and Symington with equal success. -Four years later, 1811, Henry Bell of Glasgow, who had witnessed the experiments on the canal in 1769, and had accompanied Fulton on his visit to the Charlotte Minders, started a steamboat, the Comet, on the Clyde, and was thus the father of steam-navigation in Britain.
In 1815 a steamboat made a passage from Glasgow to London, and in 1818 one plied from New York to New Orleans; it was not till 1820 that steam-packtts were established between Holyhead and Dublin. 1838 was a memorable year in the history of steam navigation. The steamer Sirius sailed from Cork on April 4, the (held Western from Bristol on the 8th of the same month; both arrived at New York on the 23d, the &lila being only twelve or fifteen hours before the other. The pass.-age is now often made from New York to England in eight or nine ays. Steam-vessels are now to be found on all seas and lakes and navigable streams. War-steamers have taken the place of the old ships of the line; and except for the transport of heavy goods to long distances, steam bids fair to supersede the use of sails. The maximum speed yet attained by steam vessels is 20 m. an hour; the ordinary rate 8 1,o -15 miles.
The steam-engine employed to propel a vessel does not differ essentially from any other; but some modifications are necessary to suit the special circumstances under which they work. In ships of war, the cylinders are generally placed horizontallv. and the whole machinery kept below the level of the water-line; in merchant vessels, vertical engines are more commonly used, with the cylinders inverted, placed right above the propeller-shaft. For paddle-wheels, oscillating engines were, on the whole, the most common. See STEAM-ENGINE; PADDLE-WIIEEL;