STEAM VESSELS. The paddle wheel was in use for the propulsion of ,a vessel long before the application of steam to navigation. In the war galleys of the ancient Egyptians Romans there were wheels operated by hand power through a windlass; and in one of the Punic wars the Romans transferred an army to Sicily upon vessels moved by wheels that were operated by oxen. Prince Rupert, after retiring from his military life, had a boat con structed on the Thames River, prior to 1680, that was propelled by paddle wheels, which were driven by horse power. It is thus clear that some form of paddle wheel for propulsion was made use of long before the steam-engine was in service. The Marquis of Worcester had experimented with the steam-engine from about 1655. He died in 1667 leaving a manu script in which he says: "By this I can make a vessel of as great burthen as the river can bear to go against the stream. . . . And this engine is applicable to any vessel or boat what soever, without therefore, being made on pur pose. . . . It roweth, it draweth, it driveth, to pass London Bridge, against the stream at low water.° Early The experiment nar rated many years ago of Blasco de Garay in 1543 at Barcelona moving a vessel by steam power has long since been looked upon with doubt. This was 100 years before the steam engine was put to any practical use even in its crude form. Denis Papin and Thomas Savery had proposed the application of steam to navigation about 1690. and the former is said to have applied it on a model at a later date. The name of Newcomen is also in timately associated with these earliest experi ments and he is doubtless to be credited with having built the steam-engines used. In 1736 Jonathan Hulls of England obtaihed a patent upon what would be termed a stern wheel boat for towing purposes. The engine for this boat was made by Newcomen, and the vessel was tested on the Avon but without enough success to attract needed capital, and no further efforts were made. Experiments were made in France from 1779 to 1783 b Genevois and Perrier, when the Marquis de ouffroy built on the river Saone a steamboat of 150 feet long by 15 feet wide, which continued running with more or less success for 16 months, but defects de veloped in the machinery so serious as to cause the project to be abandoned for lack of money. Touffroy proposed a company to build and operate steamboats, but failed to gain support. He has, however, been credited in history as the true inventor of the steamboat. Patrick Mil ler, a wealthy retired banker of Scotland, in 1788 had a double hull boat constructed 25 feet long and seven feet broad, and fitted with a steam-engine, under the supervision of William Symington. It succeeded so well that he built the next year a larger double hull boat, and a trial was made on the Forth and Clyde Canal in the summer of 1789, when seven miles an hour was made. The boat, the wheels and the engine were so ill proportioned to each other that the wheels were continually breaking, and the hull suffered so much from the strain imparted by the machinery as to be in danger of sinking. The trial was not considered to be a success, and the vessel was shortly after laid aside. It was now over 10 years before any further trials were made in Great Britain. It will be noted that John Fitch's experiments began in 1786, and Patrick Miller did not begin until some two years later. Symington had not lost faith in the project, and succeeded finally in interesting Lord Dundas, one of the pro prietors of the Forth and Clyde Canal, in steam propulsion for canals, and with his support in 1801 built the Charlotte Dundas, a stern wheel boat to tow the canal boats on the canal, instead of towing with horses. The vessel was 56 feet long, 18 feet beam and 8 feet in depth and was fitted with an engine of 22 inches cylinder by four feet stroke. The trial was made in. March 1802 with two boats in tow, and three and one-half miles per hour was made for a distance of nearly 20 miles. A great clamor arose as to the probable destruction of the banks of the canal from the violent agitation of the water produced by the paddle wheel, and the project was abandoned. A further effort by Symington, under the patronage of the Duke of Bridgewater, came to an end with the death of the duke and Symington, reduced to poverty, withdrew from further endeavor. It was now 10 years before another steam vessel was built in Great Britain, and in the meantime Livingston and Fulton had constructed four steamboats for the Hudson River, and the Raritan for the New Jersey line, and the New Orleans for the Western rivers; while John Stevens had built the Phcenis and sent her to sea from New York to Philadelphia, Pa. This vessel was built in 1812 at Glasgow by John Wood for Henry Bell, and was the first suc cessful steam vessel in Great Britain. The hull was 42 feet long by 11 feet beam and five feet six inches deep, and named Comet. By means of spur wheel gearing the power was transmitted to two pairs of paddles. As this arrangement proved to be unsatisfactory the vessel was fitted with a single pair of wheels, and the hull was lengthened to 60 feet, and the engine power increased. The speed of this ves
sel was originally five miles per hour. Robert son, the engineer of the Comet, succeeded in so improving her engines as to raise the speed to six miles per hour. His success led him into steamboat building on his own account, and in 1813 he started the Clyde, and in 1814, the Tay, Caledonia and Humber, all of which proved commercially profitable. The first iron hull steam vessel built in Great Britain was in 1822 named the Aaron Manby, built at the Horsley Iron Works near Birmingham. The vessel was 166 feet long and 16 feet beam, and fitted with a 30 horse-power engine operat ing *Oldham's Revolving Oars that enter and leave the water edgewise' First American Steam Vessels.— The pe riod when the first experiment with a steam vessel in the United States was made, so far as the mechanical side was concerned, was any thing but inviting to those interested. There was not in the United States at the time one steam-engine in use, and it is doubtful if the first principles of its working were understood. The American people were comparatively poor at this time, having but a few years prior to this date returned to the peaceful pursuits of life after the long and costly War of the Revolution. After a few years the ((steam mania° broke out, and the application of steam to navigation was under trial. To John Fitch of Connecticut must be given the credit for the first steamboat in the United States, imperfect as it was. He made his first trial on 22 Aug. 1787, but was not able to attain more than three miles an hour. This boat was propelled °by 12 oars or paddles five and a half feet, which work perpendicularly and are represented by the stroke of the paddle of a Then in 1789 another boat was built that was fitted with more power, that developed on trial a rate of speed of eight miles an hour. These experi ments were carried on by a company who fur nished the capital for the enterprise, and not meeting with the success anticipated after three years' labor, refused to advance any more funds for the further prosecution of the enter prise, thus leaving Fitch to carry on his trials on his own account. This he did for a short time only, as he was unable to procure the means for the necessary changes in the vessel, and it was this financial condition that finally forced him to abandon the whole business, and he went to France and England with his draw ings, but met with no better fortune. Upon his return in 1796 he made an experiment on the Collect Pond in New York in a common yawl boat, with both side wheels, and again with a propeller at the stern of the boat. Nothing seems to have come from these later experiments. Fitch has been described as hav ing been brought up from manhood as a watch maker, and being fond of mechanics through the prosecution of his trade, he was continually experimenting along different lines, and at last drifted into the application of steam to navi gation. He no doubt had a small knowledge of the steam-engine, but his peculiar disposition, ever urged on by his impulses, subjected him to many disappointments. There is no doubt he accomplished more in propelling his boats than some others have done at a later date. James Rumsay, a native of Maryland, and a strong competitor in the experimental stage of steam navigation with John Fitch, constructed in 1784 a boat that was propelled by cranks and a series of 'setting poles. ° This project was soon abandoned. In 1787 he constructed a boat about 50 feet long, that was propelled by ad mitting water through a trunk on the keelson of the vessel, and by means of 3 steam pump discharging it at the stern. This boat was never put to any practical use. Leaving the United States to his opponent, Rumsay sailed for London, where he built another vessel, but he died in 1793, following a successful exhibit of his craft. Another name connected with the earliest experiments with steamboats in America is that of Samuel Morey, who in 1790 ran a small boat with a paddle wheel at the bow on the Connecticut River, and in 1797 operated a side-wheel steamboat on the Delaware River. To Oliver Evans, an engine builder of Penn sylvania, must be given some credit for his trials in steam navigation. In 1802 he was called on to construct an engine of nine inches cylinder by 36 inches stroke, for a boat of 80 feet long and 18 feet beam built in Kentucky for Capt. James McKeever, United States navy, and Louis Valcourt, and New Or leans, La. Before the vessel was completed the river had fallen so much as to leave the vessel high and dry on shore. The engine and boiler were taken out and placed in a saw-mill, where they were in use until the mill was destroyed by fire. In 1804 he constructed for the city of Philadelphia a machine for dredging the slips of the city. The machinery was fitted in place on a large scow 30 feet long by 12 feet beam, and was driven by a stern wheel that was operated by a small steam-engine. • It was driven down the Schuylkill River to the Dela ware River, and up the latter river, in all some 14 or 15 miles.