The narrative must now return a few years, in order to notice the attempts making in North America to solve the problem of propelling vessels by mechanical power. Without noticing mere vague sugges tions of its possibility, of which some have been mentioned of earlier date, we find that two individuals named Fitch and Rumsey were early in the field as experimentalists. Stuart goes into their claims very minutely ; but it may be briefly stated that as early as 1783 Fitch had succeeded in moving a boat on the Delaware by means of paddles (not paddle-wheels) set in motion by a steam-engine ; and that in 1785 he presented a model and description of his apparatus to Congress. He was supported for some time by an association of wealthy persons, and was so sanguine as to the success of his project, as to send draw ings and descriptions of his machinery to Messrs. Boulton and Watt, in order that they might procure an English patent for it Nothing was accomplished by Fitch and his friends in England, and but little in America. It is worthy of notice that Fitch expressed his belief that the time would come when steam-power would be employed for crossing the Atlantic. Rumsey, the rival of Fitch, had exhibited a model of a contrivance for moving a boat, to General Washington, an early as 1784 • but Fitch alleged that it was merely an apparatus for enabling a boat to stem the current of rapid rivers, by means o1 wheels, cranks, and poles ; and that it had been tried some year before by another person on the Schuylkill, and had failed. In 1787 Ittimacy made some short voyages on the Potomac, with a boat aboul fifty feet long, propelled by the re-action of a stream of water drawn it at the bow and forced out at the stern by means of a pump worked h1 a steam-engine. This boat moved, it is said, at the rate of three or four miles an hour, when loaded with three tons, in addition to tla weight of her engine, which was about one-third of a ton. The boiler held only five gallons of water, and the whole machinery did not occupy more space than four barrels of flour. The fuel consumed was iron four to six bushels of coals in twelve hours. Ramsey afterwards pro aimed applying the power of a steam-engine to long poles, which were o-force the boat forward by reaching the bed of the river, when it had o move against a rapid current. Ituinsey, as well as Fitch, was backed iy a company ; and their respective friends did not confine their rivalry o America, for the adherents of Iturnsey addressed themselves to loultou and Watt in opposition to the statements of Fitch. After all heir conflicting pretensions, however, neither succeeded in the practical ntabliahment of steam navigation. Rumsey came to England after the allure of his projects in America, and commenced a steam-boat on the nue principle as that he had used on the Potomac, which was in ome respects like the much older plan (1730) of Dr. John Allen. He lied before the completion of this vessel ; but it was finished by the )ersons associated with him, and was brought to trial in February, 1793. Phis steam-boat performed several times on the Thames, against wind and tide, and attained a speed of four miles an hour. This method of pro rolling a boat was subsequently tried by Mr. William Linakor, ma‘ter Inipwright in Portsmouth dockyard, who obtained a patent for it in 1808. His experiments had, as appears by his papers, been emntneneed is early as 1793. Stuart states that a similar apparatus was tried on he Thames after Linaker's death, the engine used being on the prin. iple of that invented by Savery.
While Fitch and Itumsey were making their experiments in America, >ther experiments were in progress in Scotland, which tended, more ;Iran any previous trials, to the useful application of steam to the iurpose of propelling vessels. Of the highly interesting experiments nade in 1788 and 1789, under the auspices of Patrick Miller, Esq., Dalssviuton, in Dumfriesshire, many accounts aro extant, differing ndced very slightly from each other, yet tending, by the colouring ;iveu to minor details, to attribute different degrees of honour to the three individuals by whom they were carried out. It is not likely that this question will ever ho thoroughly set at rest ; for the degree 1n which each contributed to the success of the experiments will ever to estimated differently, according to the peculiar mode of judgment rdopted by the inquirer. Without desiring to throw any slight upon those who differ from him, rather in his deductions than in the facts upon which they are based, our narrative will be condensed from that of Mr. Russell, who has evidently taken much pains to produce a satis factory account of the whole course of proceedings.
After stating that it has been very usual to attribute the invention of steam navigation to Miller, and that two competitors have contested his claim, Mr. Russell observes, " We shall soon see that to no one of the three can the palm be awarded. The creation of the steam-ship appears to have been an achievement too gigantic for any single man.
It was produced by one of those happy combinations in which individuals are but tools working out each his part in a great system, of the whole of which no single one may have comprehended all the workings." The persons who have contested the title of inventors of steam navigation, or rather, they for whom the title has been contested by others, are Patrick Miller, James Taylor, and William Symington ; and, after a long and patient examination of their respective claims, and of the papers, published and unpublished, of the parties who advocate the cause of each, as well as of the personal testimony of such individuals as could throw light on the ease, our author gives it as his conclusion that the art of steam navigation was the joint invention of the three. It will be seen from the history given above, that if the
mere suggestion of applying a steam-engine to the propulsion of a vessel, or even the actual construction of a steam-boat, be considered sufficient to entitle a person to the name of inventor of steam naviga tion, that name belongs to some earlier projector, Mulls for instance, and not to any of the three individuals just mentioned ; and if, on the other hand, the honour be due to those who produced the first successful steam-boat, it cannot be applied with propriety to any individual, seeing that the superiority of the boats of 31iller, Taylor, and Symington was attributable to a happy union of talent and enterprise.
Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, had been engaged in attempts for the improvement of naval architecture, proposing to build ships of much greater length than usual, in proportion to their breadth, and, in order to enable such narrow vessels to bear sail, to unite two or even three boats or hulls, side by side, so as to form a double or triple boat. He had also experimented upon the application of paddle-wheels, turned by a power within the vessel, instead of, or rather as auxiliary to, the force of the wind. Russell observes, that he does not find that Miller anywhere claimed absolute property in the invention of paddle-u-heels, which, as has been already stated, had been often tried. Having thus prepared a form of vessel suitable for the purpose of steam navigation, and provided it with an apparatus for propelling it through the water, it only remained to apply the steam-engine itself. This, it appears, was done subsequently, in consequence of the suggestion of Mr. Taylor, who, in 1785, went to reside in Mr. Miller's family as tutor to his younger sons, and, in 1786 and 1787, frequently assisted in his experiments with paddle-wheel boats. In one of these, in the latter year, one of Miller's double boats, sixty feet long, propelled by two wheels, each of which was turned by two men, was matched against a Customhouse boat, which was reckoned a fast sailer ; and on this occasion the want of a sufficient moving power to turn the wheels was sensibly felt. Both Miller and Taylor perceived this ; but when the latter suggested the steam-engine, Mr. 31il1er, for a time, questioned its applicability. In 1787 he published an account of his experiments, in which he observed, after describing his paddle-wheels, " I have also reason to believe that the power of the steam-engine may be applied to work the wheels, so as to give them a quicker motion, and consequently to increase that of the ship. In the course of tbis summer I intend to make the experiment; and the result, if favourable, shall be commu nicated to the public." This project formed the subject of much con versation at DaLswinton in the summer of 17S7, and was mentioned by Taylor to his intimate friend Symington, who was then engaged as a mining-engineer at the Wanlockhead lead-mines, but had devoted much attention to the improvement of the steam-engine, and had recently constructed a model of a steam-carriage [STEAM-CARRIAGES], in which he had provided simple means for converting the reciprocating motion of the pistons into a rotatory motion. Thus, while Miller had been preparing a proper vessel and propelling apparatus, and Taylor had been recommending the agent required to work it, Symington had been effecting those modifications in the structure of the engine which were necessary to adapt it to the purpose required. There is some reason, indeed, to believe that he had conceived the possibility of this particular application of the steam-engine ; for, in a letter to Taylor, dated August 20, 1787, apparently in anawer to one just received from him, Symington says, " I must make some remarks upon your summer's inventions, which, if once made to perform what their author gives them out for, will undoubtedly be one of the greatest wonders hitherto presented to the world, besides its being of considerable emolument to the projector. Great success to you, although overturning any schemes." In December of the same year the Dalswinton experimenters were in Edinburgh, where they met Symington, and, at the house of his patron, Gilbert Meason, Esq., saw his steam-carriage model. The result of this meeting was, that Symington, in conjunction with Miller and Taylor, constructed a small engine in the following summer ; the castings being, by a curious coincidence, executed by a founder of the name of Watt. In October, 1788, this engine was placed in a small double pleasure-boat belonging to Mr. Miller, and was tried upon Dalswinton lake. The engine was placed on one side, the boiler on the other, and the paddle-wheel in the middle. With all the disadvantages of a first experiment, and with cylinders of only four inches diameter, the boat moved with a velocity of five miles an hour. After repeated satisfactory trials, the engine was removed from the boat, and kept for many years as a trophy in the library at Mr. Miller's.