Had the experiments of Miller and his fellow-labourers stopped here, it might have been conceived that their success was in some degree attributable to accidental circumstances. The result of a second experiment, in the following year, is sufficient to dispel any such idea. In 1789 an engine of about twelve-horse power (or twelve times the power of the first) was made by the same parties at the Carron works. This was mounted in the large double boat which had formerly run against the Custom-house boat at Leith. Except in size, this machine resembled the former model. The engine was commenced in June, and near the end of the year the boat was tried on the Forth and Clyde canal. Some difficulty was at first experienced from the weak ness of the fastenings by which the float-boards or paddles were seemed to the arms of the paddle-wheels; several of them being broken off by the severe strain to which the power of the engine subjected them. When this matter was set right, the boat performed very successfully, and attained a speed of nearly seven miles an hour, " being," observes Mr. Russell, "about as great a velocity as it has been found possible to obtain by steam-boats on canals, even at the present day." The vessel having been built for a different purpose, and being much too slight for permanent use as a steam-boat, or for taking out to sea, was, soon after the trial, dismantled. Mr. Miller, having thoroughly proved the practicability of the plan, and having expended a large fortune in his enlightened pursuits for the public benefit, relinquished the experi ment, leaving its great results to be worked out by others. That he should have done so need excite no surprise, when the difficulties attending the introduction of any great improvement are considered. Taylor was still less likely to take any effective steps for carrying out the grand design ; and Symington was not in a situation to do so immediately, although he was subsequently engaged in further experi ments to that end.
Satisfactory as was the result of these experiments, they did not immediately lead to the introduction of steam navigation ; and several other unsuccessful schemes were tried in this country and in North America before it was effected. One of these, that of Rumsey, the American, on the Thames, has been already mentioned. About this time Dr. Cartwright contrived a steam-barge, and explained it to Fulton. Some authorities state that it was shown to Fulton in 1793, when he was studying painting under West ; but others date it a few years Later, stating that he was introduced to Dr. Cartwright during his journey to Paris in 1796. However this might be, it is evident that Fulton's attention was directed to the subject about this time. Colden, his biographer, states that be made drawings of an apparatus for steam-navigation in 1793, and soon afterwards submitted them to Lord Stanhope. In 1795, Earl Stanhope himself made experiments with a steam-vessel propelled by duck-feet paddles placed under the quarters, like those recommended in 1759 by Genevois, a Swiss pastor. Notwithstanding the ingenious folding of the paddles, in order to diminish the resistance of the back-stroke, the apparatus required so much power that, with a powerful engine, he could not obtain a speed Treater than three miles an hour.
In 1801 Symington commenced a satisfactory series of costly experi ments on steam-navigation, under the auspices of Thomas, Lord Dundas. The object immediately aimed at was the introduction of tug-boats instead of horses for drawing boats upon canals. After several minas- trials, one of the boats built on this occasion by Syminrs ton drew, on the Forth and Clyde canal, in 1802, two loaded vessel's, aach of seventy tons burden. On this occasion, it travelled with its load a distance of nineteen miles and a half in six hours, although there was so strong a wind ahead that no other vessels in the canal oeuld move to windward on that day. The tug-boat was a rather
short vessel, with a single paddle-wheel in the stern, impelled by a horizontal cylinder of twenty-two inches diameter and four feet stroke, working, by means of a connecting-rod, a crank on the axle of tho wheeL The rudder was double, on account of the situation of the paddle-wheel, and it was moved by means of a tiller-wheel in the fore part of the vessel. A complete model of this boat may be seen at,,the Royal Institution of London. In this case, though the object aimed at was fully attained, as far as the successful performance of the vessel could go, the project was abandoned, in consequence of an idea that the undulation of the water occasioned by the paddle-wheel would prove injurious to the banks of the canal. The speed attained by this steam-boat, when unimpeded by having any others to draw after it, was about six miles an hour.
While the experiments of Symington, under the patronage of Lord Dundas, did not lead to the immediate adoption of steam-vessels for commercial purposes, they probably tended, in no unimportant degree, to their subsequent profitable establishment in America and in Great Britain ; for amona." the numerous individuals who inspected his vessel with interest were Fulton and Bell. It has been shown that projects for steam-navigation had been early tried in North America. After Fitch and Rumsey, the chancellor Livingstone attempted to build a steam-boat on the Hudson, and in 1797 he applied to the legislature of the State of New York for an exclusive privilege to navigate boats by a steam-engine. Though his project excited much ridicule, the privi lege was granted in 1798, on condition that he should, within twelve months, produce a steam-vessel which should attain a mean rate of at least four miles an hour. This he failed to accomplish, although assisted, it is said, by an Englishman named Nesbit, and by Brunel (afterwards Sir Mark Isambard), and consequently his grant or patent became void. Shortly afterwards, being at Paris as minister from the United States. Livingstone conversed with Fulton on the subject of steam-boats, and intimated his intention of resuming the experiments on his return to America. Fulton then commenced,under his auspices, the experiments which have already been alluded to as exciting the jealousy of 31. des Blanes. After several preliminary measures, Fulton and Livingstone completed a boat of considerable size on the Seine, near Paris, early in 1803 ; but, being too weak to bear the weight of her machinery, she broke through the middle, iu a gale of wind during the night, and went to the bottom. To this discouraging accident Mr. Russell attributes one of the excellences of American steam-boats, the strong and light framing by which, though slender, they are ena bled to bear the weight and strain of their large and powerful engines. To remedy this evil, Fulton had to reconstruct his vessel almost en tirely, after her shattered hull was raised; and in August of the same year he had her in trying order. This vessel was 66 feet long and 8 feet wide. The speed attained was much less than had been hoped for ; but the result of the experiment was such as to induce the pro jectors to order an engine of Boulton and Watt, with a view to further trial in America. As the boat into which it was fitted was the first regularly established steam-packet, it will be noticed in the second part of our history ; but before closing this narrative, allusion must be made to the proceedings of Fulton between the time of these French experi ments and his successful enterprise on his return to America. During this time be visited England [FULTON, ROBERT, 13mo. Div.]; and while here he introduced himself to Symington, from whom he asked for particular information respecting what he had done in steam navigation.