STEAM Papin proposed a kind of steam-boat, but made no attempt to construct one ; and after his time several plans for propelling boats by other means than oars or sails were proposed and tried. At length, in 1774, the Comte d'Auxiron, a French noble man of scientific attainments, constructed a steam-boat, and tried it on the Seine, near Paris. It appears that the engine had not sufficient power to move the wheels efficiently; an error which was also observable in con nivances brought forward shortly afterwards by Perier and others. The Marquis de Jouf froy tried a steam-boat of considerable dimen sions on the Saone, in 1782: it had a single paddle-wheel on each side, and the machinery appears to have been constructed with some skill, though it was not sufficiently strong. M. des Blanes in 1706 formed a boat which was propelled by means of paddles or float-boards attached to an endless chain stretched over two,wbeels projecting from each side of the vessel. In America an inventor named Fitch succeeded as early as 1783 in moving a boat on the Delaware by means of paddles (not I paddle-wheels) set in motion by a steam engine. In 1787 Buntsey made some short voyages on the Potomac, with a boat about fifty feet long, propelled by the reaction of a stream of water drawn in at the bow and forced out at the stern by means of a pump worked by a steam-engine.
While Fitch and Rumsey were making their experiments in America, other experiments were in progress in Scotland, which tended, more than any previous trials, to the useful application of steam to the purpose of pro pelling vessels. Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, Mr. James Taylor, and Mr. Symington, were the three persons who had most to do with this important improvement. A very small steam-boat was constructed-by them in 1788, and one constructed larger in 1789. In 1801 Symington commenced a satisfactory series of experiments on steam navigation, under the auspices of Lord Dundas. The object home diately aimed at was the introduction of tug boats instead of horses for drawing boats upon canals. After several minor trials, one of the boats built on this occasion by Symington drew, on the Forth and Clyde Canal, in 1802, two loaded vessels, each of seventy tons burden.
Among the numerous individuals who in spected Symington's vessel with interest was Fulton. After various minor attempts, Fulton ,
Procured, in conjunction with Mr. Livingstone, a patent in 'America for steam navigation, about the year 1805. He built a steam-vessel at New York, and launched it in the spring of 1807. It made its first voyage from New York to Albany, 145 miles, at the rate of five miles an hour. The dimensions of the boat, which was of 160 tons burden, were 133 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 7 feet deep. Her cylinder was two feet in diameter, and of four feet stroke; and the paddle-wheels were fifteen feet in diameter, with paddles four feet long, dipping two feet into the water. Meanwhile Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, near New York, intro duced steam-boats on the Delaware, and made such improvements in the form of the vessels as to enable him to obtain a speed of thirteen miles an hour. Steam navigation thus be came finally established in America.
Henry Bell, of Helensburgh, on the Clyde, was the individual by whom steam-vessels were first used in Britain for commercial purposes. He built a small steam-vessel called the Comet, of forty feet keel and ten and a half feet beam ; and of about twenty-five tons burden, and three-horse power. The boiler was Placed on one side of the vessel, and the funnel or chimney, was bent so as to rise in the centre of the vessel, where it served the purpose of a mast for carrying sail. A single'cylinder was used impelling a cranked axle which carried a large toothed wheel; and this wheel, working into two others fixed upon the axles of the paddles, caused them to re volve. Two paddle-wheels, or rather two sets of revolving paddles, each consisting of four paddles of a form resembling malt-shovels, were used on each side of the vessel. The Cometbegan to run regularly between Glasgow and Helensburgh, in January, 1812, and con tinued to ply successfully during the following summer ; her rate of motion was about five miles an hour. Improvements were soon found advisable, and Bell soon abandoned the peculiar arrangement of paddles by which his first experiment was distinguished, and adopted complete paddle-wheels. This in teresting little steamer is further noticed under CLYDE. From that time to the present nume rous experiments and an uninterrupted suc cession of improvements have brought steam navigation to its present high state of per fection.