44 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



An account of bis experiment is to be found in manuscript in the 

 correspondence between Leibnitz and Papin, preserved in tbe Royal 

 Library at Hanover. 



78. December 21, 1736, Jonathan Hulls took out an English patent 

 for the use of a steam-engine for ship-propulsion, proposing to employ 

 his steamboat in towing. 



In 1737 he published a well-written pamphlet 1 describing this ap- 

 paratus, an engraving of which is here shown in fac-simile. 



:i i^!Bft&BfiSitee5*^S3&2art$!^iielfe 



Fig. 45. Hulls's Steam Towboat, 1787. 



He proposed using the Newcomen engine, fitted with a counter- 

 poise weight, and a system of ropes and grooved wheels, which, by a 

 peculiar ratchet-like action, gave a continuous rotary motion. 



There is no positive evidence that Hulls ever put his scheme to 

 the test of experiment, although tradition does say that he made a 

 model, which he tried with such ill success as to prevent his further 

 prosecution of the experiment. Doggerel rhymes are still extant 

 which were, it is said, sung by his neighbors in derision of his folly, 

 as they considered it. 



79. William Henry, of Chester County, Pennsylvania, is said to 

 have constructed a model steamboat in 1763. It was a failure, al- 

 though not a discouraging one. 



80. In 1774 the Comte d'Auxiron, a French nobleman, and a gen- 

 tleman of some scientific attainments, constructed a steamboat, and 

 tried it on the Seine, with the aid of M. Perier. 



This experiment proving unsuccessful, M. Perier built another 

 boat, which lie tried independently in 1775, but was again unsuccess- 

 ful, owing principally to the small power of his engine. 



81. In 1778, and again in 1781 or 1 782, the French Marquis de 

 Jouffroy, who, in his later experiments, used quite a large vessel, 

 succeeded in obtaining such good results as to encourage him to per- 

 severe, but, political disturbances driving him from his country, his 

 labors terminated abruptly. 



1 " A Description and Draught of a Newly-invented Machine for carrying Vessels or 

 Ships out of or into any Harbor, Port, or River, against Wind and Tide, and in a Calm," 

 London, 1737. 



