184 REPORT—1857. 
The Spaniards assert that Blasco de Garay used a paddle-wheel steam-boat in .p. 
1543 f. 
The French account of the Marquis de Jouffroy as the inventor of steam-boats 
(in a.p. 1783) seems untrue§. 
Denis Papin first suggested a paddle-wheel steam-boat (4.p. 1690), then Savery in 
A.D. 1702, and Hulls in a.p. 1736. 
Miller (a.p. 1788), Symington and Taylor made the first practical steam-boat in 
Scotland. 
V. (Omitting notice of countless modifications of vanes and duck-feet propellers.) 
Screw propellers were used in China{], and proposed to be driven by steam, by 
D. Papin (4.p. 1690) and Bernouilli (a.p. 1752). 
VI. Submarine vessels. Alexander the Great used onej|. Wan Drebbel made one 
for King James L., and tried it in the Thames with twelve rowers. 
Borelli (a.p. 1683) proposed a submarine metal bag covering a man’s head and 
containing air to breathe. A piston moved in a cylinder (carried round his waist), 
and lowered or raised him in the water like the natatory organ of a fish. Borelli 
described also a submarine boat. Bags open to the water could be pressed or extended 
so as to raise or lower the vessel**. 
Williams (a.p. 1692) patented a plan by which men in a tube open to the air above, 
worked below water with their hands through water-tight sleeves, and similar means 
had been suggested by drawings in Vegetiust+. Diving-bell first noticed in Europe 
by Taisnier (a.p, 1500). 
VII. Steering apparatus and the compass. 
One oar was used in Babylonia, and two, three or more in Egypt, all on the same 
side of the stem. 
Several Egyptian paintings represent a steersman sitting between two oars moved 
by cords; but though two models in the British Museum (unique and well preserved) 
are furnished with this apparatus, it is difficult to see how it operated jf. 
Three rudders (one in the middle) were used in Siam $§. 
A ring or enclosed rowlock for hanging the rudder is depicted once on the Egyptian 
tombs (Lepsius, band 3, bl. 28). 
The rudder was first hung on pintles in a.p. 18289]. 
A rudder slung by a pole is sketched in an old Japanese dictionary |||, and was 
used 500 years ago by the Danes***. 
A tiller is shown in one Egyptian painting (Lepsius, band 2, bl. 101). 
Columbus used a vessel steered by oars at opposite ends (as whale-boats are at 
present). 
Rafts on the Rhine are steered by a bough of a tree. 
“ Starboard” means “styr bord,” the side on which hung the “ styr” or steer-oar, 
R. Valturius (a.p. 1472) says Pericles first used the oar to steer at the stern, 
The mariner’s compass was probably invented in China}+}. It is supposed to be 
alluded to by Chaucer, and was invented by Gioia of Amalphi, about a.p. 1300. The 
Arabs used eighteen points for the compass. 
Before the use of the loadstone, sailors sent out birds to find the position and dis- 
tance of the land. Three ravens for this purpose are mentioned in the voyage of Floeo, 
} Since the above paper was read, the writer has inspected the letters of Blasco de Garay, 
in the Royal Archives at Simancas in Spain. In these letters there is no mention of the use 
of steam in the experiments with vessels. After diligent public and private inquiries and 
search in the libraries and museum of Barcelona, it appears that no valid grounds can be 
assigned for the assertion that Blasco de Garay invented the steam-boat. 
The writer has also inspected a paper at the Patent Office in Paris, duly stamped and signed 
by notaries, which affirms that the Marquis de Jouffroy caused a vessel 130 feet long to 
move by a steam-engine on the Saone, in July, a.p. 1783. 
§ Discussed minutely in M. P., pp. 33, 34. 
SoM: Pp. 25. || M. P., p. 9. ** M. P., pp. 15, 16, 
Of Mek. pals. tt M. P., p. 8 (note.) 
§§ Montfaucon’s L’Antiquité, &c., vol. ii. p. 82 (quoting Crescentius). 
Q{ Steinitz’ ship, p. 122. 
\||| British Museum. *** M, P., p. 8 (note). 
ttt For authorities, see M. P., p. 4, note (a). } 
