1819.] Description of Stevenson’s Dalswinton Steam-Boat. 281 
many experiments upon a lake in his grounds. The expei- 
ments by Mr. Miller on the Forth and Clyde canal, we have 
been informed, were either seen by, or communicated to, the late 
Mr, Fulton, engineer of America, who, it is believed, was a 
native, at least resided in this part of Scotland, but afterwards 
went to America, where he had the merit and the honour of 
introducing the steam-boat upon an extensive scale on the great 
rivers and lakes of that country ; so that we can trace this inven- 
tion most indisputably to a British origin. 
It is not a little remarkable in the history of the arts, and 
forms a striking instance of the slow and progressive steps by 
which they advance, that that most elegant and useful discovery, 
the steam-boat, first brought forward in 1736 by Jonathan Hulls, 
of London, and afterwards publicly investigated and tried by 
Lord Stanhope and Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, should have been 
carried to America, and there first have changed its character from 
mere experiment to extensive practice and utility, and that it 
should again have been introduced into Britain upon the expe- 
rience of Americans only so lately as the year 1813, when it was 
first employed upon the river Clyde, by Mr. Bell, of Helens- 
burgh, in Dumbartonshire, From this period, however, it has 
been extended to all parts of the united kingdom, and to several 
of the continental states ; and though a subject still in its infancy, 
it will, without doubt, be carried to much greater extent by the 
discoveries of the ingenious and the adventurous spirit of 
seamen. 
In the steam-boat as now principally used in Great-Britain, 
and very generally in America, the paddles, or wheels, are 
placed upon the outside of the gunwales of the vessel, which 
add much to her breadth, and render her extremely inconve- 
nient and liable to accident in harbours and rivers, especially 
when these happen to be crowded with shipping. From the 
circumstance of the extraordinary breadth of the steam-boat, she 
is not only much impeded, but she is found greatly to hamper 
the navigation of narrow fareways, containing a breadth, in some 
instances, of no less than 30 feet over all, and must accordingly 
be greatly exposed to accident in being frequently run foul of by 
other vessels. The following desiderata seem much to be 
wanted in the use of the steam-boat: in the first place, that the 
paddles, or wheels, should be better secured from accident in 
the ship, and also that she should, without risk, be enabled to 
sheer up or take a birth ina harbour alongside of another vessel 
without exposure to injury. 
The arrangement or position of the wheels is also an object 
of no small importance, and one which has been attended with 
much difficulty in obtaining the best effects of the power of the 
engine. A little reflection will be sufficient to show, that the 
present mode of having one engine and both wheels in one posi- 
tion of the ship must be extremely defective. After attending 
