AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 401 



placed a wheel in the stern of the vessel, and propelled it on the Delaware 

 to its point of destination. 



One great improvement made by Evans, was in the form of his boiler, 

 he being the first to make it in the form of a cylinder. 



Up to this time steam navigation was in embryo, and we now come to 

 the dawn of that great invention which has advanced civilization far be- 

 yond the hopes of its then most sanguine friends, and which, considering 

 the immense rivers, bays, gulfs and lakes with which the United States are 

 surrounded, seems to have been reserved by a good Providence as a part of that 

 advancement which the Anglo Saxon was to achieve in carrying on the 

 work of civilization to the westward bounds of the earth, and to bring into 

 close proximity the distant nations of the globe, in trade, commerce, man- 

 ners and customs, as well as the advancement of the gospel. 



Livingston met Fulton at Paris, and the result of the interview was a 

 series of experiments as to the best mode of propulsion. After repeated 

 experiments the paddle wheel was found to possess the greatest ad- 

 vantage. Fulton simplified the engine of Watt, and contrary to those 

 who preceded him, made the relation of the force of the engine and velocity 

 of the wheels a!id the resistance of the water to the motion of the vessel, a 

 preliminary calculation. So exact were his calculations, that the speed of 

 his vessels were told while only the plan had been drawn. Fulton con- 

 structed his boat, called the Clermont, which was 133 feet long, 7 feet deep, 

 and 18 feet breadth. The cylinder of the engine (one made by Watt and 

 Bolton) was two feet in diameter and four feet stroke ; the wheels (side 

 paddles), fifteen feet in diameter and four feet face, dipping two feet in the 

 water. Vessel IGO tons burden. 



After several experimental trips, the Clermont, in 1807, was started as 

 a passenger boat to Albany. Her first passage was performed in thirty- 

 two hours, there being a head wind and adverse tide each way. The trip 

 was performed wholly by steam. Thus, by the talent, energy and perse- 

 verance of Fulton, the crude and previously abortive schemes of other in- 

 ventors were carried into practical and beneficial operation. 



It would be interesting to follow the progress of steamboats from that 

 time to the present, but I have only adduced the application of steam to 

 navigation to show what has been done up to Fulton's time, and more par- 

 ticularly in reference to the propulsion of small boats ; for of this class all 

 canal boats are necessarily rated. 



Steam on canals will be seen had been tried to some extent, and the side 

 wheel and stern wheel had been found impracticable. About 1838 the 

 screw was introduced. " The screw of Archimedes " was the designation 

 given to it, but it will be noticed that it differs essentially from the Archi- 

 medean screw, probably so called from the fact that it was first tried in a 

 yacht called the "Archimedes." The vessel built in 1839 had a screw 

 applied and placed in the dead wood under its counter, between the keel 

 and stern post. The screw consisted of a helix, making one revolution 

 [Am. Inst.] 26 



