09 



STEAM-VESSEL. 



STEAM-VESSEL. 



slo 



its applicability. In 1787 he published an account of his experiments, 

 in which he observed, after describing his paddle-wheels, " I have also 

 reason to believe that the power of the steam-engine may be applied to 

 work the wheels, so as to give them a quicker motion, and consequently 

 to increase that of the ship. In the course of this summer I intend to 

 make the experiment ; and the result, if favourable, shall be commu- 

 nicated to the public." This project formed the subject of much con- 

 versation at Dalswinton in the summer of 17S7, and was mentioned 

 by Taylor to his ultimate friend Symington, who was then engaged 

 as a mining-engineer at the Wanlockhead lead-mines, but had devoted 

 much attention to the improvement of the steam-engine, and had 

 recently constructed a model of a steam-carriage [STEAM-CARRIAGES], in 

 which he had provided simple means for converting the reciprocating 

 motion of the pistons into a rotatory motion. Thus, while Miller had 

 been preparing a proper vessel and propelling apparatus, and Taylor 

 had been recommending the agent required to work it, Symington had 

 been effecting those modifications in the structure of the engine which 

 were necessary to adapt it to the purpose required. There is some 

 reason, indeed, to believe that he had conceived the possibility of this 

 particular application of the steam-engine ; for, in a letter to Taylor, 

 dated August 20, 1787, apparently in answer to one just received from 

 him, Symington says, " I must make some remarks upon your summer's 

 inventions, which, if once made to perform what their author gives 

 them out for, will undoubtedly be one of the greatest wonders hitherto 

 presented to the world, besides its being of considerable emolument to 

 the projector. Great success to you, although orerturning my schemes." 

 In December of the same year the Dalswinton experimenters were in 

 Edinburgh, where they met Symington, and, at the house of his 

 patron, Gilbert Meason, Esq., saw his steam-carriage model. The 

 result of this meeting was, that Symington, in conjunction with 

 Miller and Taylor, constructed a small engine in the following summer ; 

 the castings being, by a curious coincidence, executed by a founder of 

 the name of Watt. In October, 1788, this engine was placed in a 

 email double pleasure-boat belonging to Mr. Miller, and was tried upon 

 DaUwinton lake. The engine was placed on one side, the boiler on the 

 other, and the paddle-wheel in the middle. With all the disadvantages 

 of a first experiment, and with cylinders of only four inches diameter, 

 the boat moved with a velocity of five miles an hour. After repeated 

 satisfactory trials, the engine was removed from the boat, and kept for 

 many years as a trophy in the library at Mr. Miller's. 



Had the experiments of Miller and his fellow-labourers stopped here, 

 it might have been conceived that their success was in some degree 

 attributable to accidental circumstances. The result of a second 

 experiment, in the following year, is sufficient to dispel any such idea. 

 In 1789 an engine of about twelve-horse power (or twelve times the 

 power of the first) was made by the same parties at the Can-on works. 

 Thin was mounted in the large double boat which had formerly run 

 against the Custom-house boat at Leith. Except in size, this machine 

 resembled the former model The engine was commenced in June, 

 ami near the end of the year the boat was tried on the Forth and 

 Clyde canal. Some difficulty was at first experienced from the weak- 

 ness of the fastenings by which the float-boards or paddles were secured 

 to the arms of the paddle-wheels ; several of them being broken off by 

 the severe strain to which the power of the engine subjected them. 

 When this matter was set right, the boat performed very successfully, 

 and attained a speed of nearly seven miles an hour, " being," observes 

 Mr. Russell, " about as great a velocity as it has been found possible to 

 obtain by steam-boats on canals, even at the present day." The vessel 

 having been built for a different purpose, and being much too slight 

 for permanent use as a steam-boat, or for taking out to sea, was, soon 

 after the trial, dismantled. Mr. Miller, having thoroughly proved the 

 practicability of the plan, and having expended a large fortune in his 

 enlightened pursuits for the public benefit, relinquished the experi- 

 ment, leaving its great results to be worked out by others. That he 

 should have done so need excite no surprise, when the difficulties 

 attending the introduction of any great improvement are considered. 

 Taylor was still less likely to tike any effective steps for carrying out 

 the grand design ; and Symington wag not in a situation to do so 

 immediately, although he was subsequently engaged in further experi 

 ments to that end. 



Satisfactory as was the result of these experiments, they did not 

 immediately lead to the introduction of steam navigation ; and several 

 other unsuccessful schemes were tried in this country and in North 

 America before it was effected. One of these, that of Rumsey, the 

 American, on the Thames, has been already mentioned. About this 

 time Dr. Cartwright contrived a steam-barge, and explained it to 

 Fulton. Some authorities state that it was shown to Fulton in 1793, 

 when he was studying painting under West ; but others date it a few 

 years later, stating that he was introduced to Dr. Cartwright during 

 bis journey to Paris in 1796. However this might be, it is evident 

 that Fulton's attention was directed to the subject about this time. 

 Colden, his biographer, states that he made drawings of an apparatus 

 for steam-navigation in 1793, and soon afterwards submitted them to 

 Lord Stanhope. In 1795, Earl Stanhope himself made experiments 

 with a xteam-vessel propelled by duck-feet paddles placed under the 

 quartern, like those recommended in 1759 by Genevois, a Swiss pastor. 

 Notwithstanding the ingenious folding of the paddles, in order to 

 diminish the resistance of the back-stroke, the apparatus required so 



much power that, with a powerful engine, he could not obtain a speed 

 greater than three miles an hour. 



In 1801 Symington commenced a satisfactory series of costly experi- 

 ments on steam-navigation, under the ausp'ices of Thomas, Lord 

 Jundas. The object immediately aimed at was the introduction of 

 tug-boats instead of horses for drawing boats upon canals. After 

 several min0- trials, one of the boats built on this occasion by Syming- 

 ton drew, on the Forth and Clyde canal, in 1802, two loaded vessels, 

 each of seventy tons burden. On this occasion, it travelled with its 

 oad a distance of nineteen miles and a half in six hours, although 

 here was so strong a wind ahead that no other vessels in the canal 

 could move to windward on that day. The tug-boat was a rather 

 short vessel, with a single paddle-wheel in the stern, impelled by a 

 lorizontal cylinder of twenty-two inches diameter and four feet stroke, 

 working, by means of a connecting-rod, a crank on the axle of the 

 wheel. The rudder was double, on account of the situation of the 

 paddle-wheel, and it was moved by means of a tiller-wheel in the fore- 

 ;>art of the vessel. A complete model of this boat may be seen al^the 

 Royal Institution of London. In this case, though the object aimed 

 it was fully attained, as far as the successful performance of the vessel 

 could go, the project was abandoned, in consequence of an idea that 

 the undulation of the water occasioned by the paddle-wheel would 

 prove injurious to the banks of the canal. The speed attained by this 

 steam-boat, when unimpeded by having any others to draw after it, 

 was about six miles an hour. 



While the experiments of Symington, under the patronage of Lord 

 Dundas, did not lead to the immediate adoption of steam- vessels for 

 commercial purposes, they probably tended, in no unimportant degree, 

 to their subsequent profitable establishment in America and in Great 

 Britain ; for among the numerous individuals who inspected his vessel 

 with interest were Fulton and Bell. It has been shown that projects 

 for steam-navigation had been early tried in North America. After 

 Fitch and Rumsey, the chancellor Livingstone attempted to build a 

 steam-boat on the Hudson, and in 17'J7 he applied to the legislature of 

 the State of New York for an exclusive privilege to navigate boats by 

 a steam-engine. Though his project excited much ridicule, the privi- 

 lege was granted in 1798, on condition that he should, within twelve 

 months, produce a steam-vessel which should attain a mean rate of at 

 least four miles an hour. This he failed to accomplish, although 

 assisted, it is said, by an Englishman named Nesbit, and by Brunei 

 (afterwards Sir Mark Isambard), and consequently his grant or patent 

 became void. Shortly afterwards, being at Paris as minister from the 

 United States. Livingstone conversed with Fulton on the subject of 

 steam-boats, and intimated his intention of resuming the experiments 

 on his return to America. Fulton then commenced, under his auspices, 

 the experiments which have already been alluded to as exciting the 

 jealousy of M. des Blancs. After several preliminary measures, Fulton 

 and Livingstone completed a boat of considerable size on the Seine, 

 near Paris, early in 1803 ; but, being too weak to bear the weight of 

 her machinery, she broke through the middle, in a gale of wind during 

 the night, and went to the bottom. To this discouraging accident Mr. 

 Russell attributes one of the excellences of American steam-boats,. 

 the strong and light framing by which, though slender, they are ena- 

 bled to bear the weight and strain of their large and powerful engines. 

 To remedy this evil, Fulton had to reconstruct his vessel almost en- 

 tirely, after her shattered hull was raised ; and in August of the same 

 year he had her in trying order. This vessel was b'6 feet long and 

 8 feet wide. The speed attained was much less than had been hoped 

 for ; but the result of the experiment was such as to induce the pro- 

 jectors to order an engine of Boulton and Watt, with a view to further 

 trial in America. As the boat into which it was fitted was the first 

 regularly established steam-packet, it will be noticed in the second part 

 of our history ; but before closing this narrative, allusion must be made 

 to the proceedings of Fulton between the time of these French experi- 

 ments and his successful enterprise on his return to America. During 

 this time he visited England [FULTON, ROBERT, BIOG. Div.] ; and while 

 here he introduced himself to Symington, from whom he asked for 

 particular information respecting what he had done in steam navigation. 

 This brief sketch of what may be termed the preliminary history of 

 steam navigation would be incomplete without referring to the ex- 

 periments of John Stevens, of Hoboken, near New York, who was 

 connected with some of the earliest attempts of Livingstone to introduce 

 steam navigation in North America. Stuart describes a small boat, 

 twenty-five feet long and five feet wide, impelled by a steam-engine 

 with a cylinder of four inches and a half diameter and nine inches 

 stroke, which he tried about New York in 1804. The boiler, which 

 was only two feet long, fifteen inches wide, and twelve inches high, 

 consisted of eighty-one tubes of an inch diameter. This little steam- 

 boat had a velocity of about four miles an hour, or, for short distances, 

 of seven or eight miles an hour. The subsequent vessels of Stevens 

 and his son will be hereafter noticed. About the same time (1804) 

 Oliver Evans, another early American improver of the steam-engine, 

 constructed his " Orukter Amphibolos," or machine for removing mud 

 from docks, with a steam-engine to work the buckets. It was a heavy 

 flat-bottomed boat, thirty feet long and twelve feet broad. Evans 

 constructed this machine at a distance of a mile and a half from the 

 river Schuylkill, and exhibited his long-cherished project of steam 

 locomotion on land by mounting it upon wheels, and connecting them 



