811 



STI'AM-YESSEL. 



M VKSSKI.. 



811 



with the engine. After doing this to his satisfaction, he fitted a paddle- 

 wheel to the stem of the machine, and launched it on the river u a 

 (team-boat. 



It is nut pretended that the above account embrace* every project 

 brought forward, or even every public experiment made n^, 

 navigation 1 '<ut enough ha> been related to how that its 



possibility had long been contemplated, and tliat many person* had 

 expended much time and money upon the scheme before a 

 steam-vmsel was regularly used for the purposes of commerce. Upon 

 the subsequent history of steam navigation it U needless to treat at 

 length; but, before entering upon it, it may be well to state that 

 besides the claims to tin- invention which have been put forth on 

 Wlulf of Spain, France, England, Scotland, and North America, one 

 has been made also for an Italian, named Serapino Serrati, in a work 

 published at Florence in 17'."', in which it is stated that Watt was 

 tin- inventor of steam-engines in England in 1737, but that Serrati was 

 the first not only to conceive the design of a steam-boat, but also to 

 jilic* one upon the river Arno, which runs through Florence." Russell 

 observes that he had no means of testing the truth of this st.-i 

 but that, like the narrative of Qaray's performances, it may be either 

 true or untrue, without affecting the history of steam navigation ; since 

 it is evident that our present system of steam navigation has been in 

 no way derived from either of them. 



Kulton returned to America towards the latter end of ISOti, and 

 immediately commenced building a steam-boat for use upon the 

 M. This vessel was built at New York, and was launched in the 

 spring of 1807. The engines were mounted and ready for trial by 

 August in that year, engineers from Soho assisting in the work, and 

 when the vessel started, its success became immediately evident. S, >. .n 

 afterwards this vessel, which was named, from Livingstone's residence, 

 the Clermont, made her first voyage from New York to Albany, a 

 distance of about a hundred and forty-five miles ; which distance it 

 accomplished at the rate of about five miles an hour. 



Satisfactory as was the performance of the Clennout, she did not, 

 owing to the want of proper proportion in the wheels, attain so great a 

 speed as Fulton had anticipated. The dimensions of the boat, which 

 was of a hundred and sixty tons burden, were one hundred and thirty- 

 three feet long, eighteen feet wide, and seven feet deep. Her cylinder 

 was two feet in diameter, and four feet stroke ; and the paddle-wheels 

 were fifteen feet in diameter, with paddles four .feet long, dipping two 

 feet into the water. These dimensions probably refer to the improved 

 paddle-wheels used subsequent to the first trial, those originally used 

 being too large, so that they dipped too deep into the water. The 

 wheels were of cast iron, and had no support beyond the sides of the 

 vessel, and consequently some trouble was occasioned by their frequent 

 breakage in the earlier experiments. Until his death in 1815, Fulton 

 continued to be actively engaged in building steam-vessels, and at that 

 time he had just completed a large steam-frigate or floating battery, 

 supported by two hulls, with a canal fifteen feet wide between them, 

 in which the jKiddle-wheel worked. So highly were his services then 

 appreciated, that besides other testimonies of respect, the members 

 of both houses of the legislature wore mourning on occasion of his 

 death. 



Fulton had scarcely launched the Clennont before a rival appeared. 

 Stevens of Hoboken had a steam-vessel ready for trial in a few weeks 

 after the triumph of Fulton ; but, as the monopoly of steam navigation 

 in the state of New York was secured to Livingstone and Fulton, he 

 could not employ it upon the Hudson, and therefore took it round by 

 sea to the Delaware, thus becoming the first (unless the case of Uaray 

 be au exception) to venture to sea with a steam-vessel. To K. L. 

 Stevens, his son, American steam' navigation is deeply indebted. He, 

 according to Russell, improved the form of the American vessels, by 

 sutatituting a very long proportion, with a fine entrance and a fine run, 

 for the full round bows and stems of Fulton, whose boats were, he 

 Bays, mere boxes sharpened a little at both ends, which drove before 

 -> large a heap of water as to limit their speed to about nine 

 miles an hour. The improvements of Stevens enabled him to rise to 

 a velocity of thirteen miles au hour. He also adopted a different form 

 of engine from that of Fulton ; using cylinders of very long stroke, 

 with upright guides, instead of the old parallel motion, to ensure the 

 accurate motion of the piston, anil placing the working beam above 

 tin 1 deck, instead of altering the usual arrangement of the machinery 

 in order to keep it below the deck, as done in Fulton's engine* and in 

 ' oininonly used in British steam-vessels. 



The practical application of steam navigation in Scotland, though 



attributable to the experiments of Milli and Symington, at 



leant as distinctly as were the operations of Fulton upon the rivers of 



North America, did not take place till a few years later, and was in 



legree suggested by them. Henry Bell, of Helensburgli, on the 



Clyde, the individual by whom steam-vessels were first used in liiitnin 



mmereial purposes, had been well acquainted with the oxperi- 



mentt at DaUwinton and on the Forth and Clyde canal; but he did 



not take any ntcp for carrying into effect the important scl.< 



which they j,p.vcd the practicability, until the proceedings of 1 



combined with peculiar circumstances in his own case, urged him to 



Owing to some raisapprehen-ion, it was erroneously stated in 



the Filth ]:<-|xirt of the Select Committee on the Roads from London to 



H lyhead, in 1822, that Bell went over to America to assist Fulton in 



establishing steam-boats in that country. In the minute and interest- 



ing narrative of Russell, who, from residing in the neighbourhood, hail 

 peculiar facilities for obtaining correct information respecting the history 

 of steam navigation upon the Clyde, it i stated that liell was a : 

 carpenter in Glasgow for many years, and was rather fond of what are 

 called K-htmet. In the year 1808 he engaged in an undertaking some- 

 i this character, by becoming proprietor of an establiahment of 



of an hotel, or bath-hou- "urgh. a watering place 



<>n the Clyde, opposite to Greonock. To increase the ; 

 reaching thin place, and thereby to induce a larger influx of visitors 

 from Glasgow, Bell endeavoured to introduce passage-boats ]n->\. 1 

 by piddles impelled by manual labour; but his experiment* failed, 

 and at length he determined upon the construction of a steam-boat to 

 meet the difficulty. Thus his connection with au undertaking of very 

 dilt'erent character, combined with his correspondence with lAilton, led 

 him to take this important step. 



The Comet, built by Bell in 1811, was a vessel of forty feet keel, 

 and ten and a half feet beam; of about twenty-five ton.-. Imnli -n, 

 and three-horse power. This vessel began to run regularly between 

 Glasgow and igh, in January, 1812, and continued t<> ply 



successfully during the following summer; her rate of mot: 

 about five miles an hour. The second steam-boat established on the 

 Clyde, the Elizabeth, was commenced as early as March, 1812, and was 

 reatly for use about twelve months after. She was the property of 

 Mr. Hutchison, a brewer; but she was built under the direction of an 

 engineer named Thomson, who had been engaged in some of Hell's 

 first experiments. She was of longer proportion than the < 

 being fifty-eight feet long aloft, fifty-one feet keel, twelve feet ' 

 and live feet deep ; and her proportion of power to tonnage was much 

 better, her burden being about thirty -three tons, and her eiu 

 about ten-horse power. The Elizabeth performed the passage of twenty- 

 seven miles, between Glasgow and Greenock, twice a day; and, accord- 

 ing to her owner's account, made the voyage in something les.- than 

 four hours, with a hundred passengers on board, and, in favourable 

 circumstances, in two hours and three-quarters. She accomplished, it 

 would appear from the same statement, a distance of eighty-one milei 

 in one day, at an average rate of nine miles an hour. 



Stuart relates that while Bell was engaged in establishing his 

 steamers on the Clyde, a person named Dawson was making similar 

 experiments in Ireland; and that lie had, according to his own 

 account, built a steam-boat of fifty tons burden, worked by a high- 

 pressure steam-engine, as early as 1811 ; which, by one of those 

 singular coincidences frequently met with in the history of inventions, 

 he named the Cornet. In 1813, it is added, Dawson established a 

 steam-packet on the Thames, to ply between Gravesend and London, 

 " which was the first that did so for public accommodation, although 

 Mr. Lawrence of Bristol, who introduced a steam-boat on the Severn, 

 soon after the successful operations on the Clyde, had her carried to 

 London (through, the canals) to ply on the Thames ; but from the 

 opposition of the watermen to the innovation, he was in the end 

 obliged to take her to her first station." If this be correct, the 

 (iravcsend steam-packet alluded to must have been overlooked by tho 

 author of a pamphlet published in 1831, entitled ' Au Account of the 

 Origin of Steam-boats in Spain, Great Britain, and America; and of 

 their Introduction and Employment upon the river Thames, b< > 

 London and Gravesend, to the present time;' by H. I 1 . Cmden, of 

 Milton by Gravesend, who repeats the statement in his ' Hisi 

 Gravesend,' (8vo, 1843,) p. 484. He states that the first steam-boat 

 which plied between London and Gravesend was the Margery, of seventy 

 tons burden, and fourteen-horse power; a vessel originally used on the 

 Clyde, where she was built in 1813, by Messrs. Wood of Port-Ob 

 the builders of the Comet and the Eli/abeth. She was, it is stated, 

 brought to London from Leith early in 18J5, and on tin- 'I'inl of 

 January in that year she began to ply between London and (Jrave>end. 

 This vessel was, in the following year, removed to l-Vanee. for use upon 

 the Seine ; and that tried on the Thames by 1 > : ling to 



Stuart, seut to Spain, to ply between Seville and San Lucar. Cruden 

 states that the Richmond packet had been employed between London 

 and Richmond in the year preceding the use of the Margery on the 

 Gravesend station. 



Ani'.ng the enterprising individuals by whose exertions steam-boats 

 were established upon the Thames, the name of George Dodd il< 

 a prominent place, although his history is a melancholy instance of 

 the poverty which often attends the mo.-t ingenious invent. M-A. He 

 was, it would appear, the first to under! .age by 



sea in a steam-vessel. The Inxit with which this voyage waw . 



1 was built on the Clyde by Me-.srs. \\'OM,|. ,ni.l \v.i., launched in 



' 1813, under the name of the Glasgow; but was subsequently altered, 



and called the Thann .-. She was of seventy-four or soventy-li'. 



! burden, and about fourteen or sixteen horse-power, with paddle-wheels 



nine feet in diameter. Dodd brought her round to the Thames by 



steam and sails, experiencing some very rough weather on the way, 



especially in the Irish Sta. A detailed account of the voyage was 



published in the 'Journal des Mines' for September, 1815, and 



uently at the end of Dodd's work on strain -boats. It is 



! needless to follow minutely the extension of steam navigation in the 



| British dominions and elsewhere subsequent to the success of Bell and 



I his immediate followers. Bell himself said, " I will venture to affirm 



