THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



of general belief that when this principle was applied 

 to boats it would fail. The reason for this lay in the 

 fact that several such boats had been built from time 

 to time, and all had failed. The fault, of course, lay in 

 some other place than in their paddle wheels; but for 

 the time being the wheel, and not the machinery, was 

 shouldered with the blame. 



Just a hundred years before Fulton finally produced 

 his practical paddle-wheel steamboat, a prototype was 

 built by the Spaniard, Blasco de Gary. In 1707, this 

 inventor constructed a model paddle-wheel steamboat, 

 and tried it upon the river Fulda. But this model boat 

 failed to work, and the experiment was soon forgotten. 



Twenty-five years later Jonathan Hulls of England 

 patented a marine engine which he proposed to use in 

 a boat which was to be propelled by a stem wheel. 

 His idea was to use his boats as tug- or tow-boats, and 

 to equip the larger vessels themselves with steam. But 

 his engines were defective and his boats did not achieve 

 commercial success. 



During the time of the American Revolution, a 

 French inventor, the Marquis de Jouffroy, made 

 several interesting experiments with steam-propelled 

 boats, using the principle of the paddle which was 

 dipped and raised alternately as referred to a few pages 

 back. His boats made several public trials, one of 

 them ascending the Seine against the current; but 

 nevertheless, the French government refused to grant 

 the inventor a patent. Presumably, therefore, the boat 

 was not considered a practical success in official circles; 

 and this view is tacitly conceded by the fact that no 



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