1 90 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VERY. 



that Mr. Bell "invented" the steam-propelling system, "for he 

 knew nothing of the principles which had been so successfully 

 followed out by Mr. Fulton." 



The construction of the Comet wzis begun in 181 1, and the 

 boat was so named in consequence of the appearance of a 

 large comet that year. Mr. Bell was his own engineer, and in 

 January, 181 2, the first trial took place on the Clyde. 



The little vessel was forty feet long on the keel, and ten 

 feet six inches beam, propelled by a steam-engine of three or 

 four horse-power, with a vertical cylinder, and working on the 

 bell-crank principle — the engine being placed on one side of 

 the vessel, and the boiler, of wrought-ircn, on the other. She 

 had two small paddle-wheels on each side, each wheel having 

 four boards only. 



For some time the Comet plied regularly between Glasgow 

 and Greenock, at a speed of about five miles an hour. She 

 was afterwards transferred to the Forth, where she ran for many 

 years between the extremity of the Forth and Clyde Canal and 

 Newhaven, near Edinburgh. The distance is 27 miles, and is 

 stated by Mr. Bell to have been performed, on the average, in 

 3I hours, being at the rate of above 7^ miles an hour. 



Mr. Bell's experiments did not realise to himself those 

 pecuniary advantages which were due to his enterprise. From 

 the city of Glasgow he received in his latter years a small 

 annuity, in acknowledgment of his services to commerce and 

 civilisation. He died at Helensburgh, on the Clyde, in 1830. 

 A. monument was erected to his memory near Bowling. 



SIR DAVID BREWSTER. 



In the whole history of science there is not, perhaps, any dis' 

 covery of ancient or of modern date that promised so rich a 



