CHAP, viii.] STEAM NAVIGATION. 447 



double boat. Oil the steam being put in action it propelled the vessel 

 along Dalswintoii Lake at the rate of five miles an hour. 



The Abbe Damal in France (1781), the Americans Eumsay and 

 Fish (1786-1788), Lord Stanhope (1795), Baldwin (1796), Livingstone 

 (1798), Desblancs, Smington, Stevins, Oliver Evans, all made attempts 

 to navigate by steam attempts which continued to increase both in 

 Europe and America, until the time of Fulton, the American, who at 

 last obtained complete success. 



In 1802 and 1803, Fulton studied in France the practical 

 conditions of the problem to be solved, and he was seconded in his 

 endeavours by his compatriot Livingstone, at that time United States 

 Ambassador. A boat constructed on the Seine gave a velocity of 

 1 - 60 metres per second. 



Fulton made propositions to the French government which were 

 not accepted, and their rejection decided him to return to America. 

 He had constructed and sent to him by Bolton and Watt a steam- 

 engine which when placed on the ship Clermont, in August, 1807, 

 furnished at last the definite and practical solution of the problem of 

 steam navigation. The voyage from New York to Albany, a distance 

 of 180 miles was at first accomplished in thirty-two hours, then in 

 thirty hours, and a regular service was not long in being established 

 between the two towns. Steam navigation had passed from the 

 state of outline to that of an accomplished fact from the period 

 of attempts and experiments to that of success and triumph. 

 Seventy years have passed since then. 



In August 1812, the steam passage boat Comet, built on the 

 Clyde by J. Wood for Mr. Henry Bell, at Port Glasgow, in 1811, 

 the first steam vessel ever built in Europe, began to run between 

 Glasgow, Greenock, and Helensburgh, with passengers only. She 

 was advertised to leave the Broomielaw on Tuesdays, Thursdays, 

 and Saturdays, at an hour suitable to the tide, and to return from 

 Greenock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The fares were 

 4s. for the best cabin, and 3s. for the second, and no gratuities to 

 the vessel's servants were allowed. The boat was driven by a con- 

 densing steam-engine of four horse-power. She had at first two sets 

 of paddle-wheels on each side of the vessel. Her greatest speed 

 was five miles per hour. Her dimensions were as follows : Length 

 42ft., breadth lift., depth 5ft. 6ins. 



