2i 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



Lyons and the He Barbe. This steamer was 150 feet 

 long by 14^ feet in diameter, with a draught of 

 rather over 3 feet of water, and a speed of two leagues 

 an hour. 



1801. The first locomotive high-pressure engines 

 made by Messrs. Trewithiet and Vivian, Englishmen. 



1807. Fulton applies steam navigation to the great 

 American rivers. 



n. 



Papin must be considered the first inventor of the 

 steam-engine and of the idea of applying it to naviga- 

 tion. But his first attempt could not be practically 

 tested owing to the destruction of his machine by the 

 populace before the experiment took place, and the 

 glory of having executed the first steamer which ever 

 navigated a stream belongs to Claude de Jouffroy. 

 This young nobleman of the Franche-Comte belonged 

 to a class which, especially in his neighbourhood, set 

 but scant store by scientific studies. "With a few excep- 

 tions, the country nobility had a horror of any kind of 

 trade. The scientific tastes of Claude de Jouffroy, the 

 singular aptitude with which nature had endowed 

 him, were a source of annoyance to him at home. He 

 was laughed at in the drawing-rooms of his neigh- 

 bours and nicknamed " Jouffroy the Pump." Even 

 at Court, where the report of his experiments had 

 preceded him, people pointed him out to one another, 

 and said: "Do you know this young man of the 



