304 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



fit whatever had arisen from the application of any one of 

 the trials to navigate by steam prior to the complete 

 success of the "Claremont" packet in the summer of 1807 

 on the Hudson River. 



' It is worthy of remark, that the sensations of astonish- 

 ment and alarm, among the spectators on shore and the 

 crews of the vessels, created by the " Claremont " in 1 807, 

 were exactly the same as those created by the " Margery " 

 among the vessels on the Thames in 1815, or eight years 

 afterwards ; this will be seen by Mr. Colden's description of 

 the " Claremont's " first voyage, and Mr. Anderson's account 

 of the first voyage of the " Margery," as before given. 



'Steam could not be successfully employed to give 

 rotatory motion to machinery by any of " the inventors 

 of steam-engines," before the great improvements brought 

 into use by James Watt. Considering that steam power 

 had not been made to supersede water-wheels and horses, 

 for giving rotatory motion to fixed machines on land, it 

 was certain to fail as applied to such motion for propel- 

 ling ships. It is needless, then, to notice any of the 

 several schemes that had been proposed, or tried, for steam 

 navigation, except those based on the use of Watt's steam- 

 engine ; and all inquiry concerning these are of interest 

 only as they unfold the approaches to success attained by 

 the several claimants, before the actual success of Robert 

 Fulton in 1807. It will suffice, then, shortly to mention 

 the several methods employed by the persons claiming to 

 have been the "inventors of steam navigation." 



' In France, the Marquis de Jouffroy claims to have 

 constructed a steamboat with paddle-wheels at Lyons in 

 1783, which, however, was not heard of until 1816 (thirty- 

 four years afterwards), when the first boat on Fulton's plan 



