On the means of safety in Steam Boats. 3 



of a new thing depends very much on its being carried properly into 

 effect. To suggest and then leave an improvement to itself, would 

 perhaps in most cases, be productive of little benefit to the public. 

 To induce this care to give perfection to inventions, was a part of the 

 good policy of those who framed the constitution ; and though not a few 

 have been futile, still, immense benefits have already resulted from 

 the encouragement held out in the exclusive privilege or property in 

 very useful inventions. The arts were, at the period alluded to, like 

 the nation itself, in their infancy. The nature and cheapness of the 

 privilege might well have been expected to produce some crude con- 

 ceptions ; and some old things new vamped ; but as education advanc- 

 ed, the principles of mechanics were better inculcated ; and the hap- 

 piest efforts have been those which supply some great deficiency or 

 want arising from new exigencies in the progress of affairs. 



Thus, for example, your venerable Yale sent forth the cultivated 

 genius of Whitney, opportunely to aid the agricultural enterprise of 

 all the south. At the moment the great staple indigo was rivalled by 

 that of the Indies, cotton was introduced ; but in vain, till his inge- 

 nuity, produced the gin, and he became the benefactor of half „the 

 Union. 



But it was not till 1819 that the protection of patentees became 

 effectual. In that year Mr. Webster and Judge Hopkinson rendered 

 the interests of literature and the arts a valuable service, in obtaining 

 the passage of a law giving the circuit court chancery powers and 

 original jurisdiction in all cases of this nature ; thus by injunction 

 against trespassers, placing the burden of proof on them, no longer 

 therefore supported in aggression by its profits. 



Thus effectually placed under the protection of the power that 

 granted the privilege, there is no discouragement to the talents even 

 of the best informed, the most likely to know what has already been 

 done and what is yet wanted in the art, such may propose to improve. 

 The most scientific American would be proud, I should think, to ren- 

 der his country a service as valuable as Watt rendered to his ; or 

 like Sir Humphry Davy, would rejoice to shed light — especially the 

 light of safety, on the path of humble industry, or peaceful travel, 

 and free it from the most appalling of the dangers that walk in dark- 

 ness and waste at noon day. If a more effectual safeguard than that 

 I describe should be by some more skilful mechanician produced, I 

 shall rejoice in it. Until then it is submitted to the public with no 

 other recommendation than its simplicity and intention. 



