JVotices of American Steam Boats. 317 



1829, had attained to a speed of eight to nine miles per hour ; but the 

 increase which, during the same period, was given to the speed and 

 size of the steam boats, tended to discourage this mode of convey- 

 ance, and it has since been discontinued, to the regret of those who 

 love quiet enjoyment, and whose nerves have not been inured to com- 

 posure by frequent proximity with the moving power. 



It has been frequently remarked that the exposure to fatal accidents 

 on board of steam boats, is much less than attends the use of the or- 

 dinary means of conveyance, either by land or water, and it has been 

 suggested, that the average loss of life by steam boat explosions, is 

 even less than is annually occasioned by lightning. In order to test 

 the accuracy of this suggestion, I have noted during the present year, 

 such accidents by lightning, as were attended with fatal results, so far 

 as the same have come to my knowledge. The whole number of ca- 

 ses thus ascertained is twenty six, which were distributed as follows. 

 In New Hampshire, 1 ; Massachusetts, 1 ; Rhode Island, 1 ; Connect- 

 icut, 2', New York, 7; Pennsylvania, 5; Delaware, 3; Virginia, 1; 

 South Carolina, 2; Louisiana, 2, and Illinois, 1. It is hardly to be 

 supposed that this statement comprises one moiety of the whole num- 

 ber of fatal casualties of this kind, which have occurred in the United 

 States during the past year, and it comprises but a single accident, in 

 the four great states of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee. In recurring to the list of steam boat accidents, which was re- 

 cently published in this Journal,* it will be seen that the entire mortal- 

 ity from this cause, is estimated at three hundred in a period of twenty 

 years, which amounts to an average of fifteen for each year. The loss 

 of lives by the bursting of steam boat boilers, during the present year, 

 I have recorded as follows: — Steam boat Post-boy, on the Mississip- 

 pi, 1 killed; Ohio, on the Hudson, 5 killed' and drowned; Adam 

 Duncan, on the Connecticut, 1 drowned; Connecticut, in Boston 

 harbor, 1 killed; Monticello, on the Mississippi, 2 killed. — Total, 10. 

 Of this last number, as far as I have been able to ascertain, three 

 were passengers, and the remainder persons who were employed about 

 the engine, showing that the risk to passengers is extremely small. 



What further improvements in safety, or speed, are yet to be elicit- 

 ed in the art or science of locomotion, time only can shew us. The 

 steam boat, a short time ago, appeared to our view, as the ne plus ultra 

 of human effort, but the successful application of steam power on rail- 



Vol. XX, pp. 336—338. 



