288 MR. J. C. DYER ON STEAM NAVIGATION. 



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 ro- 

 tatory 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 j 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. I* ^^^ 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 Joufiroy claims to have 

 constructed a steam-boat with paddle-wheels at Lyons in 

 1782, which, however, was not heard of until 18 16 (thirty- 

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

 was started on the Seine ; and then the Marquis com- 

 plained loudly of Fulton's boat as being a piracy of his 

 invention. On this occasion. Monsieur Royou (in the 

 '^ Journal des Debats,' i6th March 18 16), in reply to the 

 Marquis, says, " It is not concerning an invention, but the 

 means of applying a power already known. Fulton never 

 pretended to be an inventor, in regard to steam-boats, in 

 any other sense. The application of steam to navigation 

 had been thought of by all artists ; but the means of execut- 

 ing it were wanting, and Fulton furnished them." 



