MR. J. C. DYER ON STEAM NAVIGATION. 



295 



of their respective nationalities. I have therefore aimed 

 to explain fairly, and in due order of time, the several 

 attempts made to introduce steam navigation, which led to 

 success in the hands of Fulton in 1807. 



In looking back to the many inventions of steam- 

 engines that preceded the grand success of James Watt, 

 it will be seen that the nature of his discoveries, as ap- 

 plied to the steam-engine, was very analogous to that 

 of Fulton's as applied to steam navigation. The one was 

 the first to render the steam-engine of great practical 

 utility, the other was the first to render steam navigation 

 practically safe and useful. These simple facts exhibit 

 the puerile vanity of striving to erect national trophies 

 upon the unaided labours of eminent men. Inventions 

 and discoveries are made by individuals, not by nations; 

 let each inventor, then, have his name honoured in the 

 proportion that his labours have proved beneficial among 

 nations. Considering that inventions do not spring into 

 existence in perfection from their birth, like Pallas from 

 the brain of Jupiter, but come from the previous labours 

 of many brains, he is the real inventor who first gives 

 vitality to those labours. In this sense the " invention 

 of steam navigation '^ will for ever illustrate the mane of 

 Robert Fulton. 



Fulton's Steam -boat, the ' Claremont,' on tlie Hudson Eiver. 



