realize the vast improvements that have been made in 

 this direction of recent years, and it may be interesting to 

 compare the easy and rapid means of communication 

 eujoyed at the present time with those of a comparatively 

 few years ago. 



Some interesting articles have lately appeared in one 

 of the American magazines on the subject of the invention 

 of the steamboat, and the honour of having constructed 

 the first steamboat of any commercial value is claimed for 

 Robert Fulton, an energetic American, who in 1807 built 

 and successfully navigated a steamboat on the Hudson 

 River. So far as I can ascertain from the records at my 

 disposal, a Mr. Miller, as far back as 1788, made some 

 successful experiments in Scotland with a twin boat fitted 

 with a small engine made by William Symington and pro- 

 pelled by a paddle wheel placed in the space between the 

 twin boats; with tliis a speed of three miles an hour was 

 obtained. Some few years later Mr. Symington constructed 

 a steamer for the purpose of towing bargee on the Forth 

 and Clyde Canal. This vessel, which was named the 

 "Charlotte Dundas," had a small engine with one horizontal 

 cylinder twenty-two inches in diameter and four feet stroke, 

 with connecting rod and crank which worked a single 

 paddle wheel placed in a well-hole at the stern of the 

 vessel. The vessel proved a success, but as the proprietors 

 of the canal objected to the use of the paddle wheel, the 

 wash of which they alleged would injure the banks, she 

 was abandoned in 1802. For some years previous to this 

 numerous attempts had been made in England, Scotland, 

 America and France to utilize steam as a motive power 

 for boats. Among the many experimenters were Messrs. 

 Robert Fulton and Robert Livingstone, who commenced 

 their experiments with a steamboat on the Seine in 1802, 

 but the weight of the engine broke the vessel in two and 



