544 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



Thus protected, the Clermont ran throughout the season, 

 always well laden with passengers. In the winter she was 

 enlarged and improved. The wheel-guards were strengthened, 

 and became a prominent and essential feature of the boat. 

 The rudder was replaced by one of much larger dimensions, 

 and a steering-wheel towards the bow was substituted for the 

 ordinary tiller. The accommodations for passengers were made 

 much more comfortable, — luxurious even, — and the public taste 

 was consulted in the application of numerous coats of rather 

 gaudy paint. She then commenced her trips for the season 

 of 1808. She started regularly at the appointed hour, — at first 

 much to the discontent of travellers who had before been waited 

 for by both sloops and stages. At the end of the season the 

 Clermont was altogether too small for the crowds who thronged 

 to take passage. Two boats, the Car of Neptune and the 

 Paragon, were therefore soon added to the line. 



Fulton, menaced by constant contestation of his rights, took 

 out a patent in 1809 from the General Government, and another, 

 for improvements, in 1811. His system was so simple — the 

 adaptation of paddle-wheels to the axle of the crank of Watt's 

 engine — that it seemed then, as it has proved since, almost im- 

 possible by any specifications effectually to protect it. The famous 

 Pendulum Company caused Fulton for a time much trouble. 

 They built a boat the wheels of which were to be moved by a 

 pendulum. While she was upon the stocks and the wheels 

 were resisted only by the air, the labor of a few men made 

 them turn regularly and rapidly ; but when she was launched, 

 and the pendulum encountered the resistance of the water, 

 neither pendulum, wheels, nor boat would stir. The Pendulum 

 Company were aghast at this phenomenon, and clearly saw that 

 if the boat was to be moved by the wheels, and the wheels by 

 the pendulum, something must be devised of sufficient power to 

 move the pendulum. There was nothing, evidently, but the 

 steam-engine ; and so they copied Fulton's. Lawsuits followed ; 



