of Steam-Navigation. 91 
a lapse of six months that his vessel was ready to be put in 
motion. In the course of the first week of December he direct- 
ed the vessel to be taken into the Forth and Clyde Canal ; and 
having gone abroad with a committee of the Carron Company* 
and a party of his friends, and in presence of a vast multitude 
of curious spectators, the machinery was put in motion, and 
this second trial promised to be every way as prosperous as 
that on the lake of Dalswinton. It happened, however, un- 
luckily, that the revolving paddles had not been made of suf- 
ficient strength ; and when the engine was brought into full 
action, several of the float-boards were carried away, and a very 
vexatious stop was, for that day, put to the voyage. No time, 
however, was lost in repairing this damage, and, on the 25th 
December, the steam-boat was again put in motion, and carried 
along the canal at the rate of nearly seven miles an hour, with- 
out any untoward accident, although it appeared evident that 
the weight of the engine was an overburthen for the vessel, 
and that, under such a strain, it would have been imprudent 
to venture to sea *. 
The experiment, however* was again repeated on the two 
following days ; and having thus satisfied himself of the prac- 
ticability of his scheme, he gave orders for unshipping the ap- 
paratus, and laying it up in the storehouses of the Carron 
Company, and directed Mr Taylor to call in the various ac- 
counts, and discharge the expences which the experiment had 
occasioned. 
It was, I believe, my father’s intention to have announced 
the result of the experiment in a regular publication, similar to 
that already noticed on the subject of double and triple vessels. 
In the mean time, the following brief notice made its appear- 
ance in the Edinburgh newspapers of February 1790. 
u Extract of a Letter from Falkirk . 
64 February 12 . 1790 . 
u It is with great pleasure I inform you, that the experi- 
ment which some time ago was made upon the Great Canal here, 
• Her planking being only three quarters of an inch thick, although her 
length was sixty feet. 
