49 
that success must be conceded to Robert Fulton, by whom it 
was achieved. 
Whilst admitting the merits of other ingenious men long 
engaged in the same pursuit, it is clearly proved that, either 
from good fortune, or by the exercise of superior judgment 
and skill, the race Avas Avon by eight years’ priority of steam 
navigation, by Fulton, on the Hudson River. 
In 1793, Mr. Fulton sent his plan for a steamboat to 
Lord Stanhope, who approved of, and thanked him for the 
communication. Shortly after, Fulton went to Paris, and 
made experiments on the French waters, with the chain floats, 
the duck’s-foot paddles, the screAV or smoke-jack propellers, 
and Avith the paddle Avheels, to which latter he gave the 
preference, and constructed a boat Avith them in 1803, 
Avhich Avas the model adopted in building the Claremont in 
1806. 
Mr. Dyer had sailed in the Claremont , and remembers the 
sensation created by her appearance, and the high admiration 
bestOAved on the author of so great an enterprise. That 
sensation in 1807 was precisely the same as the Margery 
created among the vessels on the Thames in 1815. 
All attempts at steam navigation Avere fruitless before the 
invention of Mr. Watt’s steam-engine, his engine being the 
first that could be usefully" applied to rotative machines on 
land, and therefore for propelling ships. The principal 
claims put forth by other inventors of steamboats, are the 
following : — 
In France, the Marquis de Jauffroy constructed a steam- 
boat at Lyons, in 1782, “ with paddle Avheels,” but that this 
boat did not succeed is obvious, because she Avas not heard of 
until 1816, Avhen the first Fulton boat Avas started to run on 
the Seine. 
In 1783, Daniel Bernoulli proposed a plan Avhich consisted 
of forcing water through a tube, out at the stern of the boat. 
This scheme has been tried many times since, but fails on 
