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his “ Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation.” Symington, 
instructed by the failure of the ratchet-work engine which he 
had made for Miller’s boat, fitted up the “ Charlotte Dundas” 
in 1801, with a double-acting horizontal cranked engine, and 
this made her what Mr. Woodcroft has justly called “ the 
first practical steamboat.” Her speed, when running alone, 
and not towing other boats, was six miles an hour. 
(4.) The use of this vessel was abandoned, not from any 
fault in her construction or working, but because the Direc- 
tors of the Forth and Clyde Canal feared that she would 
damage its banks. Yet the man in all Britain who 
possessed, at that time, the greatest practical experience of 
the working of canals — the Duke of Bridgewater — was not 
deterred by any such apprehension from ordering, in 1802, 
eight similar vessels, from Symington, to be used on his 
canal. 
(5.) The death of the Duke of Bridgewater, early in the 
following year, prevented the execution of that order. But. 
Symington had evidently done all thatTay in his power, and 
all that was necessary, to convert the steamboat from an 
awkward piece of experimental apparatus to a practically 
useful machine; and the honour paid to his memory ought 
not to be lessened because the career of his invention was 
cut short by a misfortune. 
(6.) There is nothing in this to detract from the honour 
which is justly paid to Fulton, as having been the first to 
practise Steam Navigation on a great scale, as a com- 
mercially profitable art. 
(7.) Another event passed over in the Paper to which I have 
referred, is the first introduction of commercial Steam Naviga- 
tion into Europe, which was effected on the river Clyde, in 
1812, by Henry Bell, as is proved by documents cited in 
Mr. Woodcroft’s work, already referred to. 
Dr. R. Angus Smith said that he had been using an 
