Chapter II

Early Experiments in Steam-Navigation

Even before the time of Watt, the possibility of the application of the motive power of steam to the impulsion of vessels had been, by many inventors, believed to be unquestionable; and a number of attempts to so apply it had been made. But so rude were the machines of those earlier times, and so impossible was it to secure good construction of even the simplest mechanism, that no permanent success had been achieved by any one of these enthusiastic schemers. As early as the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon, one of the founders of the modern system of experimental philosophy, wrote, " I will now mention some wonderful works of art and nature in which there is nothing of magic, and which magic could not perform. Instruments may be made by which the largest ships, with only one man guiding them, will be carried with greater velocity, than if they were full of sailors."

As soon as the steam-engine took practically available form, it was proposed to use it for this purpose; and Papin, in 1680, suggested the use of his piston engine in this direction. He actually constructed in 1707, on the river Fulda, at Cassell, pumping-engine to raise water; which water in turn was applied to a water-wheel, and drove thus a set of paddle-wheels on the same shaft. The contrivance, crude as it was, was found capable of doing its work and the boat might have been the pioneer in a commercially successful use of steam for navigation, had it not been promptly destroyed by the ignorant and superstitious boatmen of the neighbourhood, who thought it the work of the Evil one. Papin, disappointed and discouraged, fled to England, and there, becoming well known as a fellow of the Royal Society, resided until his death, in poverty, about 1712.

A little later, 1736, Jonathan Hulls, of whom nothing seems to be otherwise known, patented a steamboat, of which he gave a very imperfect description, but which he is said to have constructed and successfully tried, and an account of which he published in pamphlet form in 1737. Its frontispiece is a rude illustration of the proposed boat, and also gives some slight idea of the nature of the details of his machinery, which seems to have included some modification of the Newcomen engine. This has been reproduced in facsimile in later works. Bernouilli, in 1752, proposed the use of a screw as a propelling instrument. I,'Abbe Gauthier, according to Figure 2 about the same time suggested the use of the steam-engine in navigation, driving paddle-wheels, that it should be used for operating the raising the anchor, and ventilating the vessel, and that the fire should, at the same time, be used for cooking. He designed to use the Newcomen engine.

Many other inventors were now studying the problem in different parts of the civilized world. Among these, none were as ingenious or as persistent or as successful as those of the then British colonies, later the United States of America. Among these was a group of New York and Pennsylvania mechanics, who, seemingly each more or less familiar with the work of the others, struggled on persistently, and finally successfully. A nucleus consisting of one of these men and his friends and coadjutors, be-. came, ere long, the germ of the great movement which in the early part of the nineteenth century resulted in the final application of the powers of steam to the propulsion of steam-vessels, - first on the rivers of the United States and the harbours of Great Britain, then on all the oceans. The originator of this sudden movement in the United States seems to have been a man unknown to fame, and one of whom few records are preserved. Our own information, hitherto unpublished, comes from an indistinctly traced source; but its facts have been fairly well verified by independent historical investigation.

William Henry was born in Chester County, Penn., in the year 1729. His father, John Henry, with his parents, and two brothers, Robert and James, emigrated to this country from the north of Ireland in or about the year 1719 or 1720. The father of James, Robert, and John was a native of Scotland, but for a short time previous to his coming to this country had resided in one of the northern counties of Ireland. Upon the arrival of the family in Pennsylvania they settled in Chester County, where, as before stated, the subject of our sketch was born. At an early age he became a resident of Lancaster, Penn., where he learned the business of gunsmith: After serving his apprenticeship he began business on his own account, and in a few years became the principal gunsmith in the province. During the Indian wars which desolated Pennsylvania from 1755 to 1760, he was appointed principal armourer of the troops then called into service, which position procured for him the honour of having his name given to a fort in Berks County constructed by the Proprietary Government, on the then frontier settlements, under the immediate supervision of Benjamin Franklin, to whom Mr. Henry was well known, and who appreciated his services in that eventful period.

In the year 1760 Mr. Henry went to England on business connected with his vocation, and there he remained for some time. Having a mechanical turn of mind, the inventions and the applications of steam by Watt being then much discussed, the idea of its application to the propelling of boats, vehicles, etc., so engrossed his mind that on his return to his home in Lancaster he began the construction of a machine, the motive power of which was steam. In 1763 Mr. Henry completed the machine, which was attached to a boat with paddles, and with it he experimented on the Canastoga River, near Lancaster; but the boat was by some accident sunk.

This was the first attempt that ever had been made to apply steam to the propelling of boats. Notwithstanding the ill luck that attended the first attempt in an undertaking of the practicability of which he had not the least doubt, he constructed a second model, with improvements on the first; and among the records of the Pennsylvania Philosophical Society is to be found a design, presented by him in 1782, of a machine, the motive power of which was steam. An intelligent German traveller named Shoepff, who travelled through the United States in 1783-1784, whilst staying for a time at Lancaster, became acquainted with Mr. Henry. He says: "I was shown a machine by Mr. Henry, intended for the propelling of boats, etc., 'but,' said Mr. Henry, 'I am doubtful whether such a machine would find favour with the public, as every one considers it impracticable to make a boat move against wind and tide;' but that such a boat will come into use, and navigate on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi he had not the least doubt, though the time had not yet arrived of its being appreciated and applied." A sketch of the machine, with the boilers, etc., made by Mr. Henry in I 779, is said to be still in the possession of his heirs.

John Fitch (for whom his biographer claimed the honour of the invention of the application of steam to the propulsion of boats) was a frequent visitor at Mr. Henry's house, and according to the belief of his friends obtained from him the idea of the steamboat. Fulton, then a young lad, also visited Mr. Henry's to examine the paintings of Benjamin West; and the germ that subsequently ripened into the construction of the "Folly" was possibly due to those visits. Mr. Henry's decease occurred on the 15th of December, 1786.

William Henry, though unsuccessful with the experiments with his first boat on the Canastoga River, thus very probably originated the idea of the steam-boat at least five years before Fulton was born. The following extract may throw some light on the subject:

"Dec. 2nd, 1785. At a special meeting of the Philosophical Society, John Fitch was personally presented to the members. Desirous of having the opinion of men of weight at that period, he consulted several, among whom was Mr. Henry, of Lancaster, 'who informed me,' says Fitch, 'that he was the first person who had thought of applying steam to vessels; that he had conversed with Mr. Paine, author of "Common Sense," and some time after, Mr. Henry, thinking more seriously of the matter; was of the opinion that it might be perfected, and accordingly made some drafts, which he laid before the Philosophical Society' "

Fitch evidently made the first successful experiment in the propelling of boats by steam; but William Henry has probably the honour of originating the idea, and building the first steamboat ever built in the United States. Fitch improved on Mr. Henry's model, and Fulton improved on both.

Thus a group of alert, intelligent, enterprising men, in this little town, far back among the then wilds of Pennsylvania, were all interested in the solution of a new problem. Of all these men, two - Fitch and Fulton have since been known as the most successful among the inventors who took part in the introduction of steam navigation in the United States. At the same time the great mechanics of the country were preparing themselves to take their part in the work, and in 1775 the first steam-cylinder for a stationary steam-engine was cast in New York City, by the firm of Sharpe & Curtenius; while the application of the steam-engine to navigation was attempted in a rude way, since often tried and as often failing, by James Rumsey.

Rumsey's experiments began in 1774, and in 1786 he succeeded in driving a boat at the rate of four miles an hour against the current of the Potomac at Shepherdstown, Va., in presence of General Washington. His method of propulsion has often been reinvented since, and its adoption urged with that enthusiasm and persistence which is a peculiar characteristic of inventors.

Rumsey employed his engine to drive a great pump, which forced a stream of water aft, thus propelling the boat forward, as proposed earlier by Bernouilli.

Rumsey died of apoplexy while explaining some of his schemes before a London society a short time later, December 23, 1793, at the age of fifty years. A boat then in process of construction from his plans was afterward tried on the Thames, in 1793, and steamed at the rate of four miles an hour. The State of Kentucky in 1839 presented his son with a gold medal, commemorative of his father's services "in giving to the world the benefit of the steamboat." The first President of the United States certified his familiarity with this device, thus:

I have seen the model of Mr. Rumsey's boat, constructed to work against the stream; examined the powers upon which it acts; been eye-witness to an actual experiment in running waters of some rapidity; and give it as my opinion (although I had little faith before) that he has discovered the art of working boats by mechanism and small manual assistance against rapid currents; that the discovery is of vast importance; may be of greatest usefulness in our inland navigation; and, if it succeeds, of which I have no doubt, the value of it is greatly enhanced by the simplicity of the work, which, when explained, may be executed by the most common mechanic.

Given under my hand and seal, in the town of Bath, county of Berkeley, in the State of Virginia, this 7th day of Sept., 1784.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

John Fitch was an ingenious Connecticut mechanic. In April, 1785, as Fitch himself states, at Neshamony, Bucks County, Pa., he conceived the idea that a carriage might be driven by steam. After considering the subject a few days, his attention was led to the plan of using steam to propel vessels, and from that time to the day of his death he was a persistent advocate of the introduction of the steamboat. At this time, Fitch says, "I did not know that there was a steam-engine on the earth;" and he was somewhat disappointed when his friend, the Rev. Mr. Irwin, of Neshamony, showed him a sketch of one in "Martin's Philosophy."

Fitch's first model was at once built, and was soon after tried on a small stream near Davisville. The machinery was made of brass, and the boat was impelled by paddle-wheels. His own account of his invention is as follows:

Philadelphia, December 8, 1786

To the Editor of the Columbian Magazine.

Sir, - The reason of my so long deferring to give you a description of the steam-boat has been in some measure owing to the complication of the works, and an apprehension that a number of drafts would be necessary in order to show the powers of the machine as clearly as you would wish. But as I have not been able to hand you herewith such drafts, I can only give you the general principles. It is in several parts similar to the late improved steam-engines in Europe, though there are some alterations. Our cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal force at each end. The mode by which we obtain what I take the liberty of terming a vacuum is, we believe, entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any friction. It is expected that the engine, which is a twelve-inch cylinder, will move with a clear force of eleven or twelve hundred weight after the frictions are deducted; this force is to act against a wheel of eighteen inches diameter. The piston is to move about three feet, and each vibration of the piston gives the axis about forty evolutions. Each evolution of the axis moves twelve oars or paddles, five and a half feet, which work perpendicularly, and are represented by the stroke of the paddle of a canoe. As six of the paddles are raised from the water six more are entered, and the two sets of paddles make their strokes about eleven feet in each evolution. The cranks of the axis act upon the paddles about one-third of their length from the lever-end, on which part of the oar the whole force of the axis is applied. Our engine is placed in the boat, about one-third from the stern, and both the action and the re-action turn the wheel the same way.

With the most perfect respect, sir, I beg leave to subscribe myself,

Your very humble servant, JOHN FITCH.

Another of Fitch's boats, in April, 1790, made seven miles an hour. Fitch, writing of this boat, says that "on the 16th of April we got our work completed, and tried our boat again; and, although the wind blew very fresh at the east, we reigned lord high admirals of the Delaware, and no boat on the river could hold way with us." In June of that year it was placed as a passenger-boat on a line from Philadelphia to Burlington, Bristol, Bordentown, and Trenton, occasionally leaving that route to take excursions to Wilmington and Chester. During this period, the boat probably ran between two thousand and three thousand miles, and with no serious accident. During the winter of 1790-1791, Fitch commenced another steamboat, the "Perseverance," and gave considerable time to the prosecution of his claim for a patent from the United States. The boat was never completed, although he received his patent, after a long and spirited contest with other claimants, on the 26th of August, r 791, and Fitch lost all hope of success. He went to France in 1793, hoping to obtain the privilege of building steam-vessels there, but was again disappointed, and worked his passage home in the following year,' and later brought out a new boat in New York City driven by a screw-propeller. It seems to have been customary to secure a witness in those days as in our own, and we have the following:

This may certify that the subscriber has frequently seen Mr. Fitch's (John Fitch} steamboat, which with great labour and perseverance he has at length completed; and has likewise been on board when the boat was worked, against both wind and tide with considerable velocity, by the force of steam only. Mr. Fitch's merits in constructing a good steam-engine, and applying it to so useful a purpose, will no doubt meet with the encouragement he so richly deserves from the generosity of his countrymen, especially those who wish to promote every improvement of the useful arts in America.

(Signed) David Rittenhouse

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 12, 1787.

Fitch finally retired to a farm, which he pre-empted from the public lands, in Kentucky and there died in 1798, and was buried with a model of his steamboat beside him.

Mr. Wm. A. Mowry thus states another historical fact: "After Watt had invented the steam-engine, Captain Samuel Morey, of Orford, N. H., was fully persuaded that the power of steam could be applied to propelling boats by the means of paddle-wheels. He therefore set himself to the task of inventing a boat to be thus propelled by steam. This he accomplished. He made the boat, built the steam-engine, put in the necessary machinery, and with a single companion, if not entirely alone, made his first trial-trip with complete success, running from Orford, on the Connecticut River, to Fairlee, Vt., and returning to Orford. This was as early as 1793, probably in 1792, although one writer says 1790, - at least fourteen years before Fulton's trial-trip in the 'Clermont' up the Hudson, and nine years before his first trial-boat was constructed in France."

Another interesting illustration of the frequently observed fact that a common thought often either simultaneously comes to the minds of many men, or passes, like the electric current, from one to another, when circumstances and a favourable route of communication permit, is seen in the entrance upon the scene at about this time of John Stevens, of New Jersey. It is said that, driving along the bank of the Delaware, he suddenly came in sight of the little steamboat of Fitch, which that inventor was just then running between Bordentown and Philadelphia, and at once determined that he could and would accomplish that, as yet, only partially completed task. Retained home, he at once set about the construction of engine and boat; and after several years of intermittent labor brought, in 1804 and 1805, two forms of engine and boilers, and two boats, in which he adopted the screw as the propelling instrument, employed high-pressure steam-engines, and attained a speed which has been variously reported as from four to eight miles an hour. He invented the "sectional" or "safety" boiler, and when Watt was still using steam at a pressure not exceeding seven pounds per square inch, he regularly operated his engines at fifty and upward. The machinery of his first boat is still preserved in excellent condition by his heirs. Later, 1807-1809, he built larger and faster boats, and adopted in their construction the common paddle-wheel and appropriately constructed engines.

Meantime the work was going on slowly but steadily on the other side the Atlantic, in the home and birthplace of the 5steam-engine. After the time of Hulls we meet with no authentic accounts of such inventions or experiments until about the time that Fitch began his work, when, in 1786 or 1787, Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, built a boat in which he used manual power to turn paddle-wheels. A young student, tutor to his sons, then suggested the use of steam-power, and soon after published an account of his scheme (1787) asserting that he "had reason to believe" that the steam engine might thus be made useful. Miller, Taylor, and a young mechanic, William Symmington, the inventor of a new form of steam-engine, finally entered into an arrangement resulting in the construction, in 1788, of a boat only twenty-five feet long, of seven feet beam, and of rude form, which was reported to make five miles an hour.

From what follows, this would seem to have been a vessel with a divided or "catamaran" form of hull :

DUMFERLINE, 6th of June, 1789.

GENTLEMEN, - The bearer, Mr. William Symington, is employed by me to erect a steam-engine for a double vessel, which he proposes to have made at Carron. I have therefore to beg that you will order the engine to be made according to his directions. As it is of importance that the experiment should be made soon, I beg also that you will assist him, by your orders to the proper workmen, in having it done expeditiously. I am, ever, with great regard, gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant,

PATRICK MILLAR.

To the CARRON COMPANY, Carron.

In the following year, a larger and still more successful vessel was built, and a speed of seven miles an hour was attained. Nothing came of this success, however, and the partnership was dissolved. Later, Symmington went to Lord Dundas, who supplied him with capital, and in I 8o I began the construction of the "Charlotte Dundas," - a paddle-steamer driven by horizontal engines, and sufficiently powerful to serve as a towboat on the canals, and having a speed, running free, of five to seven miles an hour.

In France, also, the application of steam to navigation was experimentally attempted at a still earlier date. In 1770, according to Figuier, the Comte d'Auxiron and his friend, the Chevalier Mounin, supported the inventor, the Marquis de Jouffroy, in his attempt to build a steam-vessel. According to our author,'-

"D'Auxiron determined to attempt the realization of the plans which he had conceived. He resigned his position in the army, prepared his plans and drawings, and presented them to M. Bertin, the Prime Minister, in the year 1771 or 1772. The Minister was favourably impressed, and the King (May 22, 1772) granted D'Auxiron a monopoly of the use of steam in river-navigation for fifteen years, provided he should prove his plans practicable, and they should be so adjudged by the Academy.

"A company had been formed the day previous, consisting of D'Auxiron, Jouffroy, Comte de Dijon, the Marquis d'Yonne, and Follenai, which advanced the requisite funds. The first vessel was commenced in December, 1772. When nearly completed, in September, 1774, the boat sprung a leak, and one night foundered at the wharf.

"After some angry discussion, during which D'Auxiron was rudely, and probably unjustly, accused of bad faith, the company declined to advance the money needed to recover and complete the vessel. They were, however, compelled by the court to finish it; but meantime D'Auxiron died of apoplexy, the matter dropped, and the company dissolved. The cost of the experiment had been something more than fifteen thousand francs.

"The heirs of D'Auxiron turned the papers of the deceased inventor over to Jouffroy, and the King transferred to him the monopoly held by the former. Follenai retained all his interest in the project, and the two friends soon enlisted a powerful adherent and patron, the Marquis Ducrest, a well-known soldier, courtier, and member of the Academy, who took an active part in the prosecution of the scheme. M. Jacques Perier, the then distinguished mechanic, was consulted, and prepared plans, which were adopted in place - of those of Jouffroy. The boat was built by Perier, and a trial took place in '774, on the Seine. The result was unsatisfactory. The little craft could hardly stem the sluggish current of the river, and the failure caused the immediate abandonment of the scheme by Perier.

"Still undiscouraged, Jouffroy retired to his country home at Baume-les-Dames, on the river Doubs. There he carried on his experiments, getting his work done as best he could, with the rude tools and insufficient apparatus of a village blacksmith. A Watt engine and a chain carrying "duck-foot" paddles were his propelling apparatus. The boat, which was about forty feet long and six wide, was started in June, 1776. The duck's-foot system of paddles proved unsatisfactory, and Jouffroy gave it up, and renewed his experiments with a new arrangement. He placed on the paddle-wheel shaft a ratchet-wheel, and on the piston-rod of his engine, which was placed horizontally in the boat, a double rack, into the upper and the lower parts of which the ratchet-wheel geared. Thus the wheels turned in the same direction, whichever way the piston was moving. The new engine was built at Lyons, in 1780, by Messrs. Freres-Jean. The new boat was about one hundred and fifty feet long and sixteen wide; the wheels were fourteen feet in diameter, their floats six feet long, and the "dip," or depth to which they reached, was about two feet. The boat drew three feet of water, and had a total weight of about one hundred and fifty tons.

"At a public trial of the vessel at Lyons, July 15, 1783, the little steamer was so successful as to justify the publication of the fact by a report and a proclamation. The fact that the experiment was not made at Paris was made an excuse on the part of the Academy for withholding its indorsement, and on the part of the Government for declining to confirm to Jouffroy the guaranteed monopoly. Impoverished and discouraged, Jouffroy gave up all hope of prosecuting his plans successfully, and re-entered the army. Thus France lost an honour which was already within her grasp, as she had already lost that of the introduction of the steam-engine in the time of Papin."

During the whole of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, invention was thus rife all over the then civilized world; and by the end of that century success was in sight of a dozen inventors on either side the Atlantic. The attention of statesmen like Stevens, Livingston, and others had begun to he attracted to the importance of the new motor for this purpose; and the great mechanics of every nation were seeking the best methods of construction and application of a marine engine. In the United States, Nicholas Roosevelt built a boat on the Passaic, in 1798, sixty feet long, and put into it an engine of twenty inches diameter of cylinder, driving the craft eight miles an hour on the occasion of a trial-trip on which a large party of invited guests were entertained. Livingston and Stevens had both employed Roosevelt in building engines for themselves, and their later activity in this direction was undoubtedly stimulated still farther by his operations. It was at this date that Livingston obtained from the State of New York the exclusive right to the steam-navigation of the waters of that Stale, which, including as they did the Hudson River, gave him a most important monopoly, conditioned, however, upon his success in the production within a year of a steamboat that should have a speed of not less than four miles an hour. The act expired through this limitation; but in 1803 he secured its re-enactment, and by the aid of Robert Fulton, who now comes forward as the prominent figure, he became one of the great agents in the final and permanently successful introduction of the steamboat.

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