[Illustration: JOHN FITCH'S STEAMBOAT, 1788.
By permission of Providence & Stonington Steamship Co.]
If you have now guessed the common name of this giant, we will call
him Steam.
At the time James Watt lived, there were no steam boats, steam
mills, nor railways.
And this boy, though his grandmother scolded, thought much about the
giant in the tea-kettle.
And he became the inventor of the first steam engine that was of any
use to the world.
So, little by little, people came to know that steam is a great,
good giant.
They tried in many different ways to make him useful.
They wished very much to make him run a boat.
One man tried to run his boat in a queer way.
He made something like a duck's foot to push it through the water.
Another moved his boat by forcing a stream of water in at the bow
and out at the stern.
Then came a man named John Fitch.
He made his engine run a number of oars so as to paddle the boat
forward.
He grew very poor.
People laughed at him.
But he said, "When I shall be forgotten, steam boats will run up the
rivers and across the seas."