So far as we know, the ancients were unacquainted with the nature and
properties of steam. Some accounts, indeed, have come down to us, of
engines of a very early date, such, for example, as that proposed by
Hero, of Alexandria, in which the mechanical agency of steam was more or
less used; but it does not appear that those who invented and applied
these machines, understood the properties of vapor, or had any correct
idea of the effect of heat when applied to liquids. Even at a much later
date, the effects produced by steam were ascribed, not to the vapor of
water, but to the force of the air which was supposed to be expelled
from water by heat. In the seventeenth century, De Caus proposed the
construction of a machine by which a column of water was raised by the
elastic force of steam, but he does not seem to have understood the
principle on which it was effected. About the middle of the same
century, Lord Worcester published the description of a high pressure
steam-engine, which has since formed so remarkable a feature in all
histories of steam-engines. Toward the latter end of the century,
however, the actual properties of vapor began to be more unfolded. In
1683, Sir Samuel Morland discovered the exact numerical proportion in
which water increases its volume when evaporated. A few years later,
Papin discovered the method of producing a vacuum by the condensation of
steam; and this discovery was, by others, soon applied to mechanical
purposes. About the middle of the eighteenth century, Watt applied
himself to the improvement of the steam-engine; and from this time
forward, the various discoveries of chemistry, and the experiments of
scientific and practical men, prepared the way for rapid progress in the
application of steam.
In 1793, Fulton, the celebrated engineer, engaged actively in
endeavoring to improve inland navigation. Even at that early period, he
had conceived the idea of propelling vessels by steam; and he speaks, in
some of his manuscripts, with great confidence of its practicability. In
1797, he went to Paris, and, while there, projected the first panorama
that was ever exhibited there. He also planned a _submarine boat_. In
1803, he completed his first steamboat, which was tried upon the Seine,
and proved completely successful. He now proceeded to New York, to carry
his ideas of steam navigation into practical effect; and in 1807, his
first steamboat, a view of which is given in the cut beyond, ascended
the Hudson river, to the great delight and wonder of thousands of
spectators. She was called the Clermont; and was only one hundred feet
long, twelve wide, and seven deep. Her first trip was made, September
first, 1807, from New York to Albany, one hundred and sixty miles, in
thirty-six hours; the fare for the passage being seven dollars,
exclusive of meals. Thus this great man brought to a successful issue
his long meditated invention, and determined the possibility of applying
steam to navigation. Several steamboats were soon after constructed
under Mr. Fulton’s directions, and also a steam-frigate. He continued to
make various experiments till his death, which occurred in 1815.
[Illustration: FULTON’S FIRST STEAMBOAT.]
Still later than this, we find a description of the Clyde steamboat,
which is spoken of in an English magazine as follows: “Its extreme
length is seventy-five feet, its breadth fourteen feet, and the hight of
the cabins six and a half feet. She is built very flat, and draws from
two feet and nine inches to three feet of water. The best or
after-cabin, is twenty feet long, and is entered from the stern: between
the after-cabin and the engine, a space of fifteen feet is allotted for
goods. The engine is a twelve horsepower, and occupies fifteen feet; the
fore-cabin is sixteen feet long, and is entered from the side. The
paddles, sixteen in number, form two wheels of nine feet diameter, and
four feet broad, made of hammered iron: they dip into the water from one
foot and three inches to one foot and six inches. Along the outer edge
of these wheels a platform and rail are formed quite round the vessel,
projecting over the sides, and supported by timbers reaching down to the
vessel’s side. This steamboat runs at the rate of four or four and a
half miles per hour in calm weather; but against a considerable breeze,
three miles only. It can accommodate two hundred and fifty passengers,
and is wrought by five men. The engine consumes twelve hundred weight of
coals per day. The funnel of the boiler is twenty-five feet high; and
carries a square-sail twenty-two feet in breadth.”
In the same connection, we find an article published in the Monthly
Magazine, by Sir Richard Phillips, with the express object of giving
clear ideas of the utility of steamboats, and of quieting apprehensions
as to their safety, which at the present day it is truly amusing to
read. The writer says: “The groundless alarms relative to a supposed
increase of danger from traveling by steam-packets, led the editor of
the Monthly Magazine, within the current month, (July, 1817,) to make a
voyage, in one of them, from London to Margate. This vessel left her
moorings, at the Tower of London, about half past eight in the morning,
at the time the tide was running strong up the river, and when no other
vessel could make progress, except in the direction of the tides. The
steam-packet proceeded, however, against the stream, in a gallant style,
at the rate of six or seven miles an hour; and a band of music, playing
lively airs on the deck, combined with the steadiness of the motion, to
render the effect delightful. An examination of the steam-engine, and of
her rate of working, proved that no possibility of danger exists. It
appeared that the boiler had been proved at twenty-five pounds to the
square inch; but that the valve was held down by a weight of only four
pounds, and that the mercurial gauge did not indicate an employment of
actual pressure of above two pounds and a half per square inch. Hence it
follows, that, although the engine was capable of sustaining a pressure
of at least twenty-five pounds, only four pounds, or less than a sixth,
was the whole force which the valve would permit to be exerted; and
that, in point of fact, a pressure of only two pounds and a half to the
square inch, or only _one-tenth_ of the proven power of the boiler, was
employed. There is, therefore, less danger in passing some hours in
contact with such a machine, than there is in sitting near a boiling
tea-kettle, tea-urn, or saucepan, under circumstances in which they are
often used. Opposite Greenwich, a fine commentary was afforded of the
value of steam as a navigating power, in preference to winds and tides;
a Margate sailing-packet passing toward London, which had been a day and
two nights on its passage, a period of time which it appears is not
uncommon. In short, with uninterrupted pleasure, and in an hour sooner
than the captain had named at starting, the vessel was carried
along-side Margate pier, having employed nine hours in performing a
voyage of ninety miles. In this case it appeared, that a pressure of two
pounds to the square inch, produced about forty rotations per minute of
the acting water-wheels; and, as these were ten feet in diameter, the
motion of the impelling floats, or wheel-paddles, would be at the rate
of fifteen with, or against the stream, at an average of ten miles an
hour. The consumption of coals during the voyage was less than a
caldron; but it was described as amounting frequently to a caldron and a
half. On the whole, nothing could be more demonstrative of the worth and
security of this mode of navigation; and there can be little doubt but,
in a few years, vessels of every size, and for every extent of voyage,
will be provided with their steam-engine, which will be more used, and
more depended upon, than winds or tides. The chances of accidents are
lower than those under most other circumstances in which men are placed
in traveling. By land, horses kill their thousands _per annum_, open
chaises their hundreds, and stage-coaches their scores; and, by water,
the uncertainty of winds has destroyed thousands, by prolonging the
voyage, and increasing the exposure to bad weather; but in a
steam-packet, navigated by an engine whose proven powers necessarily
exceed what can be exerted during its use, or in general by such engines
as those used on the Thames or Clyde, no accident can possibly happen;
unless, by a miracle, it were to happen, that a force of _four_ pounds
should overcome a resistance of _twenty-four_ pounds.”
From the above amusing article, we pass to notice the immense ocean
steamers of the present day, as they so forcibly illustrate the progress
of steam navigation. The chief lines of those with which we are
familiar, are the Cunard line and the Collins line, both plying between
the United States and England. Before describing them particularly,
however, it should here be mentioned, that the first steamship that ever
crossed the Atlantic sailed from Savannah, in Georgia, for Liverpool, on
the twenty-sixth of May, 1819, and made the voyage in twenty-two days.
She was telegraphed at Liverpool as “_a ship on fire_” and a
revenue-cutter was dispatched to her relief, when the officers and crew
of the latter were struck with astonishment at not being able to
overtake a vessel _under bare poles_. At Liverpool, and afterward at
Copenhagen, Stockholm, and St. Petersburg, whither she went, she was
visited by crowds of wondering people; and at the latter place a service
of plate was presented to her officers. She was commanded by Captain
Rodgers, of New London, Conn., and some of her officers are still
living. After this, it was a long time before another steamship crossed
the Atlantic. At last, however, the experiment was again and still again
tried, until now the ocean is constantly traversed by the huge steamers
above alluded to, in the average time of about eleven days and a half,
though the passage has been made, in some single cases, in a little over
nine days.
A good idea of these ocean steamers may be formed from the view given of
one of them in the cut below, in connection with the following
description of the Baltic, belonging to the Collins line.
[Illustration: AN OCEAN STEAMER.]
The Baltic is of thirty-two hundred tuns’ burden, carpenter’s measure;
in length, two hundred and eighty-seven feet; breadth of beam, forty-six
feet; depth of hold, thirty-two feet; to the top of the gunwale,
thirty-four feet and six inches. The diameter of her wheels is
thirty-six feet; the number of floats, (corresponding to the buckets or
paddles of a common water-wheel,) twenty-six in each wheel; their
length, twelve feet and a half; their breadth, twenty-eight, and their
thickness, three inches and a half; each float being armed with three
hundred pounds of iron, so that it requires six men to lift it. The
engine has two working cylinders, each ninety-six inches in diameter;
the length of their stroke is ten feet; and the number of revolutions is
from eleven to fourteen in a minute. The vacuum is equivalent to
fourteen pounds upon the square inch; a near approximation to a perfect
vacuum, which corresponds to fifteen pounds on the square inch. The
pressure of steam is from twelve to twenty pounds upon the square inch;
usually from twelve to fifteen pounds; this is all the amount of the
power tending to produce explosion, while including what is gained by
the vacuum, the effective motive power is equivalent to twenty-six,
twenty-nine and thirty-four pounds on the square inch. The highest
pressure used in an ordinary passage may be about eighteen pounds,
equivalent to a working force of thirty-two pounds; and the lowest about
seven or eight pounds, giving a moving force of twenty-one or twenty-two
pounds. The ability of the boilers corresponds to fifty pounds, and with
the addition of the vacuum, to sixty-four pounds; it follows, therefore,
that they are generally worked with less than half their power. The
entire weight of the steam machinery is one thousand tuns, and it
occupies sixty feet in the length of the ship.
As to capacity for passengers, there are one hundred and sixty berths,
aside from the accommodations for the people of the ship. As to strength
of structure, the timbers are fitted side by side, and calked so tight
that it was said the ship would float even before she was planked.
Plates of iron six inches wide and an inch and a quarter thick, are let,
obliquely, into the timbers at the distance of twenty-eight inches from
the centers of each, and therefore they are twenty-two inches apart.
These are crossed obliquely by other bars or plates of the same
dimensions, which are let into the boards or planks that are nailed over
them. Copper bolts, for twenty feet from the keel, pass through the
plates of iron at their intersection, and in many other places, and
copper sheathing covers eighteen feet of the lower part of the hull, the
draught being nineteen feet, and twenty with the coal in. The ships of
this line are as strong as wood, iron and copper can make them, and they
hardly leak at all. They would bear long thumping upon the rocks before
they would go to pieces. The movement of the machinery, and the stroke
of the waves, produce scarcely a perceptible tremor, and not the
slightest deviation in the deck from a right line can be seen, when
viewed horizontally from stem to stern through its length of nearly
three hundred feet. No opening of a joint is perceived even in the beams
that form the capping of the gunwale; a knife-blade can not be passed
between their contiguous ends.
The machinery rests on an iron bed-plate, on the keelson, or engine bed;
and the bed-plate, which is cast in one piece, weighs forty tuns. The
machinery is below, and is invisible from the deck, except through
certain doors. A wave can hardly reach it at all, even should it break
over the ship; and by closing the apertures above, the engine room is
safe from flooding, while ventilation is secured by large tubes, having
their orifices higher than the upper or promenade deck. The people
below, on the level of the keelson, where there is little motion, hardly
know when there is a storm above; they live in a comparatively quiet
world of their own, and always in a tropical climate, even when among
icebergs. The working of the machinery is admirable. It travels onward
with the greatest ease and regularity; even with a heavy head-wind and
opposing waves, it moves like clockwork, without apparent labor,
throwing up its mighty arms and moving its ponderous levers as if there
were no weight to be lifted, or _vis inertiæ_ to be overcome. By
observations made up to the tenth day of one of the passages, there had
not been the slightest leak of steam, nor had it been necessary to turn
a screw, although for several days together there was a heavy head-sea,
impelled by adverse winds. Except the effect of hidden flaws in the
immense masses of wrought iron that form some of the principal moving
parts, there seems to be little cause for anxiety, as the machinery
appears to be, in general, equal to every emergency.
Danger from fire, is always a subject of anxiety; but in ships protected
as the Baltic is, the danger is believed to be less than in a sailing
ship. The engine room is lined with iron; the boilers and their furnaces
are everywhere surrounded by that metal and by water, and no wood is in
a position to be unduly heated. All lights, except those necessary to
the management of the ship, are extinguished at eleven o’clock; many
people are up all night, and are about in every place; there are
fire-engines always ready to flood the ship, and they are adapted so as
to be wrought both by hand and by steam power. The behavior of the
Baltic as a sea-boat, is admirable in every variety of weather. This
immense vessel rides upon the waves like a duck, and has, in general, a
dry and comfortable deck, rarely shipping a sea, although the spray
dashes over the forecastle in showers. The ship is warmed by steam
tubes, passing under the marble tables. More than fifty persons are
employed about the machinery, of whom forty-eight attend to the coal and
the fires, and there are six or eight engineers. There are between
thirty and forty servants, twenty or twenty-five sailors, and three or
four supernumerary officers; in all, about one hundred and forty,
besides passengers. The style and furnishing of the Baltic are elegant,
rich enough for a nobleman’s villa. Of mirrors, large and small, there
are about fifty; indeed, they are in such excess that a passenger can
not look in any direction without meeting his own image or the faces of
his companions. The tables of these steamers are amply supplied, and
have the best attendance; and of luxuries, there seems to be no end. The
saloons of these steamers are fitted up in superb style. Some of the
table-covers are of beautiful variegated marble, and the panels around
are finely decorated with emblems of the various American states. The
cabin-windows are of beautiful painted glass, embellished with the arms
of various American cities. There are large circular glass ventilators
reaching from the deck to the lower saloon. There is a rich and elegant
ladies’ drawing-room near the chief saloon, and there are berths for
about one hundred and fifty passengers. Each berth has a bell-rope
communicating with one of Jackson’s patented American annunciators.
Crossing the ocean in one of these steamers, some one has said, is _no
cross at all_!
Such are the present ocean steamers; and yet even these immense
structures will soon be thrown in the background by steamers of still
vaster dimensions. For the Edinburgh Journal gives an account of an
immense iron steamer, now (1855) being constructed for the Australian
trade, which will far surpass them. The actual measurements of this
leviathan vessel are, six hundred and seventy-five feet long,
eighty-three feet wide at her greatest breadth of beam, and sixty feet
deep in the hold, forming four decks. She will be furnished with
paddle-wheels and a screw, the former of a nominal power of one thousand
horses, the latter of sixteen hundred horses; but practically, the
combined power may be estimated at three thousand horses. The four
cylinders in which the pistons are to work, are the largest in the
world; each of them weighs twenty-eight tuns. When they are lying on the
ground, a man, with his hat on, may walk through them without touching
the upper side. The engines, when erected and put together, will be
upward of fifty feet in hight. The weight of the entire machinery will
be about three thousand tuns, and of the hull, ten thousand tuns, making
thirteen thousand tuns. She will carry several thousand tuns of coal and
merchandise, sixteen hundred passengers, and her measurement capacity
gives about twenty-five thousand tuns’ burden! Notwithstanding, her
draught of water will be but small, not exceeding twenty feet when
light, and thirty feet when fully loaded. She will carry five or six
masts, and five funnels. Her cost will be about eighteen hundred
thousand dollars. She will carry coal enough for a voyage round the
world, and is built upon a model to insure great speed. Her ordinary
speed is expected to be eighteen or twenty miles an hour. She is
expected to make the voyage from England to Australia in thirty days,
and return by Cape Horn in thirty days more; thus making the circuit of
the globe in two months.
More wonderful still, it is said that Mr. Vanderbilt, of New York, is
about building an immense steamer, which is to be eight hundred feet in
length, and of corresponding proportions throughout, which of course
will surpass even the huge steamship just described. Where the rivalry
and enterprise in this matter are to end, who can tell?