[Illustration: FIRST STEAMBOAT BUILT ON THE SEINE.]
The accompanying engraving represents the remarkable steamboat that
the unfortunate Marquis de Jouffroy constructed at Paris in 1816,
after organizing a company for the carriage of passengers on the
Seine. De Jouffroy, as well known, made the first experiment in steam
navigation at Lyons in 1783, but the inventor's genius was not
recognized, and he met with nothing but deception and hostility. With
the obstinacy of men of conviction, he did not cease to prosecute his
task. He assuredly had an inkling of the future in store for the
invention that he was offering to humanity.
The paddle wheel boat that he constructed at Paris in 1816 did not
succeed any better than its predecessors; it was remarkable
nevertheless in appearance and structure.
The engine was forward, as shown in the engraving, which is copied
from a composition of Dubucourt's.
The company organized by the marquis was ruined, and, as well known,
the unfortunate inventor himself died in poverty in 1832, at the age
of eighty-one years.--_La Nature._
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