SOME EARLY STEAMBOATS
Fulton did not forget his promise to build a steamboat for America, even
though he was so occupied in trying to induce the English people to use
his submarine torpedoes. As soon as he arrived in London, free from the
entanglements of French warfare, he renewed his order for the engine and
tried to gain permission for its shipment to America.
The permit was finally obtained, the engine built, and in March, 1805,
Fulton notes in his account-book that he paid the fee at the Treasury
“on receiving permission to ship the engine for America.” In January he
had paid five hundred and forty-eight pounds for the cylinder and parts
of the engine, and in March four hundred and seventy-six pounds, eleven
shillings, sixpence for the copper boiler.
Some years ago, a story “went the rounds” of the newspapers that the
boiler for Fulton’s American boat was made from melted copper pennies.
Coins of 1799 to 1804 were rare and this fiction was invented to explain
the scarcity, but Fulton’s notebook contradicts it. Copper was hard to
get, and expensive, but Fulton found it and paid for it,—full value too,
one would say!
The engine preceded Fulton across the water by a year, for Fulton stayed
in England until the autumn of 1806. It lay at the Custom House for six
months, and was then carted to a storage-house on South Street until the
boat was built to receive it.
To this period of Fulton’s life belong two interesting letters: they
prove that he was ever mindful of his brother and sisters in far-away
Pennsylvania, even while he was debating anxiously with English statesmen
and planning a novel boat for American waters.
The first letter was written to his brother-in-law, David Morris, and
is full of intimate and wholesome advice for he evidently realized the
shortcomings in his own early education. Written in London, October 25th,
1805, it says in part:
I wrote you on the 20th and sent you an order on John Mason,
Esqr. for 300 dollars to be paid out of my dividends of the
first of January 1806, which will make in the whole 900 dollars
of which I desired the division as follows:
300 to Mrs. Scott,
300 to Mrs. Cook
200 to Abraham
50 to your wife
50 for sundries,
as you will find detailed when you receive my letter.
Having observed bad spelling and writing in the letters I have
received, and knowing that such errors may be corrected with a
little industry and care on winter evenings, I have desired a
friend of mine at New York to send you
4 of Johnston’s spelling dictionaries.
4 works on Arithmetic.
4 sets of good copperplate copies of large and small hand.
4 sets of the _Spectator_.
One of each to be a fixture in your family for the use of the
children; one of each for Bell’s family: one ditto for Mrs.
Scott’s and one ditto for Abraham.
The dictionaries will, I hope, correct the spelling and by
reading the _Spectator_ often it will improve the understanding
and give ideas of a neat style. It is an immense object to
learn children to write a straight fair hand, to spell well
and cipher to the rule of three; and although this is not much
of an education yet when well fixed in the mind with a little
brains and some industry a man may learn anything. The greatest
men America has produced had not much more education than
here mentioned from their parents, but they had a great and
meritorious industry; Franklin, Washington, and Rittenhouse are
examples.
Wishing you all well it will give me pleasure to hear that you
do well.
ROBERT FULTON.
It is certain that Fulton had practised what he here preaches to his
nephews and nieces. During his study of the great men of the day,
Franklin, Washington, and Rittenhouse, he had caught the illuminative
spark of their genius, struck out upon life’s anvil by their hard blows
of untiring work. The secret of their power was constant self-culture,
and Fulton applied himself to gain this foundation of strength by the
application of his mature mind to the education which circumstances had
deprived him of in his youth.
Let us hope that the nephews and nieces gladly received these gift-books
from their famous uncle whom they had never seen, welcomed the big
dictionaries and arithmetics with joy, and studied hard during the winter
evenings, as he suggested.
About the same time he also wrote the following letter to Mr. Hoge, the
first settler in Washington, Pennsylvania, from whom he had received an
inquiry in regard to the four lots he had purchased. It shows Fulton’s
unfailing generosity to his brother and sisters:
“I thank you kindly for your friendly letter of the first of June; it is
so many years since I had any communication with you, or accurate account
of my relations, together with many copies of my letters being lost in
my travels, and considering my property in your country of value only
in as much as it was of use to my relatives, I had forgot the grants
I formerly made of the three lots. I find however that one of them has
been transferred to Mr. Morris, one to Mrs. Cook, and one was left by my
mother to Peggy Scott.
“I now desire that those grants may be considered permanent and resigning
all claims to them, from this time I shall not reckon them in my
calculations.”
In his will, drawn in 1814, Fulton left a legacy of money also to each of
his sisters and his brother.
Before we approach the story of the _Clermont_, it is fair and just to
give credit to several men who worked very hard to try to build a “first”
steamboat. There were so many attempts to produce the needed invention
that it is hard to say which man should have the honor of being placed
first.
Perhaps the earliest was Dr. John Allen, of England, who in 1730 wrote
a scientific paper, entitled “Navigation in a Calm,” suggesting that a
“fire engine with its furniture” could be put on board a ship and drive
it twelve or fourteen miles an hour.
Probably most of those who read his pamphlet smiled at his absurd
idea, but six years later, in 1736, Jonathan Hulls took out a patent
for a tug-boat to be moved by wheels at the stern by the power of an
atmospheric engine.
In America, where there are many deep rivers, it is not surprising to
find that there were many experimenters: James Rumsey, of Virginia, built
a boat for trial on the Potomac River and in 1787 had it working so well
that he journeyed to England to try to advance his invention. There he
persuaded a rich American to forward funds to build another boat for a
trial on the Thames, but Rumsey died before his vessel was an established
success. His system was not very practical and failed to work well.
Captain Samuel Morey, in 1793, built a tiny craft, “scarce big enough to
carry himself,” it was said, and tried it upon the Connecticut River, but
the first attempt failed to establish a claim to consideration and his
plan was given up.
In 1792 another Connecticut man, Elijah Ormsbee, a clever carpenter,
moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and built a boat in which his friend,
David Wilkinson of Pawtucket, fitted “flutter wheels” and a “goose-foot
propeller.” They made the boat run several times from Pawtucket to
Providence, but that was the last heard of it. The piston was turned by
atmospheric pressure, not by the direct use of steam.
Nicholas J. Roosevelt, who afterward became Fulton’s and Livingston’s
representative in Ohio River navigation, also had a “try” at inventing
a boat; so had William Henry of Pennsylvania and Edward West; both left
records of their attempts.
There were others, too, a long list of worthies, who labored well, but
neither well enough nor long enough to convince doubting humanity that
they had “found a way upon the waters.” Chief among them should forever
stand the name of John Fitch, who had so sure yet faint a grasp upon the
new science. In 1786, he built a boat thirty-four feet long, and launched
it upon the Delaware River where it proved its worth. He organized a
stock company to finance and direct the enterprise. The boat ran for
a short time between Philadelphia and Bordentown, but the machinery
was cumbersome, the service scanty, and the company lost money. In the
autumn the boat was set aside and never used again. After a visit to
France, where Fitch obtained a patent but failed to secure funds for a
new boat, he returned to America as a deck-hand after his fruitless task.
A few years later he died, a disappointed and discouraged man. To his
mechanical genius there was linked an erratic character and an unsettled
disposition. Had he been able to set aside the belittling influences of
his life, there is no doubt that he would have been a great man.
As in “Prize Contests” of the present day, _honorable mention_ is made
of those whose work was excellent although it failed to win the highest
award; so may we unhesitatingly yield honorable mention to John Fitch
for his years of study. He _did_ build a boat; he _did_ make it run;
but he failed to establish steam navigation as a practical system of
transportation and a commercial success.
In addition to these Americans there were men of science in other lands
who busied themselves with the same problem. Earl Stanhope of England,
whose attempt has been noted; Patrick Miller of Scotland; the Messrs.
Hunter and Dickinson; William Symington, who tried a tug on the Forth and
Clyde Canal; M. des Blanc, of France, who essayed to build a boat for
the Rhone; all are recorded in history as having made honest attempts
to prove that the power of steam could be applied to boats. _But how?_
That was the question. And it should be noted that Robert Fulton did
not accept the theory of any previous experimenter, nor did he merely
_happen_ upon his successful plan. He worked long and patiently, with
varying degrees of success, until he discovered the proper tables of
proportion,—the size and shape of the boat and its paddles, the weight
and power of the engine, the strength of tide and currents, and all
the many contributing forces which united to form the practical and
successful boat he finally produced.
Several interesting descriptions of Fulton’s experiments are in
existence: one, dated Paris, Jan. 9th, 1803, is entitled “Experiments
on the Model of a Boat to be Moved by a Steam Engine.” It describes six
different methods by which he propelled a model of a boat three feet long
and eight inches wide. From the knowledge he gained in these experiments,
he compiled a “table of comparisons” showing the different distances
covered by the use of varying sized paddles. He concluded: “Propelling
a boat through water is the act of separating two bodies,—the boat from
its oars or paddles, or whatever else is applied,—and this is governed by
laws reducible to simple calculation.”
It was this science of calculation which gave Fulton the mastery of
the situation, and his title, Inventor of Steam Navigation. He did not
build a boat by guess-work, but built many boats by actual calculation
of their power and speed; these he introduced upon several waterways
and established each as a commercial success. Other men had produced
the “flower of invention.” Fulton produced the more perfect flower and
matured it to actual fruitage.