ocean, boat-building took on new life. All the great nations of Europe
wanted a share in the new world that had just been found; but no nation
could hope to profit greatly by the discovery of Columbus if its vessels
were not swift and strong. So there arose a grim contest for the mastery
of the Atlantic, just as in ancient times there had been a struggle for
the mastery of the Mediterranean. Spain, France, Portugal, Holland and
England all joined in the battle. When we see the kind of boats she sent
out upon the oceans we are not surprised that England won. Compare the
heavy, angular galley of the first century with the graceful ship of the
sixteenth century and we see at once the progress the boat made in the
Middle Ages (Fig. 14).
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--THE GREAT HARRY.]
The log, the raft, the galley, the sailing-ship, these were the steps in
the development of the boat up to the end of the seventeenth century. In
the eighteenth century another step was taken. You remember that in that
century inventors were everywhere trying to make a steam carriage. They
were at the same time trying to make a steam boat. Their efforts to use
steam to drive boats were rewarded with success earlier than were their
efforts to use it to draw carriages. This was to be expected.
Boat-building has always moved along faster than carriage-building. Men
were gliding about in well-built canoes before they had even the
clumsiest of carts. The Londoners who gazed with admiration upon the
_Great Harry_ as it sailed on the Thames, had never seen as much as a
lumbering coach. And so with the steamboat; it had crossed the Atlantic
before the locomotive could carry passengers from one town to the next.
France, England, Germany and America were all eager to have the first
steamboat. In this race America won, although France and England came
out with their colors flying. As far back as 1663 the Marquis of
Worcester, of whom we have heard before (p. 59), described a vessel that
could be moved by steam: "It roweth," he said, "it draweth, it driveth
(if needs be) to pass London bridge against the stream at low water." It
was one thing, however, to describe a steamboat, and quite another thing
to make one. Worcester's steam-vessel existed only in the imagination of
the inventor. Denys Papin, who did so much for the steam-engine, fitted
out a boat with revolving paddles which were turned by horses. This was
nothing new. The ancient Roman galley was sometimes propelled by
paddle-wheels turned by horses or oxen. It is sometimes claimed that
Papin turned the paddle-wheels of his boat by means of steam, but there
are no grounds for the claim. If France wants the honor of having made
the first steamboat she would do better to turn from Papin and look to
Marquis of Jouffroy of Lyons, This nobleman, it is claimed, built a
steamboat (Fig. 15) which made a successful trip on the river Soane, in
the year 1783, before a multitude of witnesses. This claim may or may
not be just. It may be as the French say: the boat after the trial trip
may have been taken to pieces, the model may have been lost and the
French Revolution may have swallowed up those who witnessed the trip.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--THE MARQUIS OF JOUFFROY'S STEAMBOAT, 1783.]
About the time the Frenchman is said to have been experimenting with his
steamboat on the Soane similar experiments were being tried in many
other places. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the idea of a
steam-propelled boat seemed to be in the air. An English poet of the
time was bold enough to prophesy:
Soon shall thy arm, Unconquered Steam, afar
Drag the slow barge and draw the rapid car,
Or on wide, waving wings, expanded bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air.
For the most part the prophesy has been fulfilled, although the steam
flying-machine is not yet an accomplished fact. Among those who helped
to make good the words of the poet was James Rumsey, of Sheppardtown,
Virginia. Rumsey in 1786 propelled, by means of steam, a boat on the
Potomac River moving at the rate of five miles an hour. It is almost
certain that this was the first boat ever drawn by steam. How did Rumsey
drive his boat? A piston in a cylinder was worked by a steam-engine.
When the piston was raised it brought water in and when it was pushed
down it forced the water out behind and the reaction of the jet pushed
the boat along. A remarkable revival of a very ancient idea! Just as
Hero turned his globe by reaction, just as Newton pushed the first steam
carriage along by reaction, so Rumsey pushed the first steamboat along
by reaction.
If you will look on a map of the United States and observe the vast
network of waterways which come to the different parts of the country
you will understand how important a subject steam navigation must have
been to the people of America in the latter part of the eighteenth
century. Here was a tract of land containing millions upon millions of
fertile acres, but it lacked good roads, and without roads it could not
be developed. It was, however, traversed by thousands of miles of
excellent water-roads and it was plain that if steamboats could be put
upon these rivers the gain would be incalculable. The most pressing need
of the time, therefore, was a steamboat. No one saw this more clearly
than John Fitch. This talented but eccentric man served his country in
the Revolution, and after the war was over roamed hither and thither for
several years as a soldier of fortune. About 1785 he went to
Philadelphia with a plan for a steamboat. He organized a company, and
secured enough money to enable him to carry out his plans. His boat was
ready by August, 1787, and he made his trial trip in Philadelphia when
the Constitutional Convention was in session. Many of the members of
that distinguished body went down to the river to see how the new
invention worked. It worked fairly well, but did not arouse much
enthusiasm. Its speed was only three or four miles an hour and its
movement was exceedingly awkward. It was pushed along by two sets of
oars, one set entering into the water as the other came out. The steam
rowboat of 1787 proved at least to be a failure, and was abandoned as
worthless. Fitch afterward built another steamboat, but it also met with
accident and came to naught. Heartbroken by his many failures the poor
fellow at last ended his life with his own hand. He deserved a better
fate, for his experiments taught the world a great deal about the
steamboat.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS, 1802.]
While Rumsey and Fitch were making their boats in America, European
inventors were not idle. On the contrary they were so very active that
they almost won the honor of making the first successful boat. One of
these, William Symington, an Englishman, built a boat that may, with
much justice, be called the first practical steamboat that was ever
launched. This was the _Charlotte Dundas_ (Fig. 16) which made its trial
trip on the Clyde and Firth Canal in 1802. On the _Charlotte_ was a
_paddle-wheel_ instead of Fitch's two sets of paddles. The wheel was
placed at the rear of the boat and was drawn by means of a crank which
was turned by a rod attached to the piston-rod. Watt and his co-workers,
a few years before, had shown how the steam-engine could be made to turn
a wheel and Symington in the construction of his boat put this principle
to good use. The _Charlotte_ did so well that the Duke of Bridgewater
ordered eight more boats like her to be built for use on the canal.
Symington was elated for he thought he had at last made a successful
steamboat, that is, a steamboat that would give to its owner a profit;
but he was doomed to disappointment for the owners of the canal refused
to allow steamboats to be employed upon it, and worse than this the
duke soon died and the inventor's financial support was gone. The
_Charlotte_ was taken off the canal and laid in a creek where she fell
to pieces. The really successful steamboat had not yet been built.
It was to be built first where it was needed most, and that was in
America. It was built by a man who kept his eyes on Rumsey and Fitch and
Symington, and made the best of what he saw. As all the world knows,
this was Robert Fulton. In August of 1807 Fulton's steamboat the
_Clermont_ (Fig. 17) made a trip on the Hudson River from New York to
Albany, a distance of 150 miles, in thirty-two hours, and returned in
thirty hours. Fulton advertised for passengers, and his boat was soon
crowded. "The _Clermont_," says an English writer, "was the steamboat
that commenced and continued to run for practical purposes, and for the
remuneration of her owners." Here was the boat that was wanted--one that
was financially profitable.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--FULTON'S STEAMBOAT, CLERMONT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--THE BOAT OF STEVENS.]
The paddle-wheels of the _Clermont_ were on the sides of the boat about
midship. As the wheel turned, about half of it was in the water and
about half was out. There were engineers, even in Fulton's day who did
not believe the wheels ought to be on the sides of the boat. Look at
waterfowl, they said, look at the graceful swan; its feet do not work at
its sides, half under the water and half out. Every animal that swims
propels itself from behind, and its propellers are entirely under the
water. So, thought these engineers, the paddle-wheel of a boat should be
placed behind, and should be entirely covered by the water. John
Stevens, an engineer of Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1805 built a steamboat
according to this notion (Fig. 18). A close inspection of the wheel of
the boat would show that it is spiral- or screw-like in shape. Stevens'
boat made a trial trip on the Hudson and worked well; but after Fulton's
great success the little steamer with its spiral-shaped wheel in the
rear was soon forgotten. The idea of a screw-propeller, however, was not
lost. It was taken up by John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer, who, in
1839, built, in an English shipyard for an American captain, the first
screw-propeller that crossed the Atlantic--the _Robert F. Stockton_.
This was the last step in the development of the boat. Since 1839 there
has been marvelous progress in ship-building, but the progress has
consisted in improving upon the invention of Ericsson rather than in
making new discoveries. With the screw-propeller in its present form we
may close our story of the boat. The homely log propelled by rude
paddles has become the magnificent floating palace.
FOOTNOTE:
[18] A spirited account of life on a Roman galley is found in Wallace's
"Ben Hur."
[Illustration: THE ADRIATIC AT SEA.]
THE CLOCK
"Tic-tac! tic-tac! go the wheels of time. We cannot stop them; they will
not stop themselves." Time passing is life passing and the measurement
of time is the measurement of life itself. How important then that our
chronometers, or time measures, be accurate and faithful! It is said
that a slight error in a general's watch caused the overthrow of
Napoleon at Waterloo and thus changed the history of the world. Because
of its great importance the measurement of time has always been a
subject of deep human interest and the story of the clock begins with
the history of primeval man.
The larger periods of time are measured by the motion of the heavenly
bodies. The year and the four seasons are marked off by the motion of
the earth in its long journey around the sun; the months and the weeks
are told by the changing moon; sunrise and sunset announce the coming
and the going of day. The year and the seasons and the day were measured
for primeval man by the great clock in the heavens, but how were smaller
periods of time to be measured? How was the passing of fractional parts
of a day, an hour or a minute or a second to be noted? An egg was to be
boiled; how could the cook tell when it had been in the water long
enough? A man out hunting wished to get back to his family before dark:
how was he to tell when it was time to start homeward?
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--A PRIMITIVE SUN-DIAL.]
Plainly, the measurement of small portions of time was a very practical
problem from the beginning. The first attempt to solve the problem
consisted in observing shadows cast by the sun. The changing shadow of
the human form was doubtless the first clock. As the shadow grew shorter
the observer knew that noon was approaching; when he could reach out one
foot and step on the shadow of his head he knew it was time for dinner;
when his shadow began to lengthen he knew that evening was coming on.
Observations of this kind led to the _shadow clock_ or _sun-dial_ (Fig.
1). You can make one for yourself. On a perfectly level surface exposed
all day to the sun, place in an upright position (Fig. 1) a stick about
three feet long, and trace on the surface the shadows as they appear at
different times of the day. A little study will enable you to use the
shadows for telling the time. Sun-dials have been used from the
beginning of time and they have not yet passed out of use. They may
still be seen in a few public places (Fig. 2), but they are retained
rather as curiosities than as real timekeepers. For the sun-dial is not
a good timekeeper for three reasons: (1) it will not tell the time at
night; (2) it fails in the daytime when the sun is not shining; (3) it
can never be used inside of a house.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--A MODERN SUN-DIAL.]
The sun-dial can hardly be called an invention; it is rather an
observation. There were, however, inventions for measuring time in the
earliest period of man's history. Among the oldest of these was the
fire-clock, which measured time by the burning away of a stick or a
candle. The Pacific islanders still use a clock of this kind. "On the
midrib of the long palm-leaf they skewer a number of the oily nuts of
the candle-nut-tree and light the upper one." As the nuts burn off, one
after another, they mark the passage of equal portions of time. Here is
a clock that can be used at night as well as in the daytime, in the
house as well as out of doors. Mr. Walter Hough tells us that Chinese
messengers who have but a short period to sleep place a lighted piece of
joss-stick between their toes when they go to bed. The burning stick
serves both as a timepiece and as an alarm-clock.
Fire-clocks of one kind or another have been used among primitive people
in nearly all parts of the globe, and their use has continued far into
civilized times. Alfred the Great (900 A. D.) is said to have measured
time in the following way: "He procured as much wax as weighed
seventy-two pennyweights, which he commanded to be made into six
candles, each twelve inches in length with the divisions of inches
distinctly marked upon it. These being lighted one after another,
regularly burnt four hours each, at the rate of an inch for every twenty
minutes. Thus the six candles lasted twenty-four hours."[19]
We all remember Irving's account of time-measurement in early New York:
"The first settlers did not regulate their time by hours, but pipes, in
the same manner as they measure distance in Holland at this very time;
an admirably exact measurement, as the pipe in the mouth of a true-born
Dutchman is never liable to those accidents and irregularities that are
continually putting our clocks out of order." This, of course, is not
serious, yet it is an account of a kind of fire-clock that has been
widely used. Even to-day the Koreans reckon time by the number of pipes
smoked.
If we could step on board a Malay proa we should see floating in a
bucket of water a cocoanut shell having a small perforation through
which the water by slow degrees finds its way into the interior. This
orifice is so perforated that the shell will fill and sink in an hour,
when the man on watch calls the time and sets it to float again. This
sinking cocoanut shell, the first form of the water-clock, is the clock
from which has been developed the timepiece of to-day. With it,
therefore, the story of the clock really begins. In Northern India the
cocoanut shell is replaced by a copper bowl (Fig. 3). At the moment the
sinking occurs the attendant announces the hour by striking upon the
bowl.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--AN EARLY FORM OF THE WATER-CLOCK.]
The second step in the development of the water-clock was made in China
several thousand years ago. In the earlier Chinese clock the water,
instead of finding its way into the vessel from the outside, was placed
inside and allowed to trickle out through a hole in the bottom and fall
into a vessel below. In the lower vessel was a float which rose with the
water. To the float was attached an indicator which pointed out the
hours as the water rose. By this arrangement, when the upper vessel was
full, the water, by reason of greater pressure, ran out faster at first
than at any other time. The indicator, therefore, at first rose faster
than it ought, and after a while did not rise as fast as it ought to.
After centuries of experience with the two-vessel arrangement, a third
vessel was brought upon the scene. This was placed above the upper
vessel, which now became the middle vessel. As fast as water flowed from
the middle vessel it was replaced by a stream flowing from the one above
it. The depth of the water in the middle vessel did not change, and the
water flowed into the lowest vessel at a uniform rate. Finally a fourth
vessel was brought into use. The Chinese water-clock shown in (Fig. 4)
has been running in the city of Canton for nearly six hundred years.
Every afternoon at five, since 1321, the lowest jar has been emptied
into the uppermost one and the clock thus wound up for another day.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--CHINESE WATER-CLOCK AT CANTON.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--AN EARLY GREEK CLEPSYDRA.]
To follow the further development of the water-clock we must pass from
China to Greece. In their early history the Greeks had nothing better
than the sun-dial with which to measure time. About the middle of the
fifth century B. C. there arose at Athens a need for a better timepiece.
In the public assembly the orators were consuming too much time, and in
the courts of law the speeches of the lawyers were too long. It was a
common thing for a lawyer to harangue his audience for seven or eight
hours. To save the city from being talked to death a time-check of some
kind became necessary. The sun-dial would not answer, for the sun did
not always shine, even in sunny Greece; so the idea of the water-clock
was borrowed. A certain amount of water was placed in an amphora (urn),
in the bottom of which was a small hole through which the water might
slowly flow (Fig. 5). When the amphora was empty the speaker had to stop
talking. The Greeks called the water-clock a _clepsydra_, which means
"the water steals away." The orator whose time was limited by a certain
amount of water would keep his eye on the clepsydra, just as a speaker
in our time keeps his eye on the clock, and if he were interrupted he
would shout to the attendant, "You there, stop the water," or would say
to the one who interrupted him, "Remember, sir, you are in my water."
The story goes that upon one occasion the speaker stopped every now and
then to take a drink; the orator's speech, it seems, was as dry as his
throat, and a bystander cried out: "Drink out of the clepsydra, and
then you will give pleasure both to yourself and to your audience."
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--AN IMPROVED GREEK CLEPSYDRA.]
At first the Greeks used a simple form of the clepsydra, but they
gradually adopted the improvements made by the Chinese, and finally
added others. The great Plato is said to have turned his attention to
commonplace things long enough to invent a clepsydra that would announce
the hour by playing the flute. However this may have been, there was in
use in the Greek world, about 300 B. C., a clepsydra something like the
one shown in Fig. 6. This begins to look something like a clock. As the
water drops into the cylinder _E_ the float _F_ rises and turns _G_,
which carries the hour hand around. Inside of the funnel _A_ is a cone
_B_ which can be raised or lowered by the bar _D_. In this way the
dropping of the water is regulated. Water runs to the funnel through
_H_, and when the funnel is full the superfluous water runs off through
the pipe _I_, and thus the depth of the water in the funnel remains the
same and the pressure does not change. Notice that when the hand in this
old clock has indicated twelve hours it begins to count over again, just
as it does on our clocks to-day. How easily it would have been to have
continued the numbers on to twenty-four, as they do in Italy, and on
the railroads in parts of Canada, to-day.
If we pass from Greece to Rome, our usual route when we are tracing a
feature of our civilization, we find that the Romans were slow to
introduce new methods of timekeeping. The first public sun-dial in Rome
was constructed about 200 B. C., an event which the poet Plautus
bewailed:
Confound the man who first found out
How to distinguish hours! Confound them, too
Who in this place set up a sun-dial
To cut and hack my days so wretchedly
Into small portions! When I was a boy
My stomach was my sun-dial, one more sure,
Truer, and more exact than any of them,
This dial told me when 'twas the proper time
To go to dinner.
The water-clock was brought into Rome a little later than the sun-dial,
and was used as a time-check upon speakers in the law courts, just as it
had been in Athens. When the Romans first began to use the clepsydra it
was already a very good clock. Whether it received any great
improvements at their hands is not certain. Improvements must have been
made somewhere, for early in the Middle Ages we find clepsydras in forms
more highly developed than they were in ancient times. In the ninth
century the Emperor Charlemagne received as gift from the King of Persia
a most interesting timepiece which was worked by water. "The dial was
composed of twelve small doors which represented the divisions of the
hours; each door opened at the hour it was intended to represent, and
out of it came the same number of little balls, which fell, one by one
at equal distances of time, on a brass drum. It might be told by the eye
what hour it was by the number of doors that were open; and by the ear
by the number of balls that fell. When it was twelve o'clock, twelve
horsemen in miniature issued forth at the same time, and, marching round
the dial, shut all the doors." Less wonderful than the clock of the
emperor, but more useful as an object of study, is the medieval
clepsydra shown in Figure 7. This looks more than ever like the clock we
are accustomed to see. It has weights as well as wheels. As the float
_A_ rises with the water it allows the weight _C_ to descend and turns
the spindle _B_ on the end of which is the hand which marks the hours.
Notice carefully that this is partly a water-clock and partly a
_weight_-clock. The weight in its descent turns the spindle; the water
regulates the rate at which the weight may descend.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--A MEDIEVAL CLEPSYDRA.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--DE VICK'S CLOCK. THE FIRST WEIGHT CLOCK.
(1370.)]