of 4 4 (California R A * OF THE UNIVERSITY c MAKERS OF AMERICA : ROBERT FULTON HIS LIFE AND ITS RESULTS BY ROBERT H. THURSTON \ | NEW YORK DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1891, DODD, MEAD, AND Co. All rights reserved. SPRECKELS JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. OLD LEGENDS. STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. JAMES WATT i II. EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN STEAM-NAVIGA- TION 28 III. ROBERT FULTON'S EARLY LIFE .... 48 IV. THE ARTIST AS ENGINEER 60 V. THE ENGINEER, AS INVENTOR, IN SUB- MARINE WARFARE 69 VI. FULTON'S EXPERIMENTS WITH STEAM. THE " CLERMONT " 101 VII. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS ... 146 VIII. OCEAN STEAMERS. THE OUTLOOK . . 167 UNIVERSITY OF ROBERT FULTON. i. OLD LEGENDS. STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. JAMES WATT. ROBERT FULTON has often, if not generally, been assumed to haye been the inventor of the steamboat, as Watt is generally supposed to be the inventor of the steam-engine, which constitutes its motive ap- paratus. But this notion is quite incorrect. The invention of the steam-engine and that of the steam- boat alike are the results of the inventive genius, not of any one man or of any dozen men, but have been the outcome of the inventive powers of the human race, exerted at intervals throughout the whole period of recorded history. An invention is usually, or is at least assumed to be, the product of the genius of some great mechanic, acting, as did the genii of old, by a single effort of the mysterious power. In this sense of the word, the steam-engine was never in- vented ; rather it is the culmination of a long series of inventions of detail, and of improvements upon the earliest crude conceptions, and is the product of growth in a definite direction, and toward a now well- defined end. But while Fulton was not the inventor of the steamboat, and while James Watt was not the 2 ROBERT FULTON. inventor of the steam-engine, in a proper sense, it is the unquestionable fact that the latter was the first to secure a general introduction of the machine into practical use ; and the former was the first to make the steamboat a commercial success, and to make its ultimate and permanent employment for marine transportation sure. As an inventor, Fulton accom- plished far less than Watt ; in fact, he did compara- tively little in this realm of intellect. Watt invented many improvements of the steam-engine, and left it in vastly better form than when he found it, as it came from the hands of his predecessors, Newcomen and Galley. He gave the already well-shaped machine the separate condenser, the steam-jacket, the double- acting form, the rotative type, the expansive system, the governor, and the " engineer's stethoscope," the indicator. Fulton did nothing to modify the engine, or to improve the steamboat even. He simply took the products of the genius of other mechanics, and set them at work, in combination, and then ap- plied the already known steamboat, in his more satis- factorily proportioned form, to a variety of useful purposes, and with final success. It is this which constitutes Fulton's claim upon the gratitude and the remembrance of the nations. And it is quite enough. The knowledge of the expansive power of steam was of earlier date than the Christian era ; forms of steam-engine antedated Watt by two thousand years ; the modern type of steam-engine was the invention of Newcomen rather than of Watt, and preceded that famous improver by nearly a century ; the steamboat OLD LEGENDS. 3 was said to have been constructed by several inven- tors long before the world witnessed the birth of Fulton ; other inventors had built and successfully operated steamboats with paddles, other boats with wheels, steam-vessels with screws, long before Fulton entered upon his great and glorious career. The simple fact is, therefore, as already indicated, that, like all really great and important inventions, these were the final fruition of minute germs of invention in earlier centuries, growing and gaining, century by century, throughout long periods of time. The fa- mous inventor is usually he who in the end brings into full bearing the hitherto unknown and unnoticed invention, he who at last makes it useful to man- kind. This last was the mission of Fulton ; and it is this which has entitled him to all the credit as an engineer, and all the fame, which has been indisputably his. Before taking up our study of the life of Fulton, and of its magnificent results, as already exhibited after less than a century has passed, it will be both interesting and profitable to review the past, and learn, as well as history permits, the details of that growth which has led us finally to such wonderful fruition. In doing so, we will follow the thread of the narrative as it has already been given by the author in a more formal treatise. 1 A rapid summary of the facts, and a study of their relations to our subject, beginning with earliest his- tory, and following this development up to the time of Fulton, will enable us to more intelligently and 1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, by R. H Thurston. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 1878. 4 ROBERT FULTON. satisfactorily weigh our debt to that great man, and measure the obligation of the world, and especially of his own country. The knowledge of the latent power of steam prob- ably antedates history ; rude forms of apparatus for utilizing that force are described in the earliest of ancient works ; yet the invention of a steam-engine, in the proper sense of that term, only took place within two centuries, and the steam-engine of the present time has been the outcome of a succession of inventions and improvements which are only now culminating in the production of an engine which science indicates to be that which must be regarded as the final form of that remarkable motor. The principles of its construction, and especially those of its operation, are now well understood, and all its faults and wastes of either heat-energy or mechanical power are known and measured, their causes ascer- tained, and, in a general way, their methods of rem- edy determined. We are now gradually overcoming the practical obstacles to the reduction of the machine to the best possible proportions, and its plan to the ideal form. The history of the steam-engine is ex- ceedingly interesting, and to the philosopher especially so, as illustrating the fact that " great inventions are rarely the work of any one mind," but are " either an aggregation of minor inventions or the final step of a progression ; " " not a creation, but a growth, as truly so as that of the trees in the forest." 1 1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, by R. H. Thurston. New York. D. Appleton & Co. (International Series.) OLD LEGENDS. The first account of what has been termed the germ of the steam-engine appears in the works of Hero the Younger, who lived, as is supposed, in the second century before Christ, at Alexandria, in Egypt. In his " Pneumatica " he describes a multitude of devices, some of them very ingenious, but mainly mere toys, in which the heat- energy of fire, or of the sun, is applied for transformation into mechanical power through the interme- diary of steam. He shows several forms of fountain, now known as the Hero fountain ; contrivan- ces for opening tem- ple doors by steam ; musical instruments, at least, so called, and other such un- important trifles. Amongst this collection of curious illustrations of the non-utilitarian character of the Greek civilization, is found a real steam-engine, such as is illustrated by the accompanying engraving. 1 The picture here given is a modern and highly 1 Thurston's Manual of the Steam-Boiler, p. 2. New York. J. Wiley & Sons. 1890. Fig. r. Hero's Steam-Engine. 6 ROBERT FULTON. ornamented reproduction of Hero's machine, which is earliest shown in Stuart's " History of the Steam- Engine," 1829, and reproduced by the author in later publications. Curiously enough, this little ma- chine, which has often been reproduced, unwittingly, by modern inventors, and actually used with a fair degree of satisfaction, illustrates a form of engine which is " theoretically," ideally perfect. Its opera- tion under the theoretically best conditions, assum- ing it made with similar perfection and to be free from friction-wastes, would give highest possible effi- ciency and economy in the use of steam. But this would involve its operation at inapproachable veloci- ties and the impracticable condition of being friction- less ; nevertheless, it is perfectly possible to secure such favourable conditions in practice as will make a fairly economical machine, when placed in comparison with the forms of engine which modern invention has produced. Its action is simple and easily seen. Steam is made in the boiler which forms its base, and passes up through one or both of the hollow support- ing columns or pipes, entering the axis of the whirl- ing globe, filling it at a pressure determined by the rate at which steam is formed ; and it is then ex- panded, finally issuing from the projecting arms or ajutages, and by its reaction turning the globe with considerable force and at high speed. Modern en- gines of this construction have been used quite suc- cessfully in driving factories and mills, and have been found to use no very extravagant amount of steam ; but have finally been thrown out, on account, mainly, STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 7 of their cost for repairs ; the whirling arms being usu- ally rapidly cut away by their swift passage through the steam-laden atmosphere in which they necessarily work. Ideally, the machine is an " expansion- engine " of the most perfect type. From the days of Hero, however, nothing more is heard of the use of steam in any apparatus, nor is any machine produced capable of doing work in that manner. All through the early and the middle ages the force of confined steam and other vapours is evi- dently known, but no attempt that may be regarded as at all serious was made to utilize its latent power. Little " aeolipile.s " vessels in which steam was pro- duced and from which it issued in a jet which was sometimes employed to cause an induced current of air with which to blow the fire were the only steam- engines, until, about the sixteenth century, it seems to have been suspected by one or another of the wool- gathering philosophers and the plodding mechanics of those days that steam had a somewhat higher mis- sion. At about the end of that century and the beginning of the seventeenth, we find records of various contrivances, in the application of steam to useful purposes, which indicate that at last the minds of men were awakening to the consideration of the problem of the centuries. These inventions, if it can be said, fairly, that they were inventions, were commonly directed to the application of the force of confined steam to the raising of water through considerable heights, as in the draining of mines, or in furnishing a house-supply. Da Porta, 8 ROBERT FULTON. in 1 60 1, De Caus in 1605 to 1615, and Branca, 1629, were among those who began to suggest, rather than to practise, the application of steam to useful work. The first two pictured contrivances for raising water, which were, however, but distant imitations of the notions of Hero ; while the last-named gave drawings, with some elaboration, of machines, by the action of steam-jets, usually impinging against vanes, driving mills and metallurgical machinery. At about the latter time, the second Marquis of Worcester began his now famous career of invention, and probably as early as 1630 had devised what is known as his "engine" or his "fire-engine;" a machine, however, which was really but the Hero fountain on an enlarged and somewhat more practi- cally available scale, and in better form. He did apply it to its purpose of raising water, though ; and this constitutes for him a legitimate and sufficient claim for remembrance and honour. He was the first to use steam so far as is positively known for industrial ends. It is known that he was engaged in erecting an engine at least as early as 1648, but his patents were only issued in 1663. It seems very certain that the marquis built two or more of these "fire-engines;" but their exact form is unknown, and it is only certain that he profited nothing by his ingenuity and enterprise. He finally died unsuccess- ful and in comparative poverty. His widow was as unhappy and unfortunate as her husband, and died in 1 68 1 without having gained a foothold for her spouse's invention. STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 9 The death of this truly great man, inventor and statesman as he was, in the highest sense, did not, however, put an end to the progress which he had initiated. His friend and successor in this work, Sir Samuel Morland, made himself thoroughly familiar with the subject, secured opportunities to construct a number of such engines, and became so well in- formed as to their capabilities that he published an account of the apparatus, in which paper he intro- duced tables of the number and sizes of the working cylinders required to raise given quantities of water to specified heights in stated times ; thus, for the first time, constructing the now usual specifications for use in de- termining the requirements of purchasers. Yet neither the machines of Worcester nor those of Morland be- came generally used. These men were in advance of their time ; and it was only when, some years later, Captain Savery, a man of talent both as an engineer and a man of business, whose character united all the elements of success in practical opera- tions, took up the task that it became in any degree a commercial success. Very little is known in detail of the experiments or of the constructions of the Marquis of Worcester ; and that absorbing romance by George Macdonald, " St. George and St. Michael," may perhaps be taken as quite as authoritative as any biography, so far as such minor details are concerned ; but the work of Savery, nearly a half- century later, came within the range of modern history, and is well understood. When Savery took up the new problem, at the 10 ROBERT FULTON. opening of the eighteenth century, the mines of Great Britain had become, in many instances, so deep that the labour of freeing them from water was an enor- mously difficult and expensive task with the means and apparatus at the disposition of the mine- owners. They had rude forms of pump worked by horse-power almost exclusively ; and in the older and more exten- sive mines, hundreds of horses were sometimes kept at work, and the profits of mining were becoming daily less and less, and seemed likely to be soon ex- tinguished by this great tax on production. Worces- ter and his contemporaries had seen this threatening outlook, and were apprehensive that Britain might soon lose that supremacy, industrially, which she had, in consequence of her success in mining, up to chat time so firmly held. They had, in many cases, looked to steam or some as yet undiscovered motor to do this work more cheaply than horse-power ; but even Worcester and Morland failed to make practically useful application of the new " fire- engine." Savery, familiar with the business of mining, a mechanic by experience and practice as well as by nature, not only saw the opportunity, but saw also a way to secure a prize. He made a workmanlike reproduction of the Worcester machine, giving it a form capable of im- mediate and effective application to the intended pur- pose. This is his device, as built by him for mines, and as described by him to the Royal Society, then already (1698) formed and in operation, and to the public through his little book, " The Miner's Friend ; or, A Description of an Engine to raise Water by STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 1 1 Fire described, and the Manner of fixing it in Mines, with an Account of the several Uses it is appli- cable to, and an Answer to the Objections against it. Printed in London in 1702 for S. Crouch." It was Fig. 2. Savery's Engine, A. D. 1702. distributed among the proprietors and managers of mines, who were then finding the flow of water at depths so great as, in some cases, to bar further progress. The engraving of the engine was reproduced, with the description, in Harris's " Lexicon Technicum," 1 2 ROBER T FUL TON. 1704; in Switzer's " Hydrostatics," 1729; and in Desagulier's " Experimental Philosophy," 1744.* In Figure 2, LL is the boiler in which steam is raised, and through the pipes O O it is alternately let into the vessels PP. Suppose it to pass into the left- hand vessel first. The valve M being closed, and r being opened, the water contained in P is driven out and up the pipe S to the desired height, where it is discharged. The valve r is then closed, and the valve in the pipe O; the valve Mis next opened, and con- densing water is turned upon the exterior of P by the cock Y 9 leading water from the cistern X. As the steam contained in P is condensed, forming a vacuum there, a fresh charge of water is driven by atmospheric pressure up the pipe T. Meantime, steam from the boiler has been let into the right-hand vessel Pp, the cock W having been first closed, and R opened. The charge of water is driven out through the lower pipe and the cock R, and up the pipe S as before, while the other vessel is refilling preparatory to acting in its turn. The two vessels are thus alternately charged and discharged, as long as is necessary. Savery's method of supplying his boiler with water was as follows : The small boiler, Z>, is filled with water from any convenient source, as from the stand-pipe, S. A fire is then built under it, and when the pressure of steam in D becomes greater than in the main boiler, Z, a communication is opened between their lower ends, 1 Our illustration is from Thurston's " History of the Steam- Engine/' p. 37. New York. D. Appleton & Co. STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 13 and the water passes, under pressure, from the smaller to the larger boiler, which is thus "fed" without in- terrupting the work. G and N are gauge-cocks, by which the height of water in the boilers is determined ; they were first adopted by Savery. " Here we find, therefore, the first really practicable and commercially valuable steam-engine. Thomas Savery is entitled to the credit of having been the first to introduce a machine in which the power of heat, acting through the medium of steam, was rendered generally useful. It will be noticed that Savery, like the Marquis of Worcester, used a boiler separate from the water-reservoir. He added to the ' water-com- manding engine ' of the marquis the system of sur- face-condensation, by which he was enabled to charge his vessels when it became necessary to refill them ; and added, also, the secondary boiler, which enabled him to supply the working-boiler with water without interrupting its action. The machine was thus made capable of working uninterruptedly for a period of time only limited by its own decay. Savery never fitted his boilers with safety-valves, although it was done later by others ; and in deep mines he was compelled to make use of higher pressures than his rudely- constructed boilers could safely bear." 1 In this case, we find an illustration of a very com- mon fact in the history of inventions : The originator of this machine was probably, perhaps undoubtedly, 1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 38. See, also, Thurston's Manual of Steam-Boilers. New York. J. Wiley Sons. 14 ROBERT FULTON. the second Marquis of Worcester ; but the practical constructor, and the finally successful inventor, was Savery, the man who combined inventive with con- structive power and business ability in that way which is almost always essential to complete success. Savery was more an " exploiter " of this invention than its author. Yet he did introduce some excellent modifi- cations of details, and the various practically useful minutiae which so often are the prime requisite to commercially satisfactory work. A glance at the draw- ings of the machine, however, and a comparison with the modern steam-engine will show that this was not only not a steam-engine in the usual sense, a train of mechanism, but that it belongs to an entirely different class of apparatus. A real steam-engine was only in- vented after experience with the Savery apparatus had shown it to be a wasteful, dangerous, and compara- tively rude contrivance for the application of steam to the work of raising water. It was wasteful in conse- quence of the fact that it applied the pressure of the steam at trie surface of the cold water to be raised, and was thus certain to condense much more than it could usefully employ ; it was dangerous in conse- quence of the fact that it must necessarily use pres- sures exceeding those of head of water to be encountered, and higher than the mechanics of that time could make their boilers and " forcing- vessels " capable of safely withstanding. More than one explosion actually occurred. It is here that we meet with perhaps the greatest of all the inventors of the steam-engine, the man who STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 15 for the first time produced a steam-engine of the modern type ; a train of mechanism, in which a steam- engine was constructed and applied to another ma- chine for the purpose of acting as its " prime mover," an engine operating a pump. This greatest of the whole line of inventors, considered from the point of view of the historian of the engine and the student of its philosophy, was, not Watt, but Newcomen, or per- haps more precisely, two mechanics, Thomas New- comen and John Galley or Cawley, who patented the new engine, 1705, soon after Savery's machine had come to be fairly well known. Savery also controlled some of the patents incorporated in the new arrange- ment, and took an interest with its inventors, and shared their profits. Newcomen's engine, by employing steam of low, hardly more than atmospheric, pressure, evaded the dangers inherent in that of Savery, and by applying the steam to move a piston in a cylinder apart from the pump, secured comparatively economical perform- ance. It promptly displaced the older and ruder contrivance, and came into use all over Europe, as constructed later by Smeaton and other great engi- neers of the day. As finally given form by these able men, it is seen in the next engraving, which shows the machine as built by Smeaton in 1774, for the Long Benton colliery. 1 The boiler is not shown in the sketch. Figure 3 illustrates its characteristic features. 2 1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 65. 2 A fac-simile of a sketch in Galloway's " On the Steam- Engine," etc. 1 6 ROBERT FULTON. The steam is led to the engine through the pipe, C, and is regulated by turning the cock in the receiver, D 9 which connects with the steam-cylinder by the pipe, E, which latter pipe rises a little way above the Fig. 3. Smeaton's Newcomen Engine. bottom of the cylinder, F 9 in order that it may not drain off the injection- water into the steam-pipe and receiver. The steam-cylinder, about 10 ft. (3 m.) in length, is fitted with a carefully-made piston, G, having STEAM IN EARLIER TIMES. 17 a flanch rising 4 or 5 inches (.1 to 1.25 m.) and extending completely around its circumference, and nearly in contact with the interior surface of the cylinder. Between this flanch and the cylinder is driven a " packing " of oakum, which is held in place by weights ; this prevents the leakage of air, water, or steam past the piston, as it rises and falls in the cylinder at each stroke of the engine. The chain and piston-rod connect the piston to the beam //. The arch-heads at each end of the beam keep the chains of the piston-rod and the pump-rods perpen- dicular and in line. A " jack-head" pump, N, is driven by a small beam deriving its motion from the plug-rod at g, raises the water required for condensing the steam, and keeps the cistern, (9, supplied. This "jack- head " cistern is sufficiently elevated to give the water entering the cylinder the velocity requisite to secure prompt condensation. A waste-pipe carries away any surplus water. The injection- water is led from the cistern by the pipe, P P, which is two or three inches in diameter; and the flow of water is regulated by the injection-cock, r. The cap at the end, d, is pierced with several holes, and the stream thus divided rises in jets when admitted, and, striking the lower side of the piston, the spray thus produced very rapidly condenses the steam, and produces a vacuum beneath the piston. The valve, 8> guns can be loaded and fired under the water-line with near the same ease they are now worked above the water-line. My present idea is to have four columbiads on each side of a vessel, 86 ROBERT FULTON. and two in her bow, so that, whether she runs bow or side on to the enemy, the bullets must pass through her, as in Figure 9. You will observe, in these sketches, that not using guns above the water-line, I have no port-holes, and the sides above the water may be 7 or 8 feet thick, of pine logs, which renders them not only bullet-proof, but the vessel so buoyant that she cannot be sunk in this manner. My men who work the guns are out of danger under the water- line, and those who steer or work the sails are guarded by walls of wood, as A, B, Figure 6. For Fig. 9. harbour defence, and perhaps finally for service, I have combined a steam-engine with this kind of vessel, to bring her up to the enemy in a calm, or light breezes. In harbours I would not use masts or rigging ; there would be nothing to shoot away, nor to hold by in case of attempts at boardage ; and in such case, as my deck would not be wanted for fighting or any other purpose, while in action I could make it inclined to twenty-five degrees, and slush it so that boarders could not keep their feet, but must slide into the water, they not having a pin or rope to hold by. The steam-engine would give a vessel of this description the means of playing THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 87 around the enemy, to take choice of position on her bow or quarter, and with little or no risk sink everything that came into our waters. For sea service we must depend more on num- bers, of which the calculations are in favour of my plan, - A seventy-four will cost $600,000, and then the seventy- four of an enemy is equal to her in power. The enemy also have such fleets as will enable them to bring two to one ; therefore the chances are against us. For $600,000 I can build seven vessels. Were they to attack a seventy- four, she could not dis- mast the whole of them ; some one must get within the range of eight or ten feet of her, where one fire from any one of them would certainly destroy her. This changes the chances seven to one in our favour, and against the enemy, for the same capital expended. This represents the seven vessels bearing down on Fig. 10. an enemy. Here it is obvious that she cannot bring her guns to bear on more than one or two of them ; 88 ROBERT FULTON. if she lies to to fight, they must surround her; but if she sails better than any of them, and runs away, our object is gained, for then she can be driven off the ocean into port. As columbiads of 9-inch cal- iber are tremendous engines for close quarters, I could have two on pivots and circular carriages within my wooden walls, as thus, which being loaded with Fig. 11. semi- shot and chains twenty feet long, would at two hundred yards distance, while bearing down, cut her rigging, and disable her before coming to close action. We are now engaged in a war for principles important to our independence and interest as an active and great commercial nation, and if we fail, generations to come must contend for it until they succeed. At all events, millions must be expended, which, if as successful as our present hope, will fall far short of the liberty of the seas. In expectation to discover in the concealed magazines of science some certain mode for destroying military navies, and thereby establishing a perfect liberty of the seas, I have la- boured at intervals with much ardour for thirteen THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 89 years. I now submit to your reflections whether I have found it. My present impression, and Com- modore Decatur's, is that I have. This is also the opinion of many friends. For you will consider, that if those vessels can destroy such as now exist, they cannot be used against each other without both par- ties going to the bottom ; and such war cannot be made, as duels would never be fought if both parties were obliged to sit on a cask of powder, and ignite it with a quick-match. Two millions of dollars would build twenty such vessels ; sixty men to each would be sufficient. Total, twelve hundred men. Such a fleet would clear our coast; and the probability is it would be the most powerful fleet in the world. One, however, should be built by Government, to establish principles on the public mind which are already proved in private. On the whole of this subject, after you have maturely reflected, it will give me great pleasure to have your opinions ; and if it coincides with mine, your influence at Washington may be necessary to carry it into effect. I sincerely hope this new art may give many pleasing hours to your evening of life. As this wish is from the heart, it is better than the usual unmeaning com- pliments with which letters are concluded. ROBERT FULTON. SPECIFICATION. I, Robert Fulton, give the following specification of my invention for injuring or destroying ships and vessels of war, by igniting gunpowder below a line horizontal to 90 ROBERT FULTON. the surface of the water, or so that the explosion which causes injury to the vessel attacked shall be under water. Therefore, instead of having the cannon and port-holes of a ship or vessel of war as usual, above the surface of the water, I place my cannon so low in the vessel that their port-holes will be below the sur- face of the water any number of inches or feet which may be required, from six inches to four, six, ten, or more feet ; and thus, the cannon being fired with its muzzle under water, the bullets will pass through the water instead of through air, and through the sides of the enemy, from one to ten or more feet below the water-line, which, letting in the water in quantity ac- cording to the size of the holes and their depth under the surface, will sink the vessel attacked. DRAWING THE FIRST represents the mechanism by which a cannon may be loaded inside of a ship, its muzzle be presented to hole in the side of the ship below the water-line, then be fired, its ball pass out through water, the cannon recoil into the ship, and the port-hole shut without letting in any inconvenient quantity of water. The gun may again be loaded and fired as before. For this purpose a ring or flange is cast round the cannon, near its muzzle, which may be filled in with hemp like the packing of the piston of a steam-engine, or with leather, like the piston of a pump ; a strong cylinder of brass or iron, or the most fit metal for the water in which it is to be used, is to be neat and smoothly bored, like the air-pump or cylinder of a THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 91 steam-engine, and of a size exact to receive the muzzle of the cannon, with its before-mentioned packing ; hence, when the muzzle is pushed into the cylinder, it will be air and water tight, like the piston of a forcing-pump. The cylinder may be one, two, or more feet long, as the use may require ; on its outer end a strong head and flange cast, which flange receives screw-bolts, to fasten it tight in the side of the vessel. In the centre of the said head there is a hole two inches in diameter greater than the caliber of the cannon to be used for the cylinder. The cannon being run home until its muzzle touches the head of the cylinder, as in the drawing, the cover to the hole is to be turned to one side, and the cannon fired, the ball and charge passing through the hole. On the recoil of the cannon, the sliding piece which covers the hole will descend and stop out the water. On this plan the cannon may be mounted on a car- riage with wheels or not, as future experience may prove best, and always recoil, and be worked in a line direct to the cylinder which is to receive the muzzle. In my experience so far, when the cannon is loaded as usual, I put a kind of tompkin or stopper in the muzzle, with canvas and white lead to keep the water out of the gun. Thus I have found the gun to fire perfectly well without any risk or accident. Although this mode may be good in practice, I do not posi- tively know that the water might not be admitted into the gun, up to a water-tight wad. The first plan will do ; the latter may be proved in future practice. Cannon may be thus arranged under the water-line in such vessels of war as are usually built ; but as the 92 ROBER T FUL TON. whole battery comes below water, and may be several feet below, the vessel above the water-line may be made five, six, or more feet thick, of pine logs or other wood, of hay or cotton or old rope or cabbage- tree, or any kind of material which will be bullet- proof. Thus all the men will be out of danger, as in the drawing. Cannon may be placed in the bow of a vessel, near the keel as in drawing, or suspended over the bow or sides as in drawings, and be fired with water-proof locks, constructed for common or fulminating powder. Various other modes of practice may be devised ; but the whole merit of this invention consists in having discovered and proved that cannon can be fired to greater advantage for the destruction or annoyance of an enemy, when so placed that the muzzle shall be under water, and the ball pass through water for the whole or greater part of the space it has to go till it strikes the enemy. The practice then will be with strong bullet-proof vessels to run alongside of an enemy within thirty, twenty, or ten feet, give her a broadside of one, two, three, four, or more heavy pieces from thirty-two to one-hundred pounders, from four to twelve or fifteen feet below the water- line, and retire. Of this whole system of firing can- non, carronades, columbiads, or ordnance of any kind under water, so as thus to attack an enemy to advantage, I claim to be the original inventor; and claiming it as my right, I have deemed it sufficient to give one mechanical and practicable combination, being improvements previous to further experiments. But any attempt to fire any kind of ordnance under THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 93 water in attacks on vessels of war, or maritime com- bat, will be considered a violation of my right and purvey of my invention. (Signed) ROBERT FULTON. Fulton had been in America but a few weeks when he collected his papers and drawings and went to Washington, to urge upon the Government his plan for torpedo and submarine warfare. He secured a small appropriation, returned to New York, set up his apparatus on Governor's Island, and prepared to ex- plain it to the representatives of the army and navy, and such others as were interested in the subject. He carried out a series of experimental demonstra- tions of the value of his inventions, in the course of which he blew up a vessel provided by the Govern- ment for the purpose, in the harbour of New York, and completely annihilated it, or, as Fulton himself said, "decomposed" it. Descriptions of his inventions and of his experi- ments were, a little later, published by Fulton, in his " Torpedo War," a book addressed to the President of the United States and Members of Congress. The result was that Congress passed an>act permitting the extension of these experiments, and for some years after this date (1810), in fact up to the time of his death, Fulton was engaged intermittently in the pros- ecution of his studies, and in experiments in this direction. A commission was appointed to witness and report on his work, and Government continued its interest in the subject to the end. 94 ROBERT FULTON. Reigart says that Chancellor Livingston, after a long examination of each particular subject which the experiments had suggested, expressed himself as follows : " Upon the whole, I view this application of powder as one of the most important military discoveries which some centuries have produced. It appears to me to be capable of effecting the absolute security of your ports against naval aggression, provided that, in conjunction with it, the usual means necessary to occupy the attention of the enemy are not neglected." The reports were forwarded to the Secretary of the Navy by Mr. Fulton, with a letter from himself. His buoyant mind was never to be depressed. He gives his own views of the experiments, and writes with increased confidence in his ultimate success. He expresses himself satisfied with the report of the committee, and thinks their opinions were as favour- able to the infant art as, under the circumstances, could have been expected. It is due to Mr. Fulton to give some extracts from this letter. He says : " It is proved and admitted, first, that the water- proof locks will ignite gunpowder under water ; sec- ondly, it is proved that seventy pounds of powder, exploded under the bottom of a vessel of two hun- dred tons, will blow her up ; hence it is admitted, that if a sufficient quantity of powder and which I believe need not be more than two hundred pounds be ignited under the bottom of a first-rate man-of- war, it would instantly destroy her; thirdly, it is proved and admitted by all parties concerned in the THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 95 experiments, that a gun can be fired under water, and that a cable of any size can be cut by that means, at any required depth. With these immediately impor- tant principles proved and admitted, the question naturally occurs, whether there be, within the genius or inventive faculties of man, the means of placing a torpedo under a ship in defiance of her powers of resistance. He who says that there is not, and that consequently torpedoes never can be rendered useful, must of course believe that he has penetrated to the limits of man's inventive powers, and that he has contemplated all the combinations and arrangements which present or future ingenuity can devise to place a torpedo under a ship. I will do justice to the talents of Commodore Rodgers. The nets, booms, kentledge, and grapnels which he arranged around the 1 Argus ' made a formidable appearance against one torpedo boat and eight bad oarsmen. I was taken unawares. I had explained to the officers of the navy my means of attack ; they did not inform me of their means of defence. The nets were put down to the ground; otherwise I should have sent the torpedoes under them. In this situation, the means I was provided with being imperfect, insignificant, and inadequate to the effect to be produced, I might be compared to what the inventor of gunpowder would have appeared, had he lived in the time of Julius Caesar, and presented himself before the gates of Rome with a four-pounder, and had endeavoured to convince the Roman people that by means of such machines he could batter down their walls. They 96 ROBERT FULTON. would have told him that a few catapultas, casting arrows and stones upon his men, would cause them to retreat; that a shower of rain would destroy his ill-guarded powder ; and the Roman centurions, who would have been unable to conceive the various modes in which gunpowder has since been used to destroy the then art of war, would very naturally conclude that it was an useless invention ; while the manufacturers of catapultas, bows, arrows, and shields, would be the most vehement against further experi- ments. I had not one man instructed in the use of the machines, nor had I time to reflect on this mode of defending a vessel. I have now, however, had time; and I feel confident that I have discovered a means which will render nets to the ground, booms, kentledge, grapnel, oars with sword-blades, through the port-holes, and all such kinds of opera- tions, totally useless." The day after this most striking experiment, Mr. Fulton addressed a letter to the governor, and the mayor, and members of the corporation of New York, from which the following are extracts : " Yesterday my desire to satisfy public curiosity at the stated minute was as great as my never-ceasing anxiety to see our harbours and coast placed beyond the power of foreign insults, and I lament exceedingly that numbers were disappointed by the explosion not taking on the first attack, but it has given me much additional confidence in my engines. " On taking the torpedoes out of the water, where they had been for two hours, I found the locks and THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 97 powder perfectly dry. I immediately discovered the cause of the failure, which I corrected by placing a piece of quick-match in the charge which the lock contained. Thus arranged, the fire was communi- cated to the seventy pounds of powder in the body of the torpedoes, an explosion took place, and the brig was decomposed. "You have now seen the effect of the explosion of powder under the bottom of a vessel ; and this, I believe, is the best and most simple mode of using it with the greatest effect in marine wars ; for a right application of one torpedo will annihilate a ship, nor leave a man to relate the dreadful catastrophe. Thus, should a ship-of-the-line, containing five hundred men, contend with ten good row-boats, each with a torpedo and ten men, she would risk total annihila- tion, while the boats under the cover of the night, and quick movements, would risk only a few men out of a hundred. " When .two ships of equal force engage, it may be doubtful which will gain the victory. Frequently one hundred men are killed on each side, as many wounded, and the ships much injured ; but even the vanquished vessels will admit of being repaired, and thus the number of ships-of-war is not diminished, but continue to increase and tyrannize over the rights of neutrals and peaceable nations. " Having now clearly demonstrated the great effect of explosion under water, it is easy to conceive that by organization and practice the application of the torpedoes will, like every other art, progress in per- 7 98 ROBERT FULTON. fection. Little difficulties and errors will occur in the commencement, as has been the case in all new inven- tions ; but where there is little expense, so little risk, and so much to be gained, it is worthy of considera- tion whether this system should not have a fair trial. Gunpowder, within the last three hundred years, has totally changed the art of war, and all my reflections have led me to believe that this application of it will in a few years put a stop to maritime wars, give that liberty of the seas which has been long and anxiously desired by every good man, and secure to America that liberty of commerce, tranquillity, and indepen- dence, which will enable her citizens to apply their mental and corporeal faculties to useful and humane pursuits, to the improvement of our country, and the happiness of the whole people." Golden describes one of these schemes as almost the last work in which the active and ingenious mind of Mr. Fulton was engaged. This was a project for the modification of his submarine boat. " He had contrived a vessel which was to have a capacity, by means of an air-chamber like that which was in his ' Nautilus,' to be kept at a greater or less depth in the water, but so that her deck should not be sub- merged. That chamber communicated with the water, and was shaped like a diving-bell ; but it could at pleasure, by an air-pump, be exhausted of air, and then it would, of course, fill with water ; or any requi- site quantity of air could be forced into it, so as to expel the water from it entirely. The sides of the vessel were to be of the ordinary thickness, but her THE ENGINEER AS INVENTOR. 99 deck was to be stout and plated with iron, so as to render it ball-proof, which would not require so much strength as might be at first imagined, because, as no shot could strike it from a vessel but at a very great angle, the ball would ricochet on a slight resistance from a hard substance. She was to be of a size capable of sheltering a hundred men under her deck, and was to be moved by a wheel placed in another air-chamber near the stern, so that when the vessel was to be propelled only a part of the under paddles should be in water ; at least, the upper half of the wheel, or more, moving in air. The wheel was to be turned by a crank attached to a shaft, that should penetrate the stern to the air-chamber through a stuffing-box, and run along the middle of the boat until it approaches her bows. Through this shaft rungs were to be passed, of which the crew were to take hold as they were seated upon each side of it on benches. By merely pushing the shaft backward and forward the water-wheel would be turned, and the boat be propelled with a velocity equal to the force of a hundred men. By means of the air-chamber, she was to be kept, when not in hostile action, upon the surface, as common boats are ; but when in reach of an enemy she was to sink, so that nothing but her deck would be exposed to his view or to his fire. Her motion when in this situation would be perfectly silent, and therefore he called this contrivance a mute. His design was that she should approach an, enemy, which he supposed she might do in fogs or in the night, withouj being heard or discovered, and ioo ROBERT FULTON. do execution by means of his torpedoes or submarine guns. He presented a model of this vessel to the Government, by which it was approved ; and under the authority of the Executive he commenced build- ing one in this port ; but before the hull was entirely finished, his country had to lament his death, and the mechanics he had employed were incapable of proceeding without him." 1 1 Colden's Life of Fulton, p. 233. THE "CLERMONT." IOI VI. FULTON'S EXPERIMENTS WITH STEAM. THE "CLERMONT." IN the opening chapter of this book we have traced the progress of invention in the applications of steam, especially in the direction of its use in navigation, and have seen how the minds of all great philosophers and mechanics were turning toward the solution of this now visible and almost imperative problem. It has been seen that, before Fulton's experiments were begun, a number of inventors on both sides of the Atlantic were engaged in the work, and that some progress had been made ; so much, in fact, that the outcome could hardly be doubted. Papin had, early in the eighteenth century, as we have seen, actually built a steamboat; Jonathan Hulls, in 1737, secured British patents on another form ; William Henry had put his little boat on the Conastoga River in 1763 ; the Comte d'Auxiron had launched a steamer on French waters in 1774; ten years later Oliver Evans and James Rumsey came forward with their peculiar systems of propulsion ; John Fitch appeared at about the same date, 1785, building a number of boats, and succeeding, apparently, in attaining seven miles an hour in his boat of 1790, and making a total of several thousands of miles in its regular work as a 102 ROBERT FULTON. passenger boat between Philadelphia and Borden- town, Pennsylvania. Fitch's screw-boat, built forty- five years after Bernouilli had written his prize-essay suggesting the use of the " spiral oar," as James Watt called it when proposing it, independently, about 1 784, was sufficiently satisfactory, as proving the practica- bility of the device, when tried on Collect Pond, in New York City, in 1796. His contemporary in France, the Marquis de Jouffroy, had built two steam- ers on the Rhone, in 1 781 1 783 ; and in Scotland, Mil- ler, Taylor, and Symmington had almost succeeded, their efforts finally resulting in a real success, in 1801, when the Charlotte Dundas was built as a " stern- wheeler" on the Forth and^ Clyde Canal. Samuel Morey had put a little steamer on the Connecticut in 1 790, and many other mechanics and inventors were busy in the same work by the time Fulton had reached that problem, among whom were two of Fulton's own later friends Livingston and Roosevelt, and his most enterprising rival, John Stevens, the- four working together to build a boat on the Passaic River in 1798. Fulton had, as early as 1798, proposed plans for steam-vessels to both the United States and British governments. 1 He had been too busy with his other schemes to pay much attention to this until satisfied that he was to expect nothing from the former. Fulton's experiments began while he was in Paris, and may have been stimulated by his acquaintance with Chancellor Livingston, who held the monopoly, 1 History of the Steam-Engine, R. H. Thurston ; Life of Fulton, Golden. THE "CLERMONT." 103 offered by the legislature of the State of New York, for the navigation of the Hudson River, to be ac- corded to the beneficiary when he should make a successful voyage by steam. Livingston was now ambassador of the United States to the Court of France, and had become interested in the young artist-engineer, meeting him, presumably, at the house of his friend Barlow. It was determined to try the experiment at once, and on the Seine. The giving of monopolies in the form here alluded to was, in those days, before the introduction of the modern systems of patent-law, a very common method of securing to inventors their full reward. John Fitch had been given a monopoly of this kind by the United States government for a period of fourteen years from March 19, 1787; which monopoly was later (1798) repealed by Congress ; this repeal being, in turn, denied by the courts, March 13, 1798, and subsequently con- tinued to June i, 1819, meantime being transferred to Nicholas J. Roosevelt. The State Act in favour of Livingston was passed to take effect April 5, 1803, and was repealed as unconstitutional, and conflicting with the jurisdiction of the United States, June 17, 1817. The whole system went out of use at the latter date, as it was found to be dangerous and trouble- some, and on the whole far inferior to that admirable patent- system which succeeded it, and which has done so much to promote the marvellous prosperity of the country since the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Fulton went to Plombieres in the spring of 1802, 104 ROBERT FULTON. and there made his drawings and completed his plans for the construction of his first steamboat. Many attempts had been made, as we have seen, and many inventors were at work contemporaneously with him. Every modern device, the jet-system, the " chaplet " of buckets on an endless chain or rope, the paddle- wheel, and even the screw-propeller had been al- ready proposed, and all were familiar to the well-read man of science of the day. Indeed, as Mr. Benjamin H. Latrobe, a distinguished engineer of the time, wrote in a paper presented May 20, 1803, to the Philadel- phia Society, " A sort of mania began to prevail " for propelling boats by means of steam-engines. Fulton was one of those taking this mania most seriously. He made a number of models which worked success- fully, and justified the proprietors of the new arrange- ment in building on a larger scale. A model of the proposed steamboat was made during the year 1802, and was presented to the committee of the French legislature with the note of which a copy is given below. This latter document was discovered in the following manner, as described by " La Nature " in 1880: Jacques de Vaucanson, the French mechanician, was born in Grenoble, Feb. 24, 1709, and died in Paris, Nov. 21, 1782. He studied mechanics and anatomy for several years. The statue of the Flute- Player in the gardens of the Tuileries first sug- gested to him the project of making an automaton player, and he acquired great celebrity by works of this class. Cardinal Fleury appointed him inspector THE "CLERMONT." 105 of silk manufactures ; and in consequence of his improvements in machinery he was attacked by the workmen of Lyons. He retaliated by constructing an automaton ass weaving flowered silks. He be- queathed his collection to the queen, who gave it to the Academic des Sciences. It was afterward scattered, in consequence of a contest with the mer- cantile authorities for the possession of the manufac- turing machinery. His portfolio, containing drawings and documents of great historical value, is now in possession of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, at Paris. One of the most valuable things in the collection is Fulton's design for his first steamboat, accompanied by an autograph letter : PARIS, 4 Pluviose, Year n (1803). ROBERT FULTON TO CITIZENS MOLAR, BANDELL, AND MONTGOLFIER. FRIENDS OF THE ARTS, I send you herewith drawings sketched from a machine that I have con- structed, and with which I purpose soon to make experiments in causing boats to move on rivers by the aid of fire-pumps (pompes-a-feu) . My first aim, in occupying myself with this idea, was to put it in practice on the long rivers of America, where there are no tow-paths, and where these would scarcely be practicable, and where, consequently, the expenses of navigation by steam would be placed in comparison with that of manual labour, and not with that of horse-power, as in France. In these drawings you will find nothing new, since ' io6 ROBERT FULTON. they are only [those of] water-wheels, a method which has been often tried, and always abandoned because it was believed that a purchase could not be thereby obtained in the water. But after the experi- ments that I have made, I am convinced that the fault has not been in the wheel, but in ignorance of proportions, velocities, powers, and probably mechan- ical combinations. . . . Citizens, when my experi- ments are ready, I shall have the pleasure of inviting you to witness them ; and if they succeed, I reserve to myself the privilege of either making a present of my labours to the Republic, or deriving therefrom the advantages which the law authorizes. At present, I place these notes in your hands, so that if a like project should reach you before my experiments are finished, it may not have preference over my own. Respectfully, ROBERT FULTON. The drawings alluded to included that here shown, which has been reduced from the original, which is still safely preserved in Paris. As will be seen later, the general character of the vessel is that subsequently made so successful in America, and the form of the engine is precisely that of the later " Clermont." Fulton seems to have been considered, even at this early day, an authority on the subject of steam- navi- gation. Admiral Preble, in his History of Steam Navigation, (p. 35) quotes the following letter to a friend, written after his work on his own scheme for that season was over : THE "CLERMONT." 107 PARIS, the 2oth of Sept., 1802. To MR. FULNER SKIPWITH. SIR, The expense of a patent in France is 300 livres for three years, 800 ditto for ten years, and 1,500 ditto for fifteen years. There can be no diffi- culty in obtaining a patent for the mode of propelling a boat which you have shown me ; but if the author of the model wishes to be assured of the merits of his Fig. 7. Fulton's First Steamboat. invention before he goes to the expense of a patent, I advise him to make the model of a boat in which he can place a clock-spring, which will give about eight revolutions. He can then combine the move- ments so as to try oars, paddles, and the leaves which he proposes. If he finds that the leaves drive the boat a greater distance in the same time than either oars or paddles, they consequently are a better ap- plication of power. About eight years ago, the Earl of Stanhope tried an experiment on similar leaves, wheels, oars, and paddles, and flyers similar to those 1 08 ROBER T FUL TON. of a smoke- jack, and found oars to be the best. The velocity with which a boat moves is in proportion as the sum of the surfaces of the oars, paddles, leaves, or other machine is to the bow of the boat presented to the water, and in proportion to the power with which such machinery is put in motion. Hence, if the use of the surfaces of the oars is equal to the sum of the surfaces of the leaves, and they pass through similar curves in the same time, the effect must be the same. But oars have their advantage ; they return through air to make a second stroke, and hence create very little resistance ; whereas the leaves return through water, and add considerably to the resistance, which resistance is increased as the velocity of the boat is augmented. No kind of machinery can create power. All that can be done is to apply the manual or other power to the best advantage. If the author of the model is fond of mechanics, he will be much amused, and not lose his time, by trying the experiments in the manner I propose ; and this perhaps is the most prudent measure, before a patent is taken. I am, sir, with much respect, Yours, ROBERT FULTON. At this time the inventors had taken up the prob- lem, as we have seen, and several had been, during the preceding twenty years, working with more or less success to secure what every statesman of the period saw would be ultimately a step toward the attain- ment of that great aim of Fulton, the commercial free- dom of the seas. As early as 1 794, Lord Stanhope THE " CLERMONT." 109 addressed a letter to Wilberforce on the question of peace or war, likely, he thought to be brought under discussion on the meeting of Parliament. In this letter he speculates on the possible resources of France, and hints that England is not invulnerable. He says : " This country [Great Britain] is vulnerable in so many ways, the picture is horrid. By my letter I will say nothing on that subject. One instance, I will, however, state, because it is information you cannot, as yet, receive from any other quarter ; though in two or three months from the date of this letter the fact will be fully established, and you may then hear it from others. The thing I allude to is of peculiar impor- tance. The fact is this : I know (and in a few weeks shall prove) that ships of any size, and for certain reasons the larger the better, may be navigated in any narrow or other sea, without sails (though occasion- ally with), but so as to go without wind, and even directly against both wind and waves. The conse- quences I draw are as follows : First, that all the principal reasons against the French having the ports of Ostend, etc., cease, inasmuch as a French fleet composed of ships of the above-mentioned descrip- tion, would come out at all times from Cherbourg, Dunkirk, etc., as well as from Ostend, etc., and appear in the same seas. The water, even at Dunkirk, will be amply deep enough for the purposes of having them there. The French having Ostend, ought not, there- fore, under this new revolution in naval affairs, for it would be a complete revolution, to be a bar to peace. 1 1 o ROBER T FUL TON. Under the old nautical system, naval men might have reasoned differently on that subject. But the most important consequence which I draw from this stu- pendous fact mentioned at the top of this page is this ; namely, that // will shortly render all the exist- ing navies of the world (I mean military navies) no better than lumber. For what can ships do that are dependent upon wind and weather against fleets wholly independent of either? Therefore the boasted superiority of the English navy is no more ! We must have a new one. The French and other na- tions will, for the same reasons, have their new ones." 1 The apprehension of Stanhope was the hope of Ful- ton ; but neither the hope nor the apprehension has as yet been verified. The introduction of steam- navigation became a success ; but that success came so slowly as to permit all nations to avail themselves of it, and none sooner or more completely than the two most active in the production of this revolution, - Great Britain and the United States. The British navy became a steam-navy, and the other nations of the world followed her lead ; so that the strife of the century, at sea, has been a? struggle between, and for, steam-fleets. In' this direction, the introduction of steam has resulted in the increased expenditure of money on fleets in such enormous amounts as to tax the people to the very limit of their endurance ; while the relative order in naval power of the greater nations has been comparatively little altered. 1 Preble, p. 28. THE "CLERMONT? Ill With the encouragement of Chancellor Livingston, who urged upon Fulton the importance of the intro- duction of steam-navigation into their native country, the latter continued his experimental work. Their boat was finished and set afloat on the Seine in 1803, in the early spring. Its proportions had been deter- Fig. 8. Fulton's Experiments. mined by careful computation from the results of no less careful experiment on the resistance of fluids and the power required for propelling vessels ; and its speed was, therefore, more nearly in accord with the expectations and promises of the inventor than was the usual experience in those days. The Author has examined a collection of Ful- ton's sketches of these plans, including chaplet, side- 112 ROBERT FULTON. wheel and stern-wheel boats, driven by various forms of steam-engine, some working direct, and some geared to the paddle-wheel shaft. Figure 8 is en- graved from these sheets. It represents the method adopted by Fulton to determine the resistance of various forms and proportions of bodies towed through water. Figure 9 is "A Table of the resistance of WAUTJCAL MILES KiR HOUR. {0 KM MM 034 SB* Ml 0M SiK HUM 7*/fi SJ6 W4 13J9 139 MDnzBI 34129 fOS M2 2BM HI il OS S6 ^< 26.-W HSl IdM SJDl MS fZ77 Xfl 2CJ3 (IN 1132 i96 (30MUIUI El! 3. 25 JSdi.05 5.88 0/jrecrjeN or THE MOTION orntE BODIES, c en. 22? Hii'iii!iiimiiiii!iii!ipiii : 3giiiliiiiiiiiiiill -7fr v Fig. 9. Fulton's Table of Resistances. bodies moved through water, taken from experiments made in England by a society for improving Naval architecture, between the years 1793 and 1798." This is from a certified copy of' "The Original Drawing on file in the Office of the Clerk of the New York District, making a part of the Demonstra- tion of the patent granted to Robert Fulton, Esqr., on the nth day of February, 1809. Dated this 3rd March, 1814." Guided by these experiments and calculations, therefore, Fulton directed the construction of his vessel. The hull was sixty-six feet long, of eight feet THE " CLERMONT." 113 beam, and of light draught. But unfortunately the hull was too weak for its machinery, and it broke in two and sank to the bottom of the Seine. Fulton at once set about repairing damages. He was compelled to direct the rebuilding of the hull, but the machinery was but slightly injured. In June, 1803, the recon- struction was complete, and the vessel was set afloat in July. August 9, 1803, this boat was cast loose in presence of an immense concourse of spectators, including a committee of the National Academy, consisting of Bougainville, Bossuet, Carnot, and Pe"rier. The boat moved but slowly, making only between three and four miles an hour against the current, the speed through the water being about 4^ miles; but this was, all things considered, a great success. The experiment attracted little attention, notwith- standing the fact that its success had been witnessed by the committee of the Academy and by officers on Napoleon's staff. The boat remained a long time on the Seine, near the palace. The water-tube boiler of this vessel (Figure 10) is still preserved at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris, where it is known as Barlow's boiler. Barlow patented it in France as early as 1793, as a steamboat-boiler, and states that the object of his construction was to obtain the greatest possible extent of heating- surface. Fulton endeavoured to secure the pecuniary aid and the countenance of the First Consul, but in vain. Livingston wrote home, describing the trial and its 8 114 ROBERT FULTON. results, and procured the passage of an Act by the legislature of the State of New York, extending, nomi- nally to Fulton, a monopoly granted the former in 1798 for the term of twenty years from April 5, 1803, the date of the new law, and extending the time allowed for proving the practicability of driving a boat four miles an hour by steam to two years from the same date. A later act further extended the time to April, 1807. Fig. TO. Barlow's Water-Tube Boiler, 1793. In May, 1804, Fulton went to England, giving up all hope of success in France with either his steam- boats or his torpedoes, and the chapter of his work in Europe practically ends here. He had already written to Boulton & Watt, ordering an engine to be built from plans which he furnished them ; but he had not informed them of the purpose to which it was to be applied. This engine l was to have a steam- 1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 256. THE "CLERMONT." 115 cylinder two feet in diameter and of four feet stroke. Its form and proportions were substantially those of the boat-engine of 1803. Meantime,- the opening of the century had been distinguished by the beginning of work in the same direction by the most active and energetic among Ful- ton's later rivals. This was Col. John Stevens of Ho- boken, who, assisted by his son, Robert L. Stevens, was earnestly engaged in the attempt to seize the prize now so evidently almost within the grasp. This younger Stevens was he of whom the great naval architect and engineer, John Scott Russell, afterward remarked : " He is probably the man to whom, of all others, America owes the greatest share of its present highly improved steam-navigation." l The father and son worked together for years after Fulton had demon- strated the possibility of reaching the desired end, in the improvement of the hulls and machinery of the river steamboat, until in their hands, and especially in those of the son, the now familiar system of con- struction in all its essentials was developed. The elder Stevens, as early as 1789, evidently had seen what was in prospect, and had petitioned the legis- lature of the State of New York for a grant similar to that actually accorded Livingston, later ; and he had certainly, at that time, formed plans for the applica- tion of steam-power to navigation. The records show that he was at work on construction as early, at least, as 1791. The following is a brief state- 1 Steam and Steam-Navigation, J. S. Russell, Edinburgh, 1841. Il6 ROBERT FULTON. ment of his work, mainly as elsewhere given by the Author. 1 In 1804 Stevens completed a steamboat sixty-eight feet long and of fourteen feet beam. Its boiler (Figure n) was of the water- tubular variety. It con- Fig, ii. Section of Steam -Boiler, 1804. tained one hundred tubes, two inches in diameter and eighteen inches long, fastened at one end to a central water-leg and steam-drum. The flames from the fur- nace passed among the tubes, the water being inside. Fig. 12. Engine, Boiler, and Screw-Propellers, used by Stevens, 1804. The engine (Figure 12) was direct-acting high-pressure condensing, having a jo-inch cylinder, two feet stroke 1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, p. 264. THE CLERMONT:> 117 of piston, and driving a well- shaped screw, with four blades. This machinery, the high-pressure condensing engine, with rotating valves, and twin screw-pro- pellers, as rebuilt in 1805, is still preserved. The hub and blade of a single screw, also used with the same machinery in 1804, is likewise extant. Stevens's eldest son, John Cox Stevens, was in Great Britain in the year 1805, and while there pa- tented a modification of this sectional boiler. In his Fig. 13. Stevens's Screw-Steamer, 1804. specification he says that he describes this invention as it was made known to him by his father, and adds : " From a series of experiments made in France, in 1790, by M. Belamour, under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Sciences, it has been found that, within a certain range, the elasticity of steam is nearly doubled by every addition of temperature equal to 30 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. These experi- 1 1 8 ROBER T FUL TON. ments were carried no higher than 280, at which temperature the elasticity of steam was found equal to about four times the pressure of the atmosphere. By experiments which have lately been made by myself, the elasticity of steam at the temperature of boiling oil, which has been estimated at about 600, was found to equal forty times the pressure of the atmosphere. " To the discovery of this principle or law, which obtains when water assumes a state of vapour, I cer- tainly can lay no claim ; but to the application of it, upon certain principles, to the improvement of the steam-engine, I do claim exclusive right. " It is obvious that, to derive advantage from an application of this principle, it is absolutely necessary that the vessel or vessels for generating steam should have strength sufficient to withstand the great pressure from an increase of elasticity in the steam ; but this pressure is increased or diminished in proportion to the capacity of the containing vesseL The principle, then, of this invention consists in forming a boiler by means of a system, or combination, of a number of small vessels, instead of using, as in the usual mode, one large one, the relative strength of the materials of which these vessels are composed increasing in proportion to the diminution of capacity. It will readily occur that there are an infinite variety of possible modes of effecting such combinations ; but, from the nature of the case, there are certain limits beyond which it becomes impracticable to carry on improvement. In the boiler I am about to describe, 1 apprehend that the improvement is carried to the THE "CLERMONT." 119 utmost extent of which the principle is capable. Suppose a plate of brass of one foot square, in which a number of holes are perforated, into each of which holes is fixed one end of a copper tube, of about an inch in diameter and two feet long, and the other ends of these tubes inserted in like manner into a similar piece of brass; the tubes, to insure their tightness, to be cast in the plates ; these plates are to be inclosed at each end of the pipes by a strong cap of cast-iron or brass, so as to leave a space of an inch or two between the plates or ends of the pipes and the cast-iron cap at each end ; the caps at each end are to be fastened by screw-bolts passing through them into the plates ; the necessary supply of water is to be injected by means of a forcing-pump into the cap at one end, and through a tube inserted into the cap at the other end the steam is to be conveyed to the cylinder of the steam-engine ; the whole is then to be encircled in brick-work or masonry in the usual manner, placed either horizontally or perpendicularly, at option. " I conceive that the boiler above described em- braces the most eligible mode of applying the prin- ciple before mentioned, and that it is unnecessary to give descriptions of the variations in form and con- struction that may be adopted, especially as these forms may be diversified in many different modes." Boilers of the character of those described in this specification were used on a locomotive built by John Stevens, in 1824-1825. The use of a high-pressure sectional boiler seventy 120 ROBERT FULTON. years ago is more remarkable than the adoption of the screw-propeller thirty years before the screw came into general use. Colonel Stevens designed a form of iron- clad in the year 1812, since reproduced by the late John Elder, of Glasgow, Scotland. It consisted of a saucer-shaped hull, plated with iron of ample thick- ness to resist the shot fired from the heaviest ordnance then known. This vessel was to be secured to a swivel, and anchored in the channel to be defended. Fig. 14. Stevens's Twin-Screw Steamer, 1805. A set of screw-propellers, driven by steam-engines, and situated beneath the vessel, were arranged to permit the vessel to be rapidly revolved about its centre, working thus on the principle of the " turret " of Timby and Ericsson. As each gun came into line it was discharged, and then reloaded before coming around again. This, the first iron-clad ever designed, has recently been again brought out and introduced into the Russian navy, and called the " Popoffska," Stevens next built a boat which he named the " Phoenix," and made the first trial in 1807, just too THE " CLERMONT." 12 1 late to anticipate Fulton. This boat was driven by paddle-wheels. Stevens, being shut out of the rivers of the State of New York by the monopoly held by Fulton and Liv- ingston, ran the "Phoenix" for a time between New York Bay and New Brunswick, and on the Delaware. At that time no canal existed, and in June, 1808, Robert L. Stevens started to make the passage by sea. Although meeting a gale of wind, he arrived at Phila- delphia safely, having been the first to make a sea voyage by steam-power. From this time forward the Stevenses continued to construct steam-vessels, and, later, built the most successful steamboats on the Hudson River. Before recurring to the work of Fulton, a few more paragraphs may be devoted to Stevens. 1 Col. John Stevens, of Hoboken, was the greatest professional engineer and naval architect living at the beginning of the present century. Without having made any improvement in the steam-engine, like that which gave Watt his fame ; without being the first to propose navigation by steam, or steam-transportation on land, he exhibited a better knowledge of engineer- ing than any man of his time, and entertained and urged more advanced opinions, and more statesman- like views, in relation to the economical importance of the improvement of the steam-engine, both on land and water, than seem to have been attributable to any other leading engineer of that time, not excepting Robert Fulton. 1 See a paper by the Author, " The Messrs. Stevens, as Engineers," etc. ; Journal of the Franklin Institute, Oct., 1874. 1 2 2 ROBER T FUL TON. Dr. Charles King, then the distinguished President of the Columbia College, thus refers to the work of this great man. 1 " Mr. Stevens's attention was first turned, or rather the bent of his genius was developed and directed toward mechanics and mechanical philosophy, by the accident of seeing in 1787 the early and, as now may be said, imperfect steamboat of John Fitch navigating the Delaware River. He was driving in his phaeton on the banks of the river when the mysterious craft, without sails or oars, passed by. Mr. Stevens's inter- est was excited ; he followed the boat to its landing, familiarized himself with the design and the details of this new and curious combination, and from that hour became a thoroughly excited and unwearied ex- perimenter in the application of steam to locomotion on the water, and subsequently on the land. " Having been brought by close family connection into intimacy with Robert R. Livingston (the Chan- cellor of this State, who married the sister of Colonel Stevens), he induced Mr. L. to join him in these investigations ; and they were persevered in at great cost, and with little immediate success, till Chancellor Livingston, in 1801-1802, was sent as minister to France. " So much, however, was the Chancellor encour- aged by the experiments then made, that as early as 1798 he obtained from the legislature of New York an exclusive grant for the use of steam on the waters of New York. This, however, became forfeit by 1 Lecture on the Progress of the City of New York, 1843. THE "CLERMONT." 123 the failure to avail within the limited time of its privileges. " But previously to the Act of '98, the legislature of New York had, as early as 1787, granted to James Rumsey and to John Fitch the exclusive right to navigate the waters of the State with steam-propelled vessels; and on the 9th of January, 1789, John Ste- vens petitioned the legislature for a like grant, nothing having resulted from the preceding ones. Mr. Stevens in his petition says that ' to the best of his knowledge and belief his scheme is altogether new, and does not interfere with the inventions of either of the other gentlemen who have applied to your honourable body for an exclusive right of navi- gating by means of steam.' The petitioner adds that he ' had made an exact draught of the different parts of his machine, which, with an explanation thereof, he is ready to exhibit.' The prayer of the petition was unsuccessful ; but these draughts should be among the papers of the late Colonel Stevens, and at this day would be curious. " Mr. Stevens, meanwhile, never renounced his ex- periments, nor despaired of success; and in 1804 he actually constructed a propeller (a small open boat, worked by steam), with such decided success that he was encouraged to go on and build the ' Phcenix ' steamboat, on his own plan and model, and had her ready almost contemporaneously with, but a little after, the first steamboat of Fulton, the 'Clermont.' The success of the ' Clermont ' entitled Mr. Fulton and Chancellor Livingston, who was co-operating with ROBERT FULTON. Fulton, to the benefit of the law, which had been re- vived by the State of New York, granted a monopoly of the waters of the State, and thus Mr. Stevens's steamboat was excluded from those waters. On the Delaware, however, and on the Connecticut, he placed boats ; and his eminent son, Robert L. Stevens, hav- ing embraced his father's views, was now at work with him to improve the known, and invent new resources Jor accelerated steam conveyance." lile Fulton was still abroad, John Fitch and Oliver Evans were pursuing a similar course of experi- ment, as were his contemporaries on the other side the Atlantic, and with more success. Fitch had made a number of fairly successful ventures, and had shown beyond question that the project of applying steam to ship-propulsion was a promising one ; and he had only failed through lack of financial backing, and ina- bility to appreciate the amount of power that must be employed to give his boats any considerable speed. Evans had made his " Oruktor Amphibolis," a flat- bottomed vessel which he built at his works in Phila- delphia, and impelled by its own engines, on wheels, to the bank of the Schuylkill, and then afloat, down the stream to its berth, by paddle-wheels driven by the same engines. Other inventors were working on both sides the ocean with apparently good reason to hope for success, and the times evidently were ripe for the man who should best combine all the require- ments in a single experiment. The man to do this was Fulton. He had made his own preliminary trials on the THE "CLERMONT." 125 Seine, and had there learned how to proceed to make a better steamer later ; he had undoubtedly kept him- self informed of what was being done by his rivals in Great Britain, as in France and the United States, as well as the imperfect facilities for communication of the beginning of the nineteenth century permitted ; he had the natural talent of the inventor, the skill and training of the engineer, and was now backed by men of capital and sagacity, who had also that essential of final success, political power, and influence. Fulton's experiments on the Seine so far encour- aged him that, with the approval of Livingston, he immediately wrote to the firm of Boulton & Watt, in England, the builders of the engines of James Watt, then the junior member of the firm, and ordered an engine of which he gave them the dimensions and design, but which he did not inform them was to be used in steam-navigation. This engine was to be at once built and shipped to the United States, whither Fulton had decided to at once return. He himself went to England before returning to the United States, and, it is presumed, there saw the builders of his engine, and instructed them as to the details of its construction for adaptation to his purposes. It was very slowly constructed, however; and it was not until about the time of his own arrival at New York that it was received and made ready for its work. The boat was finally built and fitted with these en- gines, and at the expense of Fulton himself, who could find no one at the time ready to assume a por- tion of the, to him, somewhat costly outfit. Living- 126 ROBERT FULTON. ston seems to have remained behind, and to have left the whole burden to be borne by Fulton. Immediately on his arrival, in the winter of 1806-7, Fulton started on his boat, selecting Charles Brown as the builder, a well-known ship-builder of that time, and the builder of many of Fulton's later steam-vessels. The hull of this steamer, which was the first to estab- lish a regular route and regular transportation of pas- sengers and merchandise in America, Fulton's first boat in his native country, was 133 feet long, 1 8 f eet beam, and 7 feet depth of hold. The engine was of 24 inches diameter of cylinder, 4 feet stroke of piston ; and its boiler was 20 feet long, 7 feet high, and 8 feet wide. The tonnage was computed at 160. After its first season, its operation having satisfied all concerned of the promise of the venture, its hull was lengthened to 140 feet, and widened to i6j- feet, thus being com- pletely rebuilt; while its engines were altered in a number of details, Fulton furnishing the drawings for the alterations. Two more boats, the " Raritan " and the " Car of Neptune " were added to form the fleet of 1807, and steam-navigation was at last fairly begun in America, some years in advance of its establishment in Europe. The Legislature were so much impressed with this result that they promptly extended the monopoly previously given Fulton and Livingston, adding five years for every boat to be built and set in operation, up to a maximum not to exceed a total of thirty years. The "Clermont," as Fulton called this first boat, was begun in the winter of 1806-7, and launched in THE the spring ; the machinery was at once put on board, and in August, 1807, the craft was ready for the trial- trip. The boat was promptly started on her proposed trip to Albany and made the run with perfect success. Fulton's own account is as follows : To THE EDITOR OF THE "AMERICAN CITIZEN." SIR, I arrived this afternoon at four o'clock, in the steamboat from Albany. As the success of my experiment gives me great hopes that such boats may be rendered of great importance to my country, to prevent erroneous opinions and give some satisfac- tion to my friends of useful improvements, you will have the goodness to publish the following statement of facts : I left New York on Monday at one o'clock, and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Living- ston, at one o'clock on Tuesday : time, twenty-four hours ; distance, one hundred and ten miles. On Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor's at nine in the morning, and arrived at Albany at five in the afternoon : distance, forty miles ; time, eight hours. The sum is one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two hours, equal to near five miles an hour. On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at six in the evening. I started from thence at seven, and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon : time, thirty hours ; space run through, one hundred and fifty miles, equal to five miles an hour. Throughout my whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead. No advantage could be derived from my 128 ROBERT FULTON. sails. The whole has therefore been performed by the power of the steam-engine. I am, sir, your obedient servant, ROBERT FULTON. Fulton gives the following account of the same voy- age in a letter to his friend, Mr. Barlow : "My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has turned out rather more favourably than I had calcu- lated. The distance from New York to Albany is one hundred and fifty miles. I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty. I had a light breeze against me the whole way, both going and coming, and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the steam-engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners beating to windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor. " The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York, there were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who be- lieved that the boat would ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility; and while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way in which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers and projectors. " Having employed much time, money, and zeal in accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure to see it answer my expectations. It will give a cheap and quick conveyance to the mer- chandise on the Mississippi, Missouri, and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treasures to THE "CLERMONT." 129 the enterprise of our countrymen ; and, although the prospect of personal emolument has been some in- ducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantage my country will derive from the invention," l etc. Professor Renwick, describing the " Clermont " of 1807 as she appeared on her first trip, says : " She was very unlike any of her successors, and very dissimilar from the shape in which she appeared a few months afterward. With a model resembling a Long Island skiff, she was decked for a short distance at stem and stern. The engine was open to view, and from the engine aft a house like that of a canal-boat was raised to cover the boiler and the apartment for the officers. There were no wheel-guards. The rudder was of the shape used in sailing-vessels, and moved by a tiller. The boiler was of the form then used in Watt's en- gines, and was set in masonry. The condenser was of the size used habitually in land engines, and stood, as was the practice in them, in a large cold-watei cistern. The weight of the masonry and the great capacity of the cold-water cistern diminished very materially the buoyancy of the vessel. The rudder had so little power that she could hardly be managed. The skippers of the river craft, who at once saw that their business was doomed, took advantage of the un- wieldiness of the vessel to run foul of her as soon as they thought they had the law on their side. Thus, in several instances, the steamer reached one or the other termini of the route with but a single wheel." 1 Reigart, p. 173. 9 130 ROBERT FULTON. The "American Citizen" of August 17, 1807, says : " Mr. Fulton's ingenious steamboat, invented with a view to the navigation of the Mississippi, from New Orleans upward, sails to-day from the North River, near State's Prison, to Albany. The velocity of the steamboat is calculated at four miles an hour. It is said it will make a progress of two against the current Fig. 15. The " Clermont, " 1807. of the Mississippi, and if so it will certainly be a very valuable acquisition to the commerce of Western States." What would this sanguine editor have thought, had he been assured that the " Clermont " was the pioneer of a fleet that should include steamships of ten thou- sand tons, or even as the " Great Eastern," -of thirty thousand tons displacement ; ships that should make a speed of twenty miles an hour at sea ; small torpedo boats carrying out the idea of Fulton, and pursuing their enemy with their destructive little THE "CLERMONT." 131 weapons at speeds approaching thirty miles an hour; and river boats passing over the very route chosen for Fulton's first trial-trip at the speed of twenty-seven miles an hour, and at their " slow speeds," running from New York to Albany in ten hours or less? What would he have thought, had he dreamed of steaming from New York to Newport, to Fall River, or to Providence in ten to twelve hours ? Of going from St. Louis to New Orleans in four days? Of crossing the Atlantic in six? Fig. 16. Engine of the "Clermont," 1808. The engine of the " Clermont" (Figure 16), as already seen, was similar to that of Fulton's French boat, and of rather peculiar construction, the piston, E, being coupled to the crank-shaft, O, by a bell-crank, / H P, and a connecting-rod, P Q, the paddle-wheel shaft, M N y being separate from the crank-shaft, and connected with the latter by gearing, O O. The paddle-wheels had buckets four feet long, with a dip of two feet. The voyage of the " Clermont " to Albany was attended by some ludicrous incidents. Mr. Colden says that she was described "as a monster, moving 132 ROBERT FULTON. on the waters, defying wind and tide, and breathing flames and smoke." This boat used dry pine wood for fuel, and the flames rose to a considerable distance above the smoke-pipe ; and mingled smoke and sparks rose high in the air. " This uncommon light first attracted the attention of the crews of other vessels. Notwith- standing the wind and tide were averse to its ap- proach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly coming toward them ; and when it came so near that the noise of the machinery and paddles was heard, the crews (if what was said in the newspapers of the time be true) in some instances shrank beneath their decks from the terrific sight, and left their vessels to go on shore ; while others prostrated themselves, and besought Providence to protect them from the ap- proach of the horrible monster which was marching on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited." Fulton used several of the now familiar features of the American river boat, and subsequently introduced others. The success of the " Clermont " on the trial- trip was such that Fulton soon after advertised the vessel as a regular passenger boat between New York and Albany. A newspaper- slip in the scrap-book of the Author has the following : " The traveller of to-day, as he goes on board the great steamboats ' St. John ' or ' Drew/ can scarcely imagine the difference between such floating palaces THE " CLERMONT." 133 and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were wafted sixty years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of that time two of which are as follows : " ' September 2, 1807. " ' The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler's Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided. " ' The charge to each passenger is as follows : " ' To Newburg . - dols. 3, time, 14 hours. " Poughkeepsie . " 4, "17 " " Esopus ... "5, " 20 " " Hudson ... " 5^, " 30 " " Albany ... "7, " 36 " " ' For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street. 1 " ' Mr. Fulton's new-invented Steamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 passengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour.' " 2 1 Copy of an advertisement taken from the " Albany Ga- zette," dated September, 1807. 2 Extract from the " New York Evening Post," dated Oc- tober 2, 1807. 134 ROBERT FULTON. During the next winter the " Clermont " was re- paired and enlarged, and in the summer of 1808 was again on the route to Albany; and, meantime, the two new steamboats, the " Raritan " and the "Car of Neptune," had been built. In the year 1811 Fulton built the " Paragon." Fulton patented novel details in steam-engines and steam- vessels in 1811, and thus secured some val- uable property, though by no means sufficient to in- sure control of his routes. This he retained for a few years; but up to 1812, at least, there were continual attempts to establish rival lines, and vessels of all kinds, driven by engines of all sorts, practicable and impracticable, were built or proposed by ambitious in- ventors and "grasping capitalists." In the winter of 1812 an injunction was obtained from the courts in such terms that a perpetual injunction could be served on all the opposition lines, and Fulton was for a brief period allowed to pursue his own course in peace. A number of boats were now built for the rapidly increasing traffic of the rivers of the United States, and he placed some even on the "Father of Waters," where he fulfilled the prediction of his unfortunate predecessor, Fitch, whose remains now lie quietly beside one of its tributaries. The table presented on page 135, given by his first biographer, shows the number and the principal di- mensions of the boats built by Fulton, or from his plans, including the last three, which, though built after his death, are the most satisfactory of all. CLERMONT." '35 CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. OLIVE BRANCH. EMPEROR of RUSSIA. FULTON THE FIRST. FULTON. YORK FERRY boat. NASSAU FERRY boat. RICHMOND. WASHINGTON. <- ^ 3 5 1 J ff * a 1 < 1 PARAGON. RARITAN. CAR of NEPTUNE. NORTH RIVER, orCLERMONT. NAMES. n > 2 g- g > po > po O 3* 3* 5 9 O 3* cr BT 9 Q O r ^ ryEckford. h Brown, m Brown. 2 ^ I 3 ^ a 1 ^ 2L 71 W Cd Cd 3 3 ? 3 n> rc cd cd 1 1 W td 1 1 B 3 S 3 i n $ w w cd I 1 Cd o whom built. vj ^ 4>> 4- ON *I ON Cn C*> 00 g vi OJ Length. O p ON bv < o ^a vi NO o VI ^J vO 00 vj Depth. n> 3 4 O4 I " ^ g OJ OJ o 10 vS ^a -^ 5b Breadth. 1 ON g o 4- . 8 8 g s -^ s 00 8 Length . w i 00 00 00 vO vO g O sO OO VJ Depth. 5 i to s ^ OO vO vO 00 vO vO 00 Breadth. 4 "o o> to ON o o W OJ ON U) S 8 OJ to Cylinder. M R. 4>> w 4 Stroke. 3 P 00 ON ON 01 N M *. Ul 10 '<* CN * "S ^ (0 4x 4* 4> 4^ 4*. - s - b, 4* 4^ 4^ Length of Bucket. M 1 M ON 4>- ON to to d> ON M M 1 b 4 " Dip. n L ON O N) ^J OJ NO to oj OO OJ o to & Tonnage. ^ 00 CO 00 00 CO 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 ff g 5 g B . F Hudson River. Between N. Y. New-Brunsw Undetermined. Navy Yard. r 1 a. Ferry Company Brooklyn Comp Hudson River. Potomac River From New-Yor to Newburgh Ferry Company Hudson River. Raritan River. Hudson River. Hudson River. Where employe 136 ROBERT FULTON. " Steam," says the "Gentleman's Magazine" for December, 1809, " has been applied in America to the purpose of inland navigation with the greatest success. The passage boat between New York and Albany is one hundred and sixty feet long, and wide in proportion for accommodations, consisting of fifty- two berths, besides sofas, etc., for one hundred pas- sengers ; and the machine which moves her wheels is equal to the power of twenty-four horses, and is kept in motion by steam from a copper boiler eight or ten feet in length. Her route is a distance of one hun- dred and fifty miles, which she performs regularly twice a week, and sometimes in the short space of thirty- two hours." An amazing tale ! According to Golden, the last boat which was con- structed under Mr. Fulton's directions, and according to drawings and plans furnished by him, is that which, in 1816, navigated the sound from New York to New Haven. She was of nearly four hundred tons burden, built of uncommon strength, and fitted up with all conveniences and great elegance. She was the first steamboat with a round bottom like a sea-going ship. This form was adopted, because, for a great part of the route, she would be as much exposed as on the ocean. It was therefore, necessary, to make her a good sea-boat. She passed daily, and at all times of the tide, the then dangerous strait of Hell-Gate where, for a mile, she frequently encountered a cur- rent running at the rate of five or six miles an hour. For some distance she had within a few yards, on each side, rocks and whirlpools which rivalled Scylla THE "CLERMONT." 137 and Charybdis, even as they are poetically described. This passage, previously to its being navigated by this steamer, was supposed to be impassable except at the change of the tide ; and many shipwrecks had been occasioned by a mistake in time. " The boat passing through these whirlpools with rapidity, while the angry waters foamed against her bows, and appeared to raise themselves in obstinate resistance to her pas- sage, is a proud triumph of human ingenuity. The owners, as the highest tribute they had in their power to offer to his genius, and as an evidence of the grati- tude they owed him, called her the " Fulton." x A steam ferry-boat was built to ply between New York and Jersey City in 1812, and the next year two others, to connect with Brooklyn. These were " twin- boats " the two hulls being connected by a " bridge " or deck common to both. The Jersey ferry was crossed in fifteen minutes, the distance being a mile and a half. Fulton's boat carried, at one load, eight carriages, and about thirty horses, and still had room for three hundred or four hundred foot-passengers. Fulton's description of one of these boats is as follows : " She is built of two boats, each ten feet beam, eighty feet long, and five feet deep in the hold ; which boats are distant from each otner ten feet, confined by strong transverse beam-knees and diagonal traces, forming a deck thirty feet wide and eighty feet long. The propelling water-wheel is placed between the boats to prevent it from injury from ice and shocks on 1 Colden's Life of Fulton, p. 190. 138 ROBERT FULTON. entering or approaching the dock. The whole of the machinery being placed between the two boats, leaves ten feet on the deck of each boat for carriages, horses and cattle, etc. ; the other, having neat benches and covered with an awning, is for passengers, and there is also a passage and stairway to a neat cabin, which is fifty feet long and five feet clear from the floor to the beams, furnished with benches, and provided with a stove in winter. Although the two boats and space between them gives thirty feet beam, yet they present sharp bows to the water, and have only the resistance in the water of one boat of twenty beam. Both ends being alike, and each having a rudder, she never puts about." 1 Meantime, the War of 1812 was in progress, and Fulton designed a steam vessel-of-war, which was then considered a wonderfully formidable craft. Fulton proposed to build a vessel capable of carrying a heavy battery, and of steaming four miles an hour. The ship was fitted with furnaces for red-hot shot, and some of her guns were to be discharged below the water-line. The estimated cost was $320,000. The construction of the vessel was authorized by Congress in March, 1814; the keel was laid June 20, 1814, and the vessel was launched October 29 of the same year. The " Fulton the First," as she was called, was then considered an enormous vessel. The hull was double, 156 feet long, 56 feet wide, and 20 feet deep, measur- ing 2,475 tons - I n May the ship was ready for her en- 1 Preble, page 59. THE "CLERMONT." 139 gine, and in July was so far completed as to steam, on a trial-trip, to the ocean at Sandy Hook and back, 53 miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes. In Septem- ber, with armament and stores on board, the ship made for sea and for battle ; the same route was traversed, the vessel making 5^ miles an hour. Her engine, having a steam-cylinder 48 inches in diameter and of 5 feet stroke of piston, was furnished with steam by a copper boiler 22 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet high, and turned a wheel, between the two hulls, 16 feet in diameter, with "buckets" 14 feet long, and a dip of 4 feet. The sides were 4 feet i o inches thick, and her spar-deck was surrounded by musket-proof bulwarks. The armament consisted of 30 3 2 -pound- ers, intended to discharge red-hot shot. There was one mast for each hull, fitted with lateen sails. Large pumps were carried, intended to throw streams of water on the decks of the enemy, with a view to dis- abling him by wetting his ordnance and ammunition. A submarine gun was to have been carried at each bow, to discharge shot weighing one hundred pounds, at a depth of ten feet below water. This, for the time, tremendous engine-of-war was constructed in response to a demand from the citizens of New York for a means of harbour defence. They appointed what was called a Coast and Harbour Defence Committee ; and this committee examined Fulton's plans, and called the attention of the General Government to them. The Government appointed a Board of Experts from among its most famous naval officers, including Commodore Decatur, Captains 14 ROBERT FULTON. Paul Jones, Evans, and Biddle, Commodore Perry, and Captains Warrington and Lewis. They reported unanimously in favour of the proposed construction, and set forth her advantages over all previously known forms of war- vessel. The citizens' committee offered to guarantee the expense of building the ship ; and the construction was undertaken under the supervision of a committee appointed for the purpose, consisting of several then distinguished men, both military and naval. Congress authorized the building of coast- defence vessels by the President, in March, 1814, and Fulton at once started the work of construction, Messrs. Adam and Noah Brown building the hull, and the engines being placed on board and in work- ing order within a year. The death of Fulton took place in the year 1815, while in the height of his fame and of his usefulness. He had been called to Trenton, New Jersey, in Jan- uary of that year, to give testimony before the State legislature in reference to the proposed repeal of laws which had interfered with the operation of the ferry-boats and other steam-vessels plying between the city of New York and the New Jersey shore. It hap- pened that the weather was cold, he was exposed to its severity both at Trenton and, especially, crossing the Hudson River on his return, and took a cold from which he never recovered. He became apparently convalescent after a few days ; but insisted on visiting the new steam-frigate too soon, to inspect work in progress there, and on his return home experienced a relapse, his illness finally resulting in his death, THE " CLERMONT." 141 February 24, 1815. He left a wife (nee Harriet Livingston) and four children, three of whom were daughters. Robert Fulton died in the service of the United States government; and although engaged for years in devoting time and talents to the best interests of our country, still the public records show that the Government was indebted to his estate upwards of $100,000 for moneys actually expended and services rendered by him, agreeably to contract. 1 When the legislature, then in session at Albany, heard of the death of Mr. Fulton, they expressed their sentiments of regret by resolving that the mem- bers of both houses should wear mourning for six weeks. This is the only instance, according to Golden, up to that time, of such public testimonials of regret, esteem, and respect being offered on the death of a private citizen, who was only distinguished by his virtues, his genius, and his talents. He was buried February 25, 1815. His funeral was attended by all the officers of the National and State governments then in the city, by the magis- tracy, the common council, a number of societies, and a greater number of citizens than had ever been collected on any similar occasion. When the pro- cession began to move, and until it arrived at Trinity Church, minute-guns were fired from the steam-frigate and the Battery. His body is deposited in a vault belonging to the Livingston family. 1 Reigart, p. 203. I4 2 ROBERT FULTON. Mr. Fulton is described as a tall man, about six feet in height, slender, but well proportioned. " Na- ture had made him a gentleman, and bestowed upon him ease and gracefulness." He had too much good sense to exhibit affectation, and confidence in his own worth and talents gave him a pleasing deport- ment in all companies. His features were strong and handsome ; he had large dark eyes, a projecting brow, and features expressive of intelligence and thought j his disposition was mild yet lively, and he was fond of society. He conversed with energy, fluency, and correctness ; and, owing more to expe- rience and reflection than to books, he was often interesting in his originality. In all his social relations he was kind, generous, and affectionate. His only use for money was to make it an aid to charity, hospitality, and the pro- motion of science. He was especially distinguished by constancy, industry, and that union of patience and persistence which overcame every difficulty. Robert Fulton has never, even yet, received either in kind or degree the credit that is justly his due. Those members of the engineering profession who have become familiar with his work through the ordi- nary channels of information generally look upon him as a talented artist and fortunate amateur en- gineer, whose fancies led him into many strange vagaries, and whose enthusiastic advocacy of a new method of transportation the success of which was already assured by the ingenuity and skill of James Watt, Oliver Evans, and John Fitch, and by the really THE "CLERMONT." 143 intelligent methods of those early professional engi- neers, the Messrs. Stevens gave him the oppor- tunity of grasping the prize of which Chancellor Livingston had secured the legal control. By such engineers as know only of his work on the Seine and the Hudson in the introduction of the steamboat, he is not considered as an inventor, but simply as one who profited by the inventions of others, and who, taking advantage of circumstances, and gaining credit which was not of right wholly his own, acquired a reputation vastly out of proportion to his real merits. The layman, judging only from the popular tradi- tions, and the incomplete historical accounts that have come to him, supposes Robert Fulton to have been the inventor of the steamboat, and on that ground regards him as one of the greatest mechanics and engineers that the world has seen. The truth undoubtedly is, as we have now seen, that Fulton was not " the inventor of the steamboat," and that the reputation acquired by his successful introduction of steam-navigation is largely accidental, and is principally due to the possession, in company with Livingston, of a monopoly which drove from this most promising field those original and skilful engineers, Evans and the Stevenses. No one of the essential devices successfully used by Fulton in the "Clermont," his first North River steamboat, was new ; and no one of them differed, to any great extent, from devices successfully adopted by earlier experimenters. Fulton's success was a commercial success purely. John Stevens had, in 1804, built a 1 44 ROBER T FUL TON. successful screw steam-vessel ; and his paddle-steamer of 1807, the "Phoenix," was very possibly a better piece of engineering than the "Clermont." John Fitch had, still earlier, used both screw and paddle. In England, Miller and Symmington and Lord Dun- das had antedated even Fulton's earliest experiments on the Seine. Indeed, it seems not at all unlikely that Papin, a century earlier (in 1707), had he been given a monopoly of steam-navigation on the Weser or the Fulda, and had he been joyfully hailed by the Hanoverians as a public benefactor, as was Fulton in the United States, instead of being proscribed and assaulted by the mob who destroyed his earlier " Cler- mont," might have been equally successful; or it may be that the French inventor, Jouifroy, who experi- mented on the rivers of France twenty-five years before Fulton, might, with similar encouragement, have gained an equal success. Yet although Fulton was not in any true sense " the inventor of the steamboat," his services in the work of introducing that miracle of our modern time cannot be overestimated ; and, aside from his claim as the first to grasp success among the many who were then bravely struggling to place steam-navigation on a permanent and safe basis, he is undeniably entitled to all the praise that has ever been accorded him on such different ground. It is to Robert Fulton that we owe the fact that to-day the rivers of our own country, and those of the world as well, are traversed by steamers of all sizes and all kinds, and by boats suited to every kind THE "CLERMONT." 145 of traffic ; that the ocean floats, in every clime and in all its harbours, fleets of great steamers, transport- ing passengers and merchandise from the United States to Europe, from Liverpool to Hong- Kong, from London to Melbourne, traversing the " doldrums " as steadily and safely and as rapidly as the regions of the trades or either temperate zone. Steam-naviga- tion without Fulton would undoubtedly have become an established fact ; but no one can say how long the world, without that great engineer and statesman, would have been compelled to wait, or how much the progress of the world might have been retarded by his failure, had it occurred. The name of Fulton well deserves to be coupled with those of Newcomen and Watt, the inventors of the steam-engine ; with those of George and Robert Stephenson, the builders of the railway; and with those of Morse and Bell, who have given us the telegraph and the telephone. 146 ROBERT FULTON. VII. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM- FLEETS. WHILE Robert Fulton and his rivals in the United States were thus bringing into fruition the dreams of a century, inventors in other parts of the world were by no means idle. In Great Britain, Miller, Taylor, Symmington, and Lord Dundas had set an example which was well emulated by Henry Bell, of Glasgow, in 1812, when he built the "Comet" at Greenock, on the Clyde, the first passenger steamer constructed in Europe. The boat was laid down in 1811, and completed Jan. 18, 1812, and proved to be a success. It was of 30 tons burden, 40 feet long, 10 feet beam, and driven by two pairs of paddle-wheels, worked by engines rated at but three horse-power. Bell's boat was advertised as a passenger boat, to leave Greenock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fri- days, for Glasgow, twenty-four miles distant, returning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The fare was made " four shillings for the best cabin, and three shillings for the second." It was some months be- fore the vessel became considered a trustworthy means of conveyance. Bell constructed several boats in 1815, and with his success steam-navigation in Great Britain was fairly inaugurated. In 1814 there were five steamers, RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 147 all Scotch, regularly working in British waters. In 1820 there were thirty-four, one half of which were in England, fourteen in Scotland, and the remainder in Ireland. Twenty years later, at the close of the period to which this chapter is especially devoted, there were about thirteen hundred and twenty-five steam- vessels in that kingdom, of which about a thou- sand were English, and two hundred and fifty Scotch. 1 During this period the introduction of the steam- boat on the great rivers of the United States was one of the most notable events of history. Inaugurated by Evans, the building of steam-vessels once begun, never ceased ; and not long after Fitch's burial on the bank of the Ohio, his last wish that he might lie " where the song of the boatman would enliven the stillness of his resting-place, and the music of the steam-engine soothe his spirit" was fulfilled. Nicholas J. Roosevelt was the first to take a steam- boat down the Ohio and Mississippi. His boat was built at Pittsburgh in 181 1 from Fulton's plans. It was called the "New Orleans," of about two hundred tons burden, and was propelled by a stern-wheel, assisted, at times, by sails on two masts. The hull was 138 feet long, and 30 feet beam. The cost of the boat, including engines, was about $40,000. The builder, with his family, an engineer, a pilot, and six " deck- hands," left Pittsburgh in October, 1811, reached Louisville in seventy hours (about ten miles an hour) , and New Orleans in fourteen days, steaming from Natchez. The next steamers built on Western waters were 1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 249. 148 ROBERT FULTON. probably the "Comet" and the " Vesuvius." The " Comet " was finally laid aside, and the engine used to drive a saw-mill ; and the " Vesuvius " was destroyed by the explosion of her boilers. In 1813 there were two shops at Pittsburgh building steam-engines, and it is stated that as early as 1840 there were a. thousand steamers on the Mississippi and its tributaries. In the "Washington" (built at Wheeling, Va., in 1816, by Capt. H. M. Shreve) the boilers, previously placed in the hold, were carried on the main-deck, and a "hurricane-deck" was built over them. Two horizontal direct-acting engines were adopted instead of the single upright engine used by Fulton, and were driven by high-pressure steam without condensation. The engines, one on each side of the boat, were at- tached to cranks placed at right angles. He adopted a cam cut-off, and the flue-boiler of Evans. At that time the voyage to New Orleans from Louisville occu- pied three weeks, and Shreve was made the subject of many witticisms when he predicted that the time would be shortened to ten days. It is now made in four days. 1 The death of Fulton left the work of introduction of the steamboat on the rivers of the country in the hands of others no less able and enterprising than he ; and the expiration or repeal of the provisions giving the monopoly of steam-navigation on the Hudson to his company permitted them to proceed with their plans undisturbed. The courts ruled, finally, that only the General Government could control the navi- gation of tide-waters and navigable rivers communi- 1 Thurston's History of the Steam-Engine, p. 249. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 149 eating directly with the sea ; the provisions for reward- ing inventors by a patent-system covering the whole country and administered by the United States patent office gave good reason for withdrawing the special laws previously sustained by the several States, for giv- ing this kind of monopoly, where legal, even; and the whole river-system of the country was open to all. The steam-navigation of the Hudson soon fell largely into the hands of the Stevens, father and sons ; and they, mainly through the ingenuity and skill of Robert L. Stevens, 1 soon established what has come to be recognized as a peculiarly admirable type of craft for these long inland routes. Referring to his valuable services, President King, then of Columbia College, who seems to have been the first to appreciate the original invention and the excellence of the engineering of this family, in a lec- ture delivered in New York, in 185 1, gave a connected and probably accurate description of their work. Young Stevens began working in his father's machine-shop when a mere boy, and acquired at a very early age familiarity with details of work and of business. It was he who introduced the " hollow water-line " in the " Phoenix." In the same vessel he adopted a feathering paddle-wheel and the guard- beam now universally seen in river steamboats. The "Philadelphia" was built in 1813, and the 1 The Author has compiled a memorandum of the work of this remarkable engineer, the perusal of which may give some idea of the ingenuity and versatility of his talents. See the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1874. 150 ROBERT FULTON. young engineer introduced several new devices, includ- ing screw-bolts in place of " tree-nails," and diagonal knees. Two years later he altered the engines, and arranged them to work steam expansively. A little later he began using anthracite coal. Stevens was the first of whom we have record who was thor- oughly successful in using the new fuel. Mr. R. L. Stevens' s labours and inventions in mechanics, should have more fitting commemoration than can be given in any passing notice. Of some of them the follow- ing is the chronological record : 1808. Hollow or concave water-lines in the bow were introduced for the first time in the steamboat "Phoenix;" these lines, under the name of "wave lines," are now claimed as a recent application. On the same vessel, in 1809, he first used the feathering- wheel with vertical buckets on pivots. 1809. He suspended the guard-beam by iron rods from above, as is now universally done in river steamers. 1813-14. The war with England being in prog- ress, he invented the elongated shell, to be fired from ordinary cannon. Having perfected this invention, he sold the secret to the United States, after experi- ments so decisive as to leave no doubt of the efficacy of such projectiles. In one of these experiments made at Governor's Island in the presence of officers of the army, a target of white oak, four feet thick, was completely destroyed by a shell weighing two hundred pounds and containing thirteen pounds of powder; the opening made was large enough, as the certificate RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 151 of the officer commanding, Colonel House, stated, for a man and horse to enter. These shells were said to be free from the danger accompanying ordinary shells, for they were hermeti- cally sealed. Some, after being kept twenty-five years, were tested by exploding gunpowder under them, and then taken to high places and let fall on rocks below, without causing them to explode. After this they were plunged into water, and finally being put into the gun, were fired, and upon striking, exploded with devastating effect. 1813. First to fasten planks and braces of steam- boats with screw-bolts, and to place diagonal knees inside. 1815. First to use steam expansively in the " Philadelphia." 1818. First to burn anthracite coal in a cupola furnace, and subsequently to introduce this fuel in steamers, the "Passaic" being the earliest. 1822. He made the skeleton wrought- iron walk- ing-beam now in general use. 1824. First to place the boilers on the guards, and to divide the buckets on the wheel. 1827. First, on steamboat "North America," to apply artificial blast to the furnace, and in the same boat to apply what is technically known as the " hog- frame," consisting of large timbers along the sides, to prevent the boat from being " hogged." 1828. First to apply steel spring bearings, under the centre of the paddle-shaft of the steamer " New Philadelphia." i 5 2 ROBER T FUL TON. 1832. First to introduce perfectly balanced valves, which enabled one man to work the largest engine with ease. In the same year he used braces to the connecting-rod, thus preventing its tremulous motion. 1832-33. Constructed a boat capable of navigat- ing through heavy ice. In the same year he intro- duced tubular boilers. 1840. Improved the packing of pistons for steam- engines by using the pressure of steam to retain the packing-ring against the surface of the cylinder. 1841. The Stevens Cut-off, by means of main valves worked by two eccentrics, invented by R. L. Stevens and his nephew F. B. Stevens. In the same year he invented and applied on the Camden and Amboy railroad the double-slide cut-off for locomo- tives and large engines, and improved locomotives by using eight wheels, and with increased adhesion was enabled to turn short curves with little friction on the flanges ; also used anthracite as a fuel to great advantage on the heavy engines. 1842. Having contracted to build for the United States government a large war-steamer, shot and shell proof, R. L. Stevens built a steamboat at Bordentown for the sole purpose of experimenting on the forms and curves of propeller-blades, as compared with side- wheels, and continued his experiments for many months. While occupied with this design he invented about 1 844, and took a patent for, a mode of turning a steamship of war by means of a cross propeller near the stern, so that if one battery were disabled, she might promptly present the other. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 153 1848. This year he succeeded in advantageously using anthracite in fast passenger locomotives. 1849 witnessed the successful application of air under the bottom of steamer "John Neilson," where- by friction is so much diminished, that she actually attained, as stated by President King, the speed of twenty miles an hour. This was the invention of R. L. Stevens and F. B. Stevens. The name of Robert L. Stevens will long be remem- bered as that of one of the greatest of American mechanics, the most intelligent of naval architects, and as the first, and one of the greatest, of those to whom we are indebted for the beginning of the mightiest of revolutions in the methods and imple- ments of modern naval warfare. American mechani- cal genius and engineering skill have rarely been too promptly recognized, and no excuse will be required for an attempt (which it is hoped may yet be made) to place such splendid work as that of the Messrs. Stevens in a light which shall reveal both its variety and extent and its immense importance. As early as August, 1841, his brothers, James C. and Edwin A. Stevens, representing Robert L., ad- dressed a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, pro- posing to build an iron-clad vessel of high speed, with all its machinery below the water-line, and hav- ing submerged screw-propellers. The armament was to consist of powerful breech-loading rifled guns, provided with elongated shot and shell. In the year 1842, having contracted to build for the United States government a steamer on this plan, Robert L. 154 ROBERT FULTON Stevens built his steamboat at Bordentown, for the sole purpose of experimenting on the forms and curves of propeller-blades, as compared with side- wheels, and, as already stated, worked many months. After some delay, the keel of an iron-clad was laid down. This vessel was to have been 250 feet long, 40 feet beam, and 28 feet deep. The machinery was 700 horse-power. The plating was proposed to be 4 J inches thick, the thickness adopted ten years later by the French. In 1854 such marked progress had been made that Mr. Stevens was no longer willing to proceed with the original plans, and work, which had pro- gressed very slowly and intermittently, was stopped entirely; and in 1854 the keel of a ship of much greater size and power was laid down. The new design was 415 feet long, of 45 feet beam, and of something over 5,000 tons displacement, while its machinery was of 8,600 horse-power. The thickness of armor proposed was 6| inches. The engines were to drive twin screws, propelling the vessel twenty miles or more an hour. The remarkable genius of Stevens is in no way better exemplified than by the accuracy with which, in this great ship, those forms and proportions were adopted which are now, many years later, recognized as most correct under similar conditions. The lines of the vessel were beautifully fair and fine, what J. Scott Russell called "wave-lines," or trochoidal lines, and are now known to be the best possible for easy propulsion. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 155 The death of Robert L. Stevens occurred in April, 1856, when the hull and machinery were practically finished, and it only remained to add the armour- plating, and to decide upon the form of fighting- house and the number and size of guns. The construction of the vessel then ceased and it was never completed. From the time of Fulton, the progress of steam- navigation on the rivers of the United States was rapid. The "Phoenix" of Stevens opened the Del- aware, and the boats of Fulton himself and his suc- cessors introduced the new system of transportation on the Connecticut and Long Island Sound. The venturesome voyage of Roosevelt, in 1811, down the Ohio and the Mississippi, was made on the first of the steam-vessels, since numbered by thousands, on the western waters. His boat, the " New Orleans," ran for years between the city of that name and Natchez. The "Enterprise," in 1814, took part in the defence of New Orleans by General Jackson, and afterward ascended the " Father of Waters," reaching Louisville in twenty-five days from New Orleans. A quarter of a century later the trip was made in less than a week; and in 1850, four days was considered good time for the same voyage. By the year 1860 there were about one hundred and twenty-five steamboats on the Ohio and Missis- sippi and their tributaries, some of which made twenty miles an hour or more. All were paddle-boats, and usually stern - wheelers, that type of vessel being found more manageable on those rivers, although 156 ROBERT FULTON. the side-wheeler became the only form of steamboat on the rivers and sounds of the coast for many years, and until the advent of the screw. The growth of steam-navigation in Great Britain was less rapid than in the United States j but as early as 1815, about the time of Fulton's death, there were ten steamers on the Clyde, and seven or eight on the Thames. The "Argyle" was the first sea-going steamer built in British waters. This vessel made a voyage from the Clyde, where she was built, to Lon- don, where she was to be employed, after a year of service between Glasgow and Greenock. The voyage was made in about a month, in a stormy season, and the Thames was safely reached, the vessel then en- tering upon her regular scheduled trips between Lon- don and Margate. In 1816 the steamer " Majestic," built at Ramsgate for the purpose, made her first trips between Brighton and Havre, and from Dover to Calais. It was in this year that Captain Bunker, who had served on the " Phoenix," was given command ol the steamer " Connecticut," and established the first line of boats on Long Island Sound, between New York and New Haven and New London. From this date on, British steamers began to appear in all the principal harbours of Great Britain, and lines to Ireland and to the French and Dutch coasts were rapidly created. Progress continued to be most rapid in the United States, however. Cornelius Vanderbilt made his first venture in the "Bolona," built by Lawrence in 1817 ; and the fortunes of that family and the steam-navi- RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 157 gation of the Hudson and of the sounds adjacent flourished together. The trip to Providence from New York was made, in those days, in about twenty hours, and the price paid was ten dollars, including berths and meals. About 1821 Robert L. Thurston, John Babcock, and Capt. Stephen T. Northam, of Newport, R. I., commenced building steamboats, beginning with a small craft intended for use at Slade's Ferry, near Fall River. They afterward built vessels to ply on Long Island Sound. One of the earliest was the " Babcock," built at Newport in -1826. The engine was built by Thurston and Babcock, at Portsmouth, R. I. They were assisted in their work by Richard Sanford, and with funds by Northam. The engine was of twelve inches diameter of cylinder, and four feet stroke of piston. The boiler was a form of "pipe-boiler," patented (1824) by Babcock. The water used was injected into the hot boiler as fast as required to furnish steam, no water being retained in the steam-generator. This boat was succeeded, in 1827-1828, by a larger vessel, the " Rushlight," for which the engine was built by James P. Allaire, at New York, while the boat was built at Newport. The boilers of both vessels had tubes of cast-iron. The smaller of these boats was of eighty tons burden. It steamed from Newport to Providence, 30 miles, in 3! hours, and to New York, a distance of 1 75 miles, in 25 hours, using if cords of wood. 1 Thurston and Babcock removed to Providence, where the latter died. Thurston continued to build steam-engines 1 History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine, p. 281. 158 ROBERT FULTON. there nearly a half-century, dying in 1874. The establishment founded by him, after various changes, became the present Providence Steam-Engine Works. This " pipe-boiler " was intended, as was the earlier construction of the elder Stevens, for high pressures, which now came into use. As early as 1817, according to the testimony of Seth Hunt before a parliamentary committee in England, Oliver Evans had successfully carried pressures of one hundred and forty and one hundred and sixty pounds of steam ; and now James P. Allaire, of New York, started on the same line of improvement in economy. Watt had showed, both by his logical deduction, exemplified in his patent of 1 769, and by actual construction of engines some years later, that the expansive action of steam was an available source of economy, and had beaten Hornblower, whose compound engine was expressly constructed for the pur- pose of securing that advantage. Allaire used the com- pound engine, with steam at a pressure of one hundred pounds and upward, in 1825, for the first time in steam- navigation. The first of his vessels of this class was the "Henry Eckford," and this was succeeded by others, one of which, the " Sun," made the run from New York to Albany in twelve hours, eighteen minutes. Erastus W. Smith afterward introduced the compound engine on the Great Lakes, and they were still later intro- duced into British steamers by John Elder and his partners. The machinery of the steamer " Buckeye State " was constructed at the Allaire Works, New York, in 1850, from the designs of John Baird and Smith, the latter being the designing and constructing engi- neer. The steamer was placed on the route between RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 159 Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit, in 1851, with most satisfactory results, consuming less than two thirds the fuel required by a similar vessel fitted with the single- cylinder engine. The steam-cylinders were placed one within the other, the low-pressure exterior cylinder being annular. They were 37 and 80 inches in diam- eter, respectively, with a piston-stroke of n feet. Both pistons were connected to one cross-head, and the arrangement of the engine was that of the common beam-engine. The steam-pressure was seventy to seventy-five pounds, about the maximum pressure adopted a quarter of a century later on trans-Atlantic lines. The French engineers were but little behind their American rivals in this race, and built a steamboat with compound engines, in 1829, called the "Union," from the plans of M. Hallette, of Arras. Steam was carried at sixty-five to seventy pounds pressure. As illustrating the latest form of the lineal succes- sor of Fulton's " Clermont," we may take the Hudson River steamer " New York," plying on the same route. The hull of this vessel was built at Wilmington, Del., by The Harlan and Hollingsworth Co., of iron throughout. The dimensions are as follows : Length on the water-line . . 301 feet. Length over all . . 'v , . \ 311 " Breadth of beam, moulded . . 40 " Breadth of beam, over guards 74 " Depth, moulded % 12 " 3 ins. Draft of water 6 " Tonnage (net, 1091.89) . 1552.52 i6o ROBERT FULTON. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 161 The machinery was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Company, North River Iron Works. The engine is a standard American beam-engine, with a cylinder seventy-five inches diameter and twelve feet stroke of piston, with Stevens's cut-off. The use of a surface condenser, instead of a jet condenser, in this river steamer, is a change made to overcome the evil of using mixed salt and fresh water in the boilers. Another is the adoption of " feathering- wheels " instead of the radial wheels, with fixed buckets or floats. These wheels are 30 feet 2 inches diameter outside of buckets. There are twelve curved steel buckets to each wheel. Each bucket is 3 feet 9 inches wide and 12 feet 6 inches long, with an angle iron 3x5 inches on each end. The wheels are over- hung, or have a bearing outboard on the hull only. The feathering is done in the usual manner by means of driving and radius bars, operated by a centre placed eccentric to the shaft and held by the A frame on the guard. They were introduced in the " New York " for the purpose of gaining speed, and the trial- trips show that the builders' expectations were not groundless. Absence of jar is another great gain obtained by the use of these wheels, and the comparatively thin buckets enter the water so smoothly that the boat is without the shake so common with the ordinary wheels. Steam is supplied to the engine by three return flue- boilers, each 9^ feet diameter of shell, n feet width of front, and 33 feet long. These boilers are con- 162 ROBERT FULTON. structed for a working pressure of fifty pounds per square inch. Each boiler has a grate surface of 76 square feet, or 228 square feet in all, and with the forced draught produce 3,850 horse-power. Another measure of safety is the steam steerer, which has been put on so that the boat can be handled with the quick and easy precision due to this improvement. The exterior is, as usual in this class of steamers, of pine painted white, relieved with tints and gold. The interior is finished in cabinet work, and is all hard wood, ash being used forward of the shaft on the main deck and mahogany aft and in the dining- cabin. The construction of steamers of recent design for lake and sound routes, as between New York and New England, on Long Island Sound, is exemplified by that of the " Puritan." " The ' Puritan ' has principal dimensions as follows : Length, over all, 420 feet ; length on the water-line, 404 feet; width of hull, 52 feet; extreme breadth over guards, 9 1 feet ; depth of hull amidships, 2 1 feet, 6 inches ; height of dome from base-line, 63 feet ; whole depth, from base-line to top of house over the engine, 70 feet. Her total displacement is 4,150 tons, and her gross tonnage 4,650 tons. " The ' Puritan ' is fireproof and unsinkable, has a double hull divided into fifty-nine water-tight compart- ments. In the fastenings of her steel hulls and com- partments, there have been used seven hundred thou- sand rivets. Her decks are of steel, wood covered. RIVER AND OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 163 c 3 OH H I 1 64 ROBERT FULTON. Her masts are of steel, and hollow, to serve as venti- lators, and are twenty-two inches in diameter. Her paddle-wheels are encased in steel. " The < Puritan's ' hull is made of < mild steel,' which metal, weight for weight, is some twenty per cent stronger than iron, with twenty-five per cent re- duction of area, according to the best Government test. " Her wheels are of steel, and are 35 feet in diameter outside the buckets. The buckets are 14 feet long and 5 feet wide, each bucket of steel | inch thick, and weighing 2,800 pounds without rock- ing-arms and brackets attached. The total weight of each wheel is 100 tons. "She has eight steel boilers of the Redfield return tubular type, and the maxi- mum working pressure is one hundred and ten pounds to the square inch. This fact illustrates the great advances made since the days of Fulton in the safe employment of high-pressure steam ; and the standard construction continually tends toward still higher tension. " The ' Puritan ' has a compound, vertical beam, surface-condensing engine of 7,500 horse-power. The high-pressure cylinder is 75 inches in diameter, and 9 feet stroke of piston. The low-pressure cylinder is no inches in diameter, and 14 feet stroke of piston. A horse and wagon could be driven through this cyl- inder if laid on its side. The surface condenser has 15,000 square feet of cooling surface and weighs 53 tons. Of condenser tubes of brass there are 14% miles in the * Puritan.' Her working beam is the largest ever made, being 34 feet in length from RIVER AA T D OCEAN STEAM-FLEETS. 165 centre to centre, 17 feet wide, and weighing 42 tons. When it is considered that the section of beam-strap measures 9^ x 1 1 J inches, one may get an idea of the enormous strain and the strength of resistance of this beam. The main centre of the beam is 19 inches in diameter in bearing. The shafts are 27 inches in diameter in main bearing, and 30 inches in gunwale bearing, and are the largest ever made in this country. They weigh 40 tons each. The cranks weigh 9 tons each. The crank-pin is enormous, the bearing being 10 inches in diameter and 22 inches long. " There are two centrifugal circulating pumps, each capable of throwing ten thousand gallons per minute. Besides these there are three other large pumps, with a combined capacity of two thousand gallons per minute. Novel features are the three steam capstans, one for- ward and one on each quarter, to be used in docking the boat ; each capstan has a double cylinder engine, each cylinder twelve inches in diameter and fourteen inches stroke. She has two Sturtevant blowers, furnish- ing fresh air for fire-room, each capable of fifty thou- sand feet per minute. She will burn about one hundred and twenty tons of coal on the trip from New York to Fall River and back. " From stem to stern, and in every nook and cor- ner of the ship, the electric wire is to be found. In all, there are twelve miles of this wire ; and including annunciators, fire-alarm, etc., there are twenty miles of wire on the ship, and twelve thousand feet of steam pipe. There are capacious gangways, grand and im- 1 66 ROBERT FULTON. posing staircases heavy with brass and mahogany, lofty cornices, and ceilings supported by tasteful pi- lasters, the tapering columns of which, in relief, flank exquisitely tinted panelling throughout the length of her grand and minor saloons. And over all this ar- tistic work and exuberant colouring, the incandescent electric light sheds its soft rays. Every convenience known to civilization, and which can contribute to the ease and comfort of the traveller on land or when afloat, is included in the internal arrangements of this floating caravansary. The artistic and luxuriant sense of the beholder is also abundantly appealed to. The ' Puritan ' has in all, three hundred and sixty-four staterooms. " Some idea of the immense amount of finish in the different departments may be obtained when it is understood that in the gilding alone 185,000 gold leaves, each 3 inches square, were used. In paint- ing the ship nearly one hundred thousand pounds of lead were expended." 1 1 Fall River Line Gazette. OCEAN STEAMERS. 167 VIII. OCEAN STEAMERS. THE OUTLOOK. STEAM- NAVIGATION on the ocean had a real begin- ning about 1 840, and this may be taken as the period of introduction of the screw-propeller, two events of supreme importance in the history of the art which the work of Fulton had so effectively promoted. Ten- tatively, the steam-navigation of the ocean had begun but little later than the navigation of the rivers and harbours of the United States. The ocean voyage of Robert L. Stevens was soon followed by those of Bell and Dodd in Great Britain; and by 1815 it was recognized as a possibility that long voyages might be undertaken by larger vessels. The first transatlantic voyage was made by the "Savannah," in 1819, partly by steam, in part by sail. This ship is now famous as the pioneer in this great traffic. The following description has been elsewhere given by the Author : l The "Savannah" measured three hundred and fifty tons, and was constructed by Crocker & Fickett, at Corlear's Hook, N. Y. She was purchased by Mr. Scarborough, of Savannah, who placed Captain Moses Rogers, previously in command of the " Clermont " 1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 285, et seq. i68 ROBERT FULTON, I CUD E OCEAN STEAMERS. 169 and of Stevens's boat, the " Phoenix," in charge. The ship was fitted with steam machinery and paddle-wheels, and sailed for Savannah, April 27, 1819, making the voyage successfully in seven days. From Savannah, the vessel sailed for Liverpool, May 26, and arrived at that port June 20. During this trip the engines were used eighteen days, and the remainder of the voyage was made under sail. From Liverpool the " Savannah " sailed, July 23, for the Baltic, touching at Copenhagen, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and other ports. At St. Petersburg, Lord Lyndock, who had been a passenger, was landed ; and on taking leave of the commander of the steamer the distinguished guest presented him with a silver tea-kettle, suitably inscribed with a legend referring to the importance of the event which afforded him this opportunity. The " Savannah " left St. Petersburg in November, passing New York December 9, and reaching Savannah in fifty days from the date of departure, stopping four days at Copenhagen, Denmark, and an equal length of time at Arundel, Norway. Several severe gales were met in the Atlantic, but no serious injury was done to the ship. The " Savannah " was a full-rigged ship. The wheels were turned by an inclined direct-acting low- pressure engine, having a steam- cylinder forty inches in diameter and six feet stroke of piston. The paddle-wheels were of wrought- iron, and were so arranged that they could be detached and hoisted on board when found advisable. After the return of the ship to the United States the machinery was removed, T 70 ROBER T FUL TON. and was sold to the Allaire Works, of New York. The steam-cylinder was exhibited by the purchasers at the World's Fair at New York, thirty years later. The vessel was employed as a sailing-vessel on a line between New York and Savannah, and was finally lost in the year 1822. Later, the " Enterprise " made a voyage (1825) to India, under steam and sail as the weather and circum- stances permitted ; and still other vessels were built, using " auxiliary " engines, as they were called ; but even as late as 1838 there were grave doubts expressed by eminent authorities of the feasibility of making long voyages by steam alone. These doubts were, however, set at rest in that year by the crossing of the Atlantic by two steamers almost simultaneously, the "Sirius" and the " Great Western." The latter was a large vessel for those days, and nearly double the size and power of the other. The " Great Western " was of 1,350 tons burden and 450 horse-power ; the " Sirius " was of 700 tons and 250 horse-power The " Sirius " sailed from Cork on the 4th and the "Great Western" from Bristol on the 8th of April, both arriving in New York on the same day, April 23, 1838, the one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. These vessels were placed on the route in the interests, respectively, of the British and Ameri- can Steam Navigation Co., and of the Great West- ern Railway of Great Britain. Both ships returned safely, making good time ; and the larger was kept on the line for some years, making many successful voyages. The other craft was deemed too small OCEAN STEAMERS. 171 for the route and was taken off and placed on a line between Dublin and Cork. Other ships were soon built for this trade, and the transoceanic lines were gradually established, never again to be given up. As may well be imagined, the appearance of the two pioneers in New York harbour was a most impressive event, and awakened the greatest enthusiasm on both sides the Atlantic. The formation of the still-existing Fig. 20. The " Pacific," 1851. Cunard Line immediately followed; its first vessel, the " Britannia,", sailing for New York on the 4th of July, 1840. Three sister ships followed; and the four steamers continued in service until the success of the enterprise was so far assured as to justify the building of larger and more powerful vessels. These four ships had an aggregate of about forty-six hundred tons bur- den, about one half the tonnage of single vessels now on transatlantic lines. These vessels and the ships of the first large American company, the Collins Line, I? 2 ROBERT FULTOA T . organized about 1850, were all paddle-steamers with side- lever engines, like that illustrated in figure 21. They were first built, it is said, by Messrs. Maudsley, Sons, & Field, about 1835 > but that here illustrated was designed by Mr. Charles Copeland, of New York, for the " Pacific," one of the Collins steamers. Fig. 21. The Side-Lever Engine, 1849. This steamer was built at New York, the hull by William Brown, and the machinery by the Novelty Iron Works. The length of the hull was 276 feet, its breadth 45 feet, and the depth of hold 31^ feet. The width over the paddle-boxes was 75 feet. The ship measured 2,860 tons. The form of the hull was such as best adapted the ship for high speed. The main " saloon " was about 70 feet long, and the OCEAN STEAMERS. 173 dining-room was 60 feet in length and twenty feet wide. The staterooms accommodated 150 passen- gers. These vessels inaugurated our present wonder- ful system of passenger-transportation. 1 The engines were of the side-lever type, as illustrated in Figure 2 1 . In this engine the piston-rod was attached to a cross-head, from which, at each side, links B C, con- nected with the side-lever, D E F. The latter vibrated about a main centre at E ; from its other end a connecting-rod, H, led to the cross-tail, W, connected to the crank-pin, /. The condenser, M 9 and air-pump, Q, were between the cylinder, A, and the crank, IJ. The Collins Line proved a failure ; but it was very largely a consequence of a series of misfortunes, for which neither the management nor the officers of the ships were held accountable. Ship after ship was lost, and the costs of operation in competition with the British lines, which were subject to far less expense, proved to be unexpectedly large. It is also probable that the general introduction of the screw, after these ships had been built as paddle-steamers, had some- thing, perhaps much, to do with the final breaking down of so expensive and burdensome a line. The screw-propeller had by this time become an unde- niable success in competition with the paddle in ocean steaming; and screw- vessels now rapidly displaced those propelled by paddle-wheels. The screw-propeller, proposed by Bernouilli and by Watt, used successfully by Fitch and by Stevens and 1 History of the S team-Engine, p. 290. 174 ROBERT FULTON. Smith, and a little later (1812) by Trevithick, was finally brought into use for general purposes by Fran- cis Pettit Smith in Great Britain, and by John Erics- son in the United States, after the latter had made an experimental success but a commercial failure of it in England. Ericsson's patent on his screw was issued from the British patent office in 1836. His boat, built in that year, was found to be capable of doing good work as a " tug " on the Thames, making ten miles an hour, running free, and towing large vessels at the rate of five to seven miles an hour. The British Ad- miralty, with customary conservatism, refused to adopt Ericsson's plans, and he was persuaded by Captain Stockton, an enterprising American naval officer, to go with him to the United States, and there endeavour to interest the Navy Department in his inventions. A screw- vessel, the " Stockton," was accordingly built in England and sent over to the United States in 1839; an d Ericsson followed, to build other vessels for Stockton and his partners in the venture. The " Stockton " remained in service on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, under the name of the " New Jersey," for many years. After the departure of Ericsson a company was formed in England to work the patents of Smith ; and this company built the " Archimedes," the trial-trip being made October 14 of that year. This boat made nearly ten miles an hour ; and the British Admiralty at last began to take some interest in the subject, and subsequently adopted the screw for naval pur- poses. Meantime, also, Congress had authorized the OCEAN STEAMERS. I 75 construction of new vessels, and Ericsson was allowed to introduce his screw and his engines into one of them, the " Princeton." This was the first steamer built for war purposes which was fitted with a screw- propeller. She was large for the time, about one thousand tons displacement, and all the machinery was placed under the water-line for the first time also. In reporting on the performance of this ship, Cap- tain Stockton, who was the first commander, recites the advantages possessed by the steamer in conse- quence of the facts that her machinery is out of reach of shot ; that no paddles are in sight ; that she has clear decks ; and that, burning anthracite coal, no smoke is visible ; he then goes on to repeat, substan- tially, the idea of Fulton, saying, " The improvements in the art of war effected on board the ' Princeton ' may be productive of more important results than anything that has occurred since the invention of gunpowder. The numerical force of other navies, so long boasted, may be set at naught ; the ocean may again become neutral ground ; and the rights of the smallest, as well as the greatest nations, may once more be respected." The hull of the vessel was condemned in 1849, an d the ship broken up. A second hull was built, fitted with the same ma- chinery, and given the same name, in 1851, but was less satisfactory, performed little service, and was sold out of the service in 1867. Since the days of the "Princeton," all navies have adopted the screw- propeller, and all naval fleets are steam-fleets. The screw was found to possess many advantages 176 ROBERT FULTON. over the paddle-wheel. The cost of machinery was greatly reduced; the expense of maintenance in working order was, however, somewhat increased. The latter disadvantage was, nevertheless, compen- sated by an immense increase in the economy of power for ship-propulsion, which marked the substi- tution of the new machinery. When a ship is under way, the motion of the vessel creates a current of water in the direction in which the ship is moving, following the ship for a time, and finally losing all motion by contact with the surround- ing mass of water. All the power expended in the production of this great stream is, in the paddle- steamer, lost. In screw-steamers, however, the pro- pelling instrument works in this following current ; and the tendency is to bring the fluid to rest, taking up, and thus restoring usefully, a large part of that energy which would otherwise have been lost. The screw is covered by the water, and acts with comparative effi- ciency in consequence of its submersion. The rota- tion of the screw is rapid and % smooth also, and this permits the use of small, light, fast-running engines. The latter condition leads to economy of weight and space, and saves not only the cost of transportation of the excess of weight of the larger kind of engine, but leaving so much more room for cargo, the gain is found to be a double one. Still further : the quick- running engine is, other things being equal, the most economical, and thus expense is saved, not only in the purchase of fuel, but in its transportation ; and additional gain is derived from the increased amount OCEAN STEAMERS. 177 of paying cargo which the vessel is thus enabled to carry. 1 Since the days of Ericsson's great success in the introduction of the screw-propeller and the organiza- tion of steam-fleets, there have been two great im- provements in the steam-engine, and two important changes in naval construction. The first two are the general introduction of the surface-condenser, and the use of the compound engine at sea; the second two are the building of the iron-clad fleet, and the construction of Ericsson's greatest inven- tion, the " Monitor." During these fifty years, also, the steam-fleets of the merchant navies of the world have become enormously increased in numbers, their vessels have grown to tremendous size, and their machinery has more than proportionally gained in power, driving their great hulls through the heaviest seas with the speed of the railway train on land. The change from the side-lever single-cylinder engine, with jet-condenser and paddle-wheels, to the direct-acting compound engine, with surface- con- denser and screw-propellers, has occurred within this period. Builders slowly learned the principles gov- erning expansion in one or more cylinders ; and the earlier engines were often made with a high and low pressure cylinder working on the same rod, each machine consisting of four steam- cylinders. It was at last discovered that a high-pressure single-cylinder engine exhausting into a separate larger low-pressure engine might do as well, and the compound engine 1 History of the Steam-Engine, p. 297. 12 178 ROBERT FULTON. became as simple as the type of engine which it displaced. The advantage of introducing such engines at sea is considerably greater than on land. The coal car- ried by a steam-vessel is not only an item of great importance in consequence of its cost, but it repre- sents so much non-paying cargo, and is to be charged with the full cost of transportation in addition to first cost and the loss of profit on the freight that it dis- places. To this saving of cost on fuel account, by the use of the later type of engine, is to be added the gain in wages and sustenance of the labour required to handle that coal. At sea, rise of steam-pressure was for a considerable time retarded by the serious difficulty encountered in the tendency of the sulphate of lime to deposit from the sea-water in the boiler. When steam-pressure had risen to twenty-five pounds per square inch, it was found that no amount of " blowing out " would pre- vent the deposition of seriously large quantities of this salt. The introduction of surface-condensation was attempted as the remedy for this evil, but it was long doubtful whether its disadvantages were not greater than its advantages. It was found difficult to keep the condensers tight ; and boilers were injured by corrosion, evidently due to the presence of the sur- face-condenser. The simple expedient of permitting a thin scale to form in the boiler was, after a time, hit upon as a means of overcoming this difficulty. Once introduced, the surface-condenser removed the ob- stacle to further elevation of steam-pressure, and the OCEAN STEAMERS. 179 rise from twenty to sixty pounds pressure, and more, soon occurred. John Elder and his competitors on the Clyde were the first to take advantage of the fact when these higher pressures became prac- ticable. Extreme lightness in modern machinery has been largely the result of skilful designing, of intelligent construction, and of care in the selection of material. To-day, the engines of heavy iron-clads are models of good proportions, excellence in materials, and of workmanship. The weight per indicated horse-power has been reduced from 400 or 500 pounds to a frac- tion of that amount. This has been accomplished by forcing the boilers, by higher steam-pressure, higher piston-speed, reduction of friction of parts, reduction of capacity for coal-stowage, and careful propor- tioning. The reduction of coal-capacity is compen- sated by increase of economy secured by high pressure, by increased expansion, elevation of piston-speed, and the introduction of the compound engine with surface-condensation. A good marine steam-engine of the form consid- ered standard about 1860, having low-pressure boilers carrying steam at 20 or 25 pounds pressure, expanding twice or three times, and with a jet-condenser, would require about 30 or 35 pounds of feed-water per horse-power per hour ; substituting surface-conden- sation brought down the weight of steam used to from 25 to 30 pounds. Increasing steam-pressure to 60 pounds, expanding from five to eight times, and combining the special advantages of the superheater i8o ROBERT FULTON. and the compound engine with surface-condensation reduced the consumption of steam to 20, and with 100 to 150 pounds pressure in the " triple-expansion " engine, in some cases to 15 pounds of steam per horse-power per hour. The next engraving illustrates the modern com- pound engine. Here, the cranks KZare coupled at an angle of ninety degrees, only two cylinders, A B, being used ; and an awkward distribution of pressure is avoided by having a considerable volume of steam- pipe, or by a steam-reservoir, O P, between the two cylinders. The valves, y y, are set like those of an ordinary engine, the peculiarity being that the steam exhausted by the one cylinder, A, is used again in the second and larger one, B. In this combination, the expansion is generally carried to about six times, the pressure of steam in the boiler being usually be- tween sixty and seventy-five pounds per square inch. The latest form of marine engine is the " quadruple- expansion " engine, in which the steam, taken from boilers carrying a pressure of one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per square inch, is worked through a series of steam-cylinders, expanding con- tinually to lower pressures as it goes, until it is finally discharged into the condenser at a pressure far below that of the atmosphere, all its energy converted, so far as the laws of nature allow, into working power. Thus expanding the steam to sixteen or twenty times its original volume, each of the four elements of the engine doing its share of the work, this machine is found capable of vastly more effective use of steam OCEAN STEAMERS. 181 than the older types of engine, in which the wastes within the cylinders were increased with increasing expansion in far higher proportion than the gain by expansion itself. In the various compound engines, the wastes of one steam-cylinder are utilized more or less completely in the next, thus making the total waste approximately, for the series, only that of one of its cylinders. Otherwise stated, the physical wastes of heat and steam in the " multiple-cylinder " en- gine of extreme expansion is approximately that only of a single cylinder, with a fraction of that degree of expansion. This is, in simple terms, the secret of the gain by the use of the compound engine. This change of type has been slowly going on, both on land and sea, ever since the time of Watt, whose con- temporary and rival, Hornblower, first endeavoured to introduce the now standard system. It has now so far progressed that the marine engine demands only from one and a quarter to one and a half pounds of fuel of good quality per horse-power and per hour. In special instances, on land, where the conditions of operation could be made exceptionally favourable, the economy of the engine is claimed to have been made even greater. Even the locomotive engine is now in process of conversion into a compound engine, with good results in many cases. As the compound engine revolutionized the meth- ods and results of the work of the engineer in steam- navigation, so the entrance of the modern iron-clad upon the scene, about the middle of the century, revolutionized many of the methods and the results 182 ROBERT FULTON. rt s p, fi o U - OCEAN STEAMERS. 183 of naval contests. The idea was by no means new ; but like all great inventions, time had been required for it to become matured, and especially for the world to make ready for it. The Stevens Battery was prob- ably the first real armoured war-vessel proposed and planned, and actually placed on the stocks ; but the first use of the iron-clad of which we have authentic knowledge was during the Crimean War, when the French and English fleet was reinforced by a few iron-clad craft, small and rude, crude in design and thin of plating, but which were sufficient to indicate the probability that such vessels might find place in modern fleets. To-day all fighting ships are plated, and their dimensions have increased, and the thick- ness of their armour has been made correspondingly greater, until they are now the largest of ships, and their plating withstands the shock of guns throwing shot weighing many hundred pounds, with a velocity of nearly a half-mile in a second ; but they are neverthe- less still vulnerable when attacked by Fulton's method of submarine warfare with torpedoes. Modern fleets include, in some countries, part of the more efficient and the larger merchant- vessels ; and in Great Britain all the largest and fastest trans- oceanic ships are retained, under the laws of the naval code, for use by the Government in time of war, thus making an enormous and important addition to the unarmoured fleet. Lloyd's Register of Shipping of the " War-ships of the World," for 1890, gives sta- tistical and other information regarding all navies, which will be interesting in this connection : 184 ROBERT FULTON. Britain. United States. France. Ger- many. Italy. Russia. Number of first-class armour- clads (iS-in. armour and above) Other sea-going armour- 19 *3 10 7 clads .... Cruisers and sloops (above 4i 27 ID 1 1 *7 900 tons) Gun vessels (over Coo tons) 166 47 47 3 63 11 35 4 22 J 7 32 4 Gunboats (over 200 tons) . Si 2 37 JO 22 M War-vessels over 14 knots . 169 19 75 44 55 23 Merchant ships to each cruiser or sloop .... 39 9 8 21 10 7 Merchant tonnage to each cruiser or sloop .... Merchant ships to each war- 49,000 11,000 13,000 26,500 13,600 5,000 8 / A / 4 The speeds of the several classes of war-vessels are as follows : Britain. France. Germany. Italy. Total, including other Nations Over 20 knots : Number .... 5 5 2 17 94 Tons displacement i35>9oo 24,280 640 12,390 238,663 Number of guns . 290 48 16 3jo Over 19 knots: Number. 24 IO o 3 61 Tons displacement 96,510 30,030 10,870 7,Qoo 208,210 106 eg 26 Over iS knots: iyu J/ D Number .... 9 II S 9 6t Tons displacement 46,660 4,980 57,26o 71 310 232,800 107 5 56 72 334 The largest vessels included in the British 2O-knot list are the " Blake " and "Blenheim," of 9,000 tons, and 22 knots speed, with p^-inch guns. France's OCEAN STEAMERS. 185 largest are the " Dupuy de Lome " and " Amiral Jaures," of 6,300 tons and 20 knots speed. Ger- many has two small torpedo-catchers of 22 knots, and Italy several of 21 knots, while Austria has three of 23 knots speed. Spain has the " Reina Regente*," of 21 knots speed, and two sister ships. It seems that sixteen merchant-vessels are able to steam over 19 knots, several of them at 21 knots. Of this number nine are Atlantic vessels, three Hamburg- American liners, two White Star, two Inman, and two Cunard liners, while the remainder are paddle- steamers on the Channel, eight between England and the Continent, and two to the Isle of Man. Several steamers have since been added to the list. Among the most famous of the great steamers of recent years, the "ocean greyhounds," as they have been well named, are the Cunard steamers "Umbria" and " Etruria ; " the still faster vessels of the Inman line, the * City of New York" and the " City of Paris ; " and the later ships of the White Star line, the " Majestic >; and the "Teutonic." They are all ships of 8,000 to 10,000 tons burden, and of from 15,000 to 20,000 horse-power. The "City of Paris," for example, cost to build over ,350,000, or about $1,750,000. Her length is 580 feet, and breadth of beam 63 feet, while her two complete sets of engines are of the triple expansion type, and of about 20.000 horse-power. A manufacturing estab- lishment requiring engines of 1,000 horse-power is considered a great enterprise, but this steamer's en- gines are nearly twenty times as great. The con- i86 ROBERT FULTON. OCEAN STEAMERS. 187 sumption of fuel averages about 350 tons a day. She has a crew of 370 men, and accommodations for 1,450 passengers. One thousand electric lamps are required to furnish light. This wonderful vessel has crossed the Atlantic repeatedly in less than six days, and per- haps with the exception of the "Teutonic " has held a first place among the fastest steamers on the ocean up to the present time (1891). The sister ships " Teutonic " and " Majestic " are of about 16,000 tons displacement, that is, their weight at sea is that amount, and are the fastest ships in a fleet of about 85,000 tons total belonging to one company. The "Teutonic" has made the trip from Queenstown to New York in five days, nine- teen hours, and five minutes, at a speed averaging 20. 2 knots, or about 23.25 miles an hour, a speed only rivalled by the sister ship and by the " City of Paris," which made its fastest trip in five days, nine- teen hours, and nineteen minutes. These ships are of 10,000 tons burden, registered, and their engines are of 17,000 horse-power. They are 582 feet long, 57! feet wide, and 39 J- feet deep, of finest steel for ship construction, and can carry over 1,300 passen- gers, 3,000 tons of fuel, and 4,000 tons of cargo. There are twenty-five engineers, sixty firemen, and forty-eight coal-passers or trimmers, with supernume- raries, etc., which bring up the total engineer's roll to one hundred and sixty- eight persons. The crew con- sists of about forty men. There are twenty-five cooks and sixty " stewards." A full passenger-list gives a total of about sixteen hundred persons on board when at sea. i88 ROBERT FULTON. The engines of these great ships are of the triple- expansion variety, two independent sets being em- ployed to drive twin screws. Their condensers contain twenty miles of brass tubes. The fires are forced by blowing-fans, which in the aggregate Fig. 24. The " Henry Grace De Dieu," and the " Great Eastern/' fourteen in number are capable of supplying about 225,000 cubic feet of air per minute. One hundred and twenty tons of water are converted into steam each hour, and at a pressure of one hundred and eighty pounds per square inch. THE OUTLOOK. 189 This would be sufficient for the supply of a city of over twenty-five thousand people, allowing twenty- five gallons per day to each. About 320 tons of fuel are required to convert the water into steam, each day, and the air needed for its combustion weighs about 275 tons. In the condensation of the steam about 4,000 tons of sea- water are passed through the condensers every hour, the equivalent of the water- supply to a city of three-quarters of a million people. The outlook, in the direction of higher speeds and better accommodation in river and ocean navigation, judged by the knowledge which we now possess and from the standpoint of the engineer, may be said to be, practically, to-day, what it has been for many years, a gradual and steady, though probably now comparatively slow, progress in both directions. The gradual increase of size of vessel, of power of machin- ery, and the improvement in form of the ship's lines, may be expected to go on, more and more slowly as we approximate more and more toward a limit set by Nature to further extension and to that continually met with in the financial problem involved. As the costs of such growth increase in a high ratio, it is always the fact that it will not pay, at any given mo- ment, to very greatly increase speeds or improve accommodations ; but the state of the art of steam- navigation now reached is such that it is not likely that many will be found to mourn the fact that we advance no more rapidly. As the writer has elsewhere remarked ^ I The Forum, 1888, Jt Form and Speed of Ships." 190 ROBERT FULTON. "The primary conditions are very readily deter- mined and specified ; but the working out of these conditions to a satisfactory result involves the appli- cation of principles which are the fruit of some of the most abstruse mathematical investigations, of the most ingenious and elaborate systems of experiment, and of the most extended and varied experience. In cer- tain directions we are to-day probably very near the limit of perfect construction ; but the conditions con- trolling the problem are so different where different ends are sought, and these differences lead to such apparently opposite lines of improvement, and to such varied forms of vessel, that it has been, and still Is, to a certain extent, very difficult to reach correct for- mulas of application ; and probably few naval archi- tects have been able to acquire very distinct views of the best principles of design for specified purposes." The obvious conditions of maximum speed, irre- spective of other desiderata, as comfort, handiness, ease in a seaway, stability (all which must be consid- ered to a greater or less extent by the naval architect in designing a vessel), are 1 i ) Maximum power in a given weight and space. (2) Minimum weight and volume of vessel. (3) Minimum frictional and other resistance of wetted surfaces. (4) Maximum perfection of form, having reference to the resistances to forward motion, and to lateral drift. In the steam vessel " stiffness " is unimportant ; and stability becomes essential only as affecting the motion THE OUTLOOK. 191 of the ship in a seaway, and- in giving safety against excessive rolling, or against overturn. To state these principles more in detail : maxi- mum power is obtained by designing light, powerful, and efficient engines and boilers, and by applying their energy to the instrument of propulsion in such manner as to lose the least possible proportion in friction and wasteful agitation of the water. The machinery must be as light as is consistent with strength and safety, and must be driven at as high speed, and under as high pressure as is practicable ; while economy in the use of steam and fuel is a hardly less important condition of excellence. Minimum weight and volume of vessel are secured in the case of the steamer, by reduction to a minimum of weights carried, and by the surrender of the space which is ordinarily claimed for comforts and conveniences. In both forms of vessel the material used in construction determines, to a great extent, what can be accom- plished in this direction. The increased use of iron and steel is bringing in much lighter hulls than could possibly have been made in wood, and has given a degree of strength and safety which the wooden hull never possessed, and never could attain. The results of study of the forms of fishes, as developed by the Great Architect of Nature, with perfect adaptation to his purposes, and the comparison of the shapes of the best ship-forms yet produced by human ingenuity and skill, seem to the author to indicate that we have attained such perfection of form and proportion that no very great or rapid advance is reasonably to be 192 ROBERT FULTON. expected in the near future, and that the problem of the fast vessel is substantially solved ; while further advances in speed must be expected mainly to come of devices for increasing propelling power, of new methods of securing lightness combined with stability, and perhaps, most of all, by increasing size of ship, as we have seen the size of ocean steamers increased. The limit of speed for vessels of usual sizes, whether using sail or steam, would seem to be already very nearly reached. Every gain now made must proba- bly be made only by the application of extraordinary care and skill, under the guidance of sound judgment and large experience. INDEX. AQUEDUCT improvements, by Ful- ton, 63. Armored vessels, Fulton's, 157. BERNOULLI'S screw-propeller, 29. Bridge improvement, by Fulton, 62. CLERMONT, building the, 101-126. Collins Line, starting the, 171. Compound Engine, construction, 180. Cunard Line, organization of the, 171. DEATH of Fulton, 140. Diving-boat of Fulton, 73. ENGINE, steam, compound, 180. Hero's 5 ; Marquis of Worces- ter's, 8 ; Newcomen's, 15; Sav- ery's, 9 ; Watt's, 20. Ericsson's vessels, 174. Experiments with steam, by Ful- ton, 101. FERRY-BOATS, Fulton's steam, 137. Fitch's steamboat, 33-36. Fleets, modern, 146-183. Fulton as aqueduct builder, 63 ; artist, 48-52 ; author, 55 ; bridge constructor, 62 ; engineer, 60 ; inventor in submarine warfare, 69 ; statesman, 58 ; death of, 140 ; diving-boat, 73 ; early life, 48 ; education, 49 ; experiments on ship resistance, in ; with steam, 101 ; firing guns under water, 79 ; first steamboat, 103 ; in London, 53 ; inventing canal improvements, 54; letter to Jef- ferson, 79 ; list of his steamboats, 135 ; not the inventor of the steamboat, i ; on torpedo war- fare, 93.; steam ferry-boats, 137 ; system of ship-railways, 14 ; the Clermont, 101-126 ; torpedoes, 95- Fulton's armored vessel, 138. Fulton the First, the war-steamer, 138. GUNS, plan of firing under water, 79- HENRY'S steamboat, 29. Hero's steam-engine, 5. JOUFFROY'S steamboat, 44. 194 INDEX. LEGENDS of the steam-engine, i. Lord Dundas's steamboat, 43. MARQUIS of Worcester's engine, 8. Millar, Taylor, and Symmington's steamboat, 41. Modern steam fleets, 146-183. Mowry's steamboat, 40. NAUTILUS, Fulton's, 76. Navigation, ocean and river, 146- 149 ; submarine, 69. New York, description of the, 159. OCEAN and river steamers, 146 : steamers, 168. Outlook in steam-navigation, 189. PAPIN'S steamboat, 28. Principles of ship-propulsion. 189. Propellers, screw, 174. Puritan, description of the, 162. RIVER and ocean steamers, 146 I navigation, 149. Rumsey's steamboat j 34. SCREW, Bernouilli's, 34 ; propul- sion, 174. Ship-railways, Fulton's plans, 64. Ship resistance, Fulton on r in. Smith's screw-propeller, 174. Speed of ships, requisites, 189-192. Steamboat, Babcock and Thurs- ton's, 157; D'Auxiron's, 43; Fitch's, 33-36 ; Fulton not its inventor, i ; Fulton's first, 103 ; Fulton's list of boats, 135 ; Growth of, in Great Britain, 156 ; Growth of in United States, 149 ; Henry's, 30 ; Hulls's, 29 ; Jouf- froy's, 44 ; Lord Dundas's, 43 ; Millar, Taylor, and Symming- ton's, 41 ; Mowry's, 40; P6rier's, 44 ; Roosevelt's, 46 ; Rumsey's 34 ; Stevens's, 41, 116, 149 ; Thurston and Babcock's, 157. Steam fleets, modern, 146-183. Steam-engine, See ENGINE. Steamers, modern, 167 ; ocean, 146 ; river, 146. Stevens, John, his steamboat, 116; Robert L., inventions of, 149- 154. Submarine navigation, 69. TORPEDO warfare, 90. Thurston and Babcock's steam- boat, 157. WATT'S condenser, 22 ; double- acting engine, 25 ; experiments, 22 ; inventions, 23. MAKERS OF AMERICA. The following is a list of the subjects and authors so far arranged for in this series. 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