CHAPTER IX.

STEAM NAVIGATION, AND FULTON'S SUCCESS.

"Then FULTON look'd: beneath his wondering eyes
Gay streamers lengthen round the seas and skies;
The countless nations open all their stores,
Load every wave and crowd the lively shores;
STEAMERS in mingling mazes streak the air,
And COMMERCE triumphs o'er the rage of war.

From Baltic streams, from Elba's opening side,
From Rhine's long course and Texel's labouring tide,
From Gaul, from Albion, tired of fruitless fight,
From green Hibernia, clothed in recent light,
Hispania's strand, that two broad oceans lave,
From Senegal and Gambia's golden wave,
Tago the rich, and Douro's viny shores,
The sweet Canaries and the soft Azores,
Commingling barks their mutual banners hail,
And drink by turns the same distending gale.
Thro' Calpe's strait that leads the Midland main,
From Adria, Pontus, Nile's resurgent reign,
The sails look forth and wave their bandrols high,
And ask their breezes from a broader sky.
Where Asia's isles and utmost shorelands bend,
Like rising suns the sheeted masts ascend;

Coast after coast their flowing flags unroll,
From Diemen's rocks to Zembla's ice-propped pole,
Where Behring's pass collapsing worlds divides,
Where California breaks the billowy tides,

Peruvian streams their golden margins boast,
Or Chili bluffs or Plata flats the coast.
Where, clothed in splendour, his Atlantic way
Spreads the blue borders of Hesperian day,
From all his havens, with majestic sweep,
The swiftest, boldest STEAMSHIPS of the deep
Swarm forth before him, till the cloudlike train
From pole to pole o'ersheet the whitening main."

We must now revert to an early period of Mr. Fulton's life, to trace from the beginning the progress of that great improvement in the arts for which we and all the world are so much indebted to him—we mean the practical establishment of navigation by steam.

At what time his attention was first directed to this subject, we do not know; but it is ascertained that, in the year 1793, he had matured a plan in which, even at that early day, he had great confidence. The evidence of this is his letter to the Earl of Stanhope, to which we have before adverted. This letter is dated the 30th of September, 1793. The answer from Lord Stanhope is dated the 7th of the following October, at Holdsworthy, Devon, and is as follows:

"SIR-I have received yours of the 30th of September, in which you propose to communicate to me the principles of an invention which you say you have discovered, respecting the moving of ships by the means of steam. It is a subject on which I have made important discoveries.

I shall be glad to receive the communication which you intend, as I have made the principles of mechanics my particular study," etc.

The history of the discovery of the power of steam, and of its application to engines which have been made for its use, and the progress of their improvement, might be very interesting, but would be inapplicable here. Mr. Fulton had indeed given to Watt and Bolton instructions for constructing the

FIRST ENGINE WHICH WAS SUCCESSFULLY USED IN A

BOAT, and had directed the parts to be made so that it might be arranged in a manner and within a compass suited to his purpose, which no one with a less mechanical genius than himself would have been able to do so accurately as it had been done by him; yet he made no pretensions as an inventor with respect to the engine.

Mr. Fulton, when he conceived a mechanical invention, not only perceived the effect it would produce, but he could ascertain, by calculation, the power his combination would afford, how far it would be adequate to his purpose, and what would be the requisite strength of every part of the machine.

To Mr. Fulton belongs the great honour of hav ing been the first who endeavoured to investigate, on principle, the difficulties of the subject. His

method of proceeding was, in principle, this: having determined the resistance of the vessel, he inferred that the paddles must experience the same resistance, and that the engine must exert a force at the centre of effort of the paddles equal to the resistance of the paddles. Assuming then the velocities of the piston and paddles as known, and equivalent to V and v, and the forces on the same as equivalent to F and f, he formed the proportion V v, f F; and by dividing the whole force on the piston, by the force exerted by the steam on any given portion of its surface, he obtained the surface of the piston itself, and thence its diameter.

Knowing then the whole resistance on the paddles, and supposing only one paddle on each side to act at the same instant, the area corresponding to that resistance becomes known, the half of which determines the surface of one paddle. Knowing also from the number of strokes made by the piston the number of strokes made by the paddlewheels, the diameter of the wheel may be determined so as to ensure to the paddle the velocity originally assumed. Fulton having in this manner determined the force necessary to propel his boat, and accurately considered the mode by which it might be most successfully applied, avoided the great error of his predecessors, viz., attempting too

much with an inadequate power, and gave to steam navigation that splendid and triumphant character which it now possesses.

In none of those who have attempted this great object were united those qualities and acquirements to which Mr. Fulton owed his success; that is to say, a genius for invention, mathematical and philosophical science, mechanical knowledge, and, what is rare in combination with these, considerable practice.

None of the projectors, prior to him, whose claims have been set up to rival his, have left any traces of calculations, or even an account of the principles upon which their machines were contrived. They were among the multitude that thought steam might be applied to navigation. They went to work to form a machine, upon a crude notion that it might be made to do something, without having attempted to calculate what, and without having any precise plan for its execution: when it did not answer their expectations, it was abandoned, because they could not perceive the cause of its failure, or any mode of making improvements upon it.

On the contrary, he never attempted to put in practice any improvements in mechanics without having made his calculations, drawn his plans, and executed his models.