STEAM NAVIGATION.

CHAP. III.

Introduction and Improvements effected by Hulls—Duquet-Jouffroy-Fulton-Miller-Symington-Stanhope-Linnaker-Thames and Clyde boats-Progress of Steam Navigation in America.

THE possibility of employing steam as a moving power in the navigation of vessels, was known early in the last century; its practical application however, on a large scale, has not been fully established above twenty years.

In 1698, Savery recommended the use of paddle-wheels, similar to those now so generally employed in steam vessels, though without in the remotest degree alluding to his engine as a prime mover; and it is probable that he intended to employ the force of men or animals working at a winch for that purpose. About forty years after the publication of this mode of propelling vessels, Mr. Jonathan Hulls obtained a patent for a vessel in which the paddlewheels were to be driven by an atmospheric engine of considerable power.

In describing his mode of producing a force sufficient for towing of vessels, and other purposes, the ingenious patentee says, " In some convenient part of the tow-boat there is placed a vessel about two-thirds full of water, with

the top close shut; this vessel being kept boiling, rarefies the water into steam; this steam being conveyed through a large pipe into a cylindrical vessel, and there condensed, makes a vacuum, which causes the weight of the atmosphere to press on this vessel, and so presses down a piston that is fitted into this cylindrical vessel, in the same manner as in Mr. Newcomen's engine, with which he raises water by fire.

"It has been already demonstrated that when the air is driven out of a vessel of thirty inches diameter, (which is but two feet and a half,) the atmosphere will press on it to the weight of four tons sixteen cwt. and upwards; when proper instruments for this work are applied to it, it must drive a vessel with great force."

The accompanying engraving represents Mr. Hulls' towboat, copied from the very rare work by the inventor.

Mr. Hulls' patent is dated 1736, and he suggested the use of a crank to produce the rotatory motion of his paddlewheels; this ingenious mode of converting a reciprocating into a rotatory motion, was afterwards recommended by the Abbé Arnal, Canon of Alais in Languedoc, who, in 1781, proposed the crank for the purpose of turning paddlewheels in the navigation of lighters.

It is probable that Mr. Hulls anticipated some objection. to his new mode of propelling vessels, and it appears from

Captain Savery's statement, to which we have already alluded, that a strong prejudice had been raised against the use of propelling wheels in vessels. Mr. Secretary Trenchard, who was at that time at the head of the Admiralty, had also given a decided negative to the proposition. In answer therefore to the objections which might have been anticipated, Mr. Hulls proposed the following queries, which he afterwards solved in the most satisfactory

way.

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Query 1.-Is it possible to fix instruments of sufficient strength to move so prodigious a weight, as may be contained in a very large vessel ?

“Answer.—All mechanics will allow it is possible to make a machine to move an immense weight, if there is force enough to drive the same, for every member must be made in a proportionable strength to the intended work, and properly braced with laces of iron, so that no part can give way, or break.

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Query 2.—Will not the force of the waves break any instrument to pieces that is placed to move in the water? “Answer. First, It cannot be supposed that this machine will be used in a storm or tempest at sea, when the waves are very raging; for if a merchant lieth in a harbour, &c. he would not choose to put out to sea in a storm, if it were possible to get out, but rather stay until it were abated. Secondly, when the wind comes ahead of the tow-boat, the fans will be protected by it from the violence of the waves, and when the wind comes side-ways, the waves will come edge-ways of the fans, and therefore strike them with the less force. Thirdly, there may be pieces of timber laid to swim on the surface of the water on each side of the fans, and so contrived as they shall not touch them, which will protect them from the force of the waves.

"Up inland rivers where the bottom can possibly be

reached, the fans may be taken out, and cranks placed at the hindmost axis to strike a shaft to the bottom of the river, which will drive the vessel forward with the greater force.

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Query 3.-It being a continual expense to keep this machine at work, will the expense be answered?

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Answer. The work to be done by this machine will be upon particular occasions, when all other means yet found out are wholly insufficient. How often does a merchant wish that his ship were on the ocean, when, if he were there, the wind would serve tolerably well to carry him on his intended voyage, but does not serve at the same time to carry him out of the river, &c. he happens to be in, which a few hours' work at this machine would do. Besides, I know engines that are driven by the same power as this is, where materials for the purpose are dearer than in any navigable river in England. Experience, therefore, demonstrates, that the expense will be but a trifle to the value of the work performed by those sort of machines which any person who knows the nature of those things may easily calculate."

M. Duquet appears to have tried revolving oars as early as the year 1699, and experiments were made with them on a large scale both at Marseilles and at Havre :* this mode, however, of impelling vessels was soon given up as impracticable; and after our countryman, Hulls, the Marquis de Jouffroy unquestionably holds the most distinguished rank in the list of practical engineers, who have added to the value of this invention.

It is evident from an article published in the Journal des Debats, that in 1781 the marquis constructed a steam

* Vide Recueil de Machines approuvées par L' Académie Royale de Sciences, tome i. 173.

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boat at Lyons, of 140 feet in length. With this he made several successful experiments on the Saone, near that city. The events of the revolution, which broke out a few years afterwards, prevented M. de Jouffroy from prosecuting this undertaking, or reaping any advantage from it. On his return to France after a long exile, in 1796, he learned from the newspapers that M. de Blanc, an artist of Trevoux, had obtained a patent for the construction of a steam-boat built probably from such information as he could procure relative to the experiments of the Marquis. The latter appealed to the government, which was then too much occupied with public affairs to attend to those of individuals. Meanwhile Fulton, who had gained the same information, and was making similar experiments near the Isle des Cygnes, alarmed M. De Blanc, who knew that he had much more to fear from the influence and mechanical skill of an Aglo-American, than from that of an emigrant. He accordingly alleged his patent right, and requested the stoppage of Mr. Fulton's works, who returned for answer, that his essays could not affect France, as he had no intention to set up a practical competition upon the rivers of that country, but should soon return to America, which he actually did, and commenced the erection of those engines to which he has since laid claim as exclusive inventor.*

Shortly after the first experiments were made by the Marquis de Jouffroy, a gentleman of the name of Miller, who resided at Dalswinton, published a work, in which he described the application of wheels to the working of

* The Quarterly Review, in an admirable article inserted in the thirtyeighth number of that work, very justly exposes the pretensions of the Americans to this invention; and points out some of the advantages which society owes to the above modest and philanthropic individual, not the least of which is the attempted introduction of the torpedo, and other apparatus for destroying human life by wholesale.