[5]“Whereas our trusty and well-beloved Jonathan Hulls hath by his petition humbly represented unto our most dearly beloved Consort, the Queen, that he hath, with much labour and with great expense, invented and formed a machine for towing ships and vessels out of, or into any harbour or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm, which the petitioner apprehends may be of great service to our Royal Party and merchant ships, and to boats and other vessels, of which the petitioner hath made oath that he is the sole inventor, as by affidavit to his said petition annexed.
“Know ye, therefore, that we, of our special grace, hath given and granted to the said Jonathan Hulls our special license, full power, sole privilege and authority during the term of fourteen years, and he shall lawfully make use of the same for carrying ships and other vessels out to sea, or into any harbour or river.
“In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent.
“(Witness) Caroline,
“Queen of Great Britain, &c.
“Given by right of Privy Seal at Westminster, this 21st day of December, 1736.”
In the description of his invention, Hulls states that, in his opinion, it would not be practicable to place his machine on anything but a tow-boat, as it would take up too much room for other goods to be carried on the same vessel with it, and it could not “be used in a storm, or when the waves are very raging.” Hulls’ vessel is stated to have been a stern-wheeler, a type of steamboat which is now extensively used for navigating shallow rivers in the Southern States of America and in India. The steam tow-boat brought its inventor nothing but ridicule, and he died in London in almost destitute circumstances.
Next in chronological sequence come the Abbé Arnal and the Marquis de Jouffroy, of France, who, in 1781, made experiments to show the practicability of applying steam power to vessels.
Two years later (1783), a Mr. Fitch tried a species of steam boiler on board a small nine-ton vessel on the Delaware River in America, propelling the vessel by paddles.[6]“In 1787 he built another boat, 45ft. by 12ft., and fitted her with a 12in. cylinder. With this vessel he is reported to have made the trip from Philadelphia to Burlington at an average rate of seven miles per hour. In 1790 he completed another and a larger boat.” But all his plans failed, and, like Hulls, his contemporaries deemed him to be crazy. He died in 1798. [7] About this period (1780 to 1788) there resided in Edinburgh a banker, of aristocratic birth and connection. Patrick Miller, the banker referred to, was a man of an active and ingenious mind, and, having realised a large fortune by banking, he used it as a means of enabling him to work out schemes for the benefit of the public. Having purchased an estate in the beautiful valley of the Nith, from which he derived the title of Laird of Dalswinton, he retired thither to solve the problem of navigating a vessel by some more certain means than oars and sails. He had (prior to this)[8]“exhibited a triple vessel at Leith, having rotatory paddles in the two interspaces, driven by a crank and wrought by four men. He determined one day to try its powers against a fast sailing Customs Wherry, between Inch-colm and the harbour of Leith, a distance of six or seven miles. He beat his opponent by several minutes, and was very well satisfied with the result. His boys’ tutor, a Mr. Taylor, who had taken his turn at the crank, and realised how violent was the necessary exertion, was convinced that without a more staying power than manual labour the invention would prove practically useless. He stated his objections to Mr. Miller, and they had frequent discussions on the subject. At length, one day, Taylor said ‘Mr. Miller, I can suggest no power equal to the steam engine, or so applicable to your purpose.’ The result of this suggestion was that Mr. Miller decided to fit up a new double boat, which he had recently placed on the lake at Dalswinton for the amusement of his family. Taylor made the necessary arrangements under the direction of an ingenious mechanic named William Symington. The engine was a very small one, having four-inch brass cylinders, made by George Watt, brassfounder, Edinburgh. On the 14th October, 1788, several hundreds of people assembled on the banks of Dalswinton Loch to witness the trial trip of the twin steamboat, which was entirely successful. Mr. Miller was so pleased with the success of the experiment that he resolved to repeat it on a larger scale. The following year he fitted a twin vessel 60 feet long, belonging to himself, with an engine of 18in. cylinders. This vessel steamed at the rate of seven miles an hour on the Forth and Clyde Canal, in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators. It had been Mr. Miller’s wish to try a third experiment with a third vessel, in which he should venture out on to the ocean, and attempt a passage from Leith to London. Unfortunately, he became dissatisfied with Symington, and, being vexed at the cost of fitting up the second vessel, which was much greater than he anticipated, as well as by a miscalculation, through which the machinery was made too heavy for the hulls, he hesitated to make further trial.”
“Taylor being poor, and a scholar, not a mechanician, could do nothing without Mr. Miller’s assistance. Symington was the only one of the three who persevered. He deserves credit for having done so, but not for the manner in which he did it, for without any communication with Messrs. Miller and Taylor, the true inventors, he took out a patent for the construction of steamboats in 1801. Through the interest of Lord Dundas, he was able, in 1803, to fit up a new steamboat for the Forth and Clyde Canal Co., and this vessel, called the Charlotte Dundas, was tried in towing a couple of barges upon the canal with entire success, except in one respect, which was that the agitation of the water by the paddles was found to wash down the banks in an alarming manner. For this reason the Canal Co. resolved to give up the project, and the vessel was, therefore, laid aside. It lay on the bank at Lock 16 for many years, generally looked on, of course, as a monument of misdirected ingenuity, but, as we shall presently see, it did not lie there altogether in vain. Meantime Symington had been in communication with the Duke of Bridgewater, with the object of introducing steam towage on the Bridgewater Canal, and had actually received a trial order, when, unfortunately, the Duke died, and the project was closed. Here Symington vanishes likewise from the active part of this history. Miller died in 1815, a comparatively poor man, having exhausted his fortune by improvements and experiments. It has been stated by his son that he spent fully £30,000 in projects of a purely public nature. Taylor died in 1824, in straitened circumstances, leaving a widow and daughters, to whom the Government granted a pension of £50 a year.”