Jonathan Hulls’ Paddle Steamer, 1737.
“The more probable reason of Hulls’ failure was the want of financial support, that previously accorded him being perhaps withdrawn on the first hitch in the experiments, or for some other reason, this so disheartening him that he relinquished the idea. While Hulls had been at work on his project, he had worn a brown paper cap, as usual with mechanics at that time, and this fact was taken advantage of in a scathing doggerel, which was circulated upon his failure, and which ran:
“Jonathan Hull
With his paper skull;
Tried to make a Machine
To go against wind and tide,
But he, like an ass,
Couldn’t bring it to pass
So at last was ashamed to be seen.”[11]
[11] P. C. Rushen’s “History and Antiquities of Chipping Campden in the County of Gloucester,” 1899.