“Whatever doubts we may have of his project, we have none respecting the propriety of acquainting your Lordship with every particular as to this matter that has come to our knowledge.”[381]
Boulton concluded by requesting instructions how to act; but all necessity for further caution was shortly after removed by Fulton coming over to England and imparting his secret to the British Government. An old Danish brig was placed at his disposal in Walmer Roads, and after two days’ effort, during which he was assisted by Sir Home Popham, he eventually succeeded in blowing up the vessel; but he accomplished his purpose with so much difficulty, that from that time no further fears were entertained of the much dreaded ‘Nautilus.’
In the following year the steam-engine ordered by Fulton for his proposed boat was proceeded with at Soho. It was of about nineteen horse power. The cylinder was 24 inches in diameter, and the stroke four feet. The dimensions were as nearly as possible the same as those of Symington’s ‘Charlotte Dundas’ engine; and Mr. Woodcroft pertinently remarks that “such similarity in the dimensions cannot easily be imagined to have been accidental.” The engine, when finished, was sent to America early in 1805. She was there fitted on board the vessel which had been prepared for her reception; and the first voyage of Fulton and Livingstone’s ‘Clermont’ was made in August, 1807, when a speed of nearly four miles an hour was attained. This was the first vessel that ran regularly for commercial purposes and for the benefit of her owners; and though Fulton neither invented the ship, nor the engine by which she was driven, nor the combination of the two, he was entitled to every merit for the perseverance and ability with which he carried his important enterprise to a successful issue.
A few years later Henry Bell, in like manner, introduced steam navigation on the Clyde. He had at an early period pressed the subject on the consideration of the Government, but failed to induce them to take up the scheme.[382] He then resolved himself to start a steamboat, as the best and most practical method of exhibiting its powers; and the ‘Comet,’ of thirty tons burthen, was built to his order by Messrs. John Wood and Company, of Port Glasgow. The vessel began to ply regularly between Glasgow and Greenock in August, 1812;[383] and before long Clyde steamers were known all over the world.
THE ‘COMET’ PASSING DUMBARTON.
[By R. P. Leitch.]
It will thus be observed how very gradual has been the invention of the steamboat. It has been made step by step, by many men living in many ages. First, we have Blasco Garay making experiments with paddle-wheels in the harbour of Barcelona three hundred years ago, the revival probably of some old and half-forgotten method of propelling ships; then the repetition of the experiment by Prince Rupert and Savery in the Thames more than a hundred and fifty years later; next Savery’s invention of his steam-engine, followed by Papin’s idea of combining the engine with the paddles, and his construction of a model to illustrate its practicability. Later, we have Jonathan Hulls’s patent for his steamboat, in which the engine was worked by atmospheric pressure, followed by numerous experiments with a like object, in England, France, and America. The invention of the condensing engine of Watt, and its application to rotary motions, was the next great step. Miller’s revival of the experiments with paddle-wheels led to the application by Symington of Papin’s idea of combining the steam-engine with the paddles, which he at length successfully worked out in the ‘Charlotte Dundas.’ And finally the invention was applied to practical purposes by Fulton and Livingstone in America, and by Bell in Scotland.
And thus became established, in the eloquent words of George Canning, “the new and mighty power, new at least in the application of its might, which walks the waters like a giant rejoicing in its course, stemming alike the tempest and the tide, accelerating intercourse, shortening distances, creating, as it were, unexpected neighbourhoods, and new combinations of social and commercial relations, and giving to the fickleness of winds and the faithlessness of waves the certainty and steadiness of a highway upon the land.” But it is a noteworthy fact, that it was not until the invention of James Watt was applied to the purposes of steam navigation that its practicability was established and its success secured. Until then, all the experiments which had been made were regarded as comparatively fruitless, though they were leading step by step to the great result; and to this day the engines constructed after Watt’s principle continue to be the great motive power alike of river and ocean navigation.