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zalez, director of the archives. This experiment, if it occurred at all, took place upwards of a century prior to the invention of the first acknowledged steam engine, which is generally attributed to the Marquis of Worcester, who published an account of his invention in 1655.

Jonathan Hull, of England, obtained a patent on the 21st of December, 1736, for "a new invented machine for carrying vessels or ships out of or into any harbor, port or river, against wind and tide, or in a calm." His plan was to place an atmospheric steam engine in a tug-boat, and to communicate its power by means of ropes, to the axis of a paddle wheel projecting from the stern of the vessel. His plan was never carried into practical effect.

In 1760, a Swiss clergyman of Geneva, Switzerland, visited England for the purpose of laying before the commissioners of the Navy, a plan for propelling a vessel by means of a steam engine, whose power was to be communicated through springs to a species of jointed oar, made in imitation of the web-feet of aquatic birds, which would expand while propelling the boat, and fold up, so as to offer but little resistance while passing forward, to make a new stroke.

Comte d'Auxiron, a French nobleman of considerable attainments, built a steamboat, which he tried on the Seine, near Paris, in 1774. His engine did not prove sufficiently powerful to move the paddle wheels which he adopted, and he became disheartened by the failure of his first experiment, and abandoned the project. In the following year an exceed ingly ingenious person, named Perier, who had assisted the Comte d'Auxiron, continued the experiment, with a defective engine of one horse power, which he connected to two paddle

wheels on a small boat. The motion obtained was slight, and the result unsatisfactory, but although he continued the experiments afterwards, adopting oars for paddle wheels, which he considered as the cause of the failure, no practical result of importance grew out of them.

In 1778, the Marquis de Jouffroy commenced a series of experiments on a much larger scale than any heretofore made, at Baume-les-Dames, which so favorably impressed him with the practicability of applying steam to the purposes of navigation, that in 1781, he constructed a boat on the Saône at Lyon, which, according to Arago, was forty-six metres long, and four and a half broad, being larger than any steamboat previously built. This boat possessed the advantage of having more perfect machinery than any of its predecessors, and was moved by two paddle wheels, one on cach side. The political disturbances which occurred about this period, drove its projector into exile, and put an end to experiments, that certainly gave greater promise of success than any previously attempted.

In 1786, John Fitch, of Philadelphia, completed a boat and engine, thus described in the Columbian Magazine for December, 1786:

"It is to be propelled through the water by the force of steam; the steam engine is to be similar to the late improved steam engine in Europe, these alterations excepted; the cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal force at each end thereof. The mode of forming a vacuum is believed to be entirely new, also of letting the water into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any friction. The undertakers are also of opinion, that their engine will

work with equal force to those late improved engines, it being a twelve inch cylinder; they expect it will move with a clear force, after deducting the friction, of between eleven and twelve hundred pounds weight; which force is to be applied to the turning of an axle-tree on a wheel of eighteen inches diameter. The piston is to move about three feet, and each vibration of the piston turns the axle-tree about two-thirds round. They propose to make the piston to strike thirty strokes in a minute, which will give the axle-tree about forty revolutions. Each revolution of the axle-tree moves twelve oars five and a half feet; as six oars comes out of the water, six more enter the water, which makes a stroke of about eleven feet each revolution. The oars work perpendicular, and make a stroke similar to the paddle of a canoe. The cranks of the axle-tree act upon the oar about one-third of their length from this lower end, on which part of the whole force of the axle-tree is applied. The engine is placed in about the third of the boat, and both the action and re-action of the piston operate to turn the axle-tree the same way."

It is exceedingly questionable whether any attempt was made to test the working powers of Fitch's boat before the following year. The article above quoted speaks of the experiment as yet to be tried, and alludes not to what it had done, but what was expected of it. Mr. Fitch in his petition to the government, in 1790, says that he "in the spring of 1785, conceived the idea of applying steam to the purposes of propelling vessels through the water." Dr. Rittenhouse gave Mr. Fitch a certificate dated 12th of December, 1787, which states that he "has frequently seen Mr. Fitch's steamboat, which with great labor and expense, he has at length

completed, and has likewise been on board when the boat was worked against both wind and tide, with a very considerable velocity by the force of steam only;" from all of which it appears pretty clear, that after December, 1786, when the description appeared in the Columbian Magazine, and before December, 1787, when Dr. Rittenhouse's certificate was given, the experiments to which he alludes were made upon the Delaware river, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.

On the third of December, in the same year, (1787,) an experiment was made on the Potomac river, with a steam vessel invented by James Rumsey, of Berkley county, Virginia, which was witnessed by a number of persons, whose certificates were obtained by the inventor. From these, it would appear that the speed obtained against wind and tide, was three miles an hour. The attestations of Mr. Charles Morrow and Joseph Barns, contained in the pamphlet of Rumsey, printed in 1788, go to prove, that Rumsey commenced his boat in May, 1785, and that after numerous delays, it was so far completed that an experiment was made in April, 1786, when it moved slowly against the current of the Potomac river. A second experiment was made in the December following, and a third and public one, on the third of December, 1787.

A very acrimonious contention ensued between these rival inventors, each of whom demanded nothing short of an exclusive privilege to navigate all the waters of the continent for a specified period. Nor was this altercation or these pretensions, confined to the parties themselves, but was largely shared in by their respective friends. Their inventions, however, proved equally abortive and useless, and would long

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since have been consigned to oblivion had not pecuniary interests from time to time fanned their embers into a flickering and uncertain flame.

In the following year, the anticipation in favor of the suc cess of steam navigation, appeared to assume a more tangible shape than it had yet put on, through the united and friendly labors of Patrick Miller, James Taylor and William Symington, of Scotland.

Mr. Miller was a gentleman of fortune, largely endowed with a love for mechanical pursuits, and a zealous promoter of such objects as he conceived would conduce to the public welfare. Mr. Taylor, in 1785, took up his residence in Mr. Miller's family, as a tutor to his sons, and frequently assisted him in his experiments on boats, which appeared to occupy much of his attention. In 1787, Miller had constructed a double boat of great sharpness, about sixty feet in length, to which he attached two paddle wheels, as a means of propulsion, to be turned by two men. This boat was matched against a fast sailing custom house boat, but it was found that a sufficient amount of force could not be applied to the paddle wheels to render its execution as effective as was desired or anticipated. Taylor suggested a steam engine to work the paddle wheels, and likewise mentioned the matter to his friend Symington, who had invented a steam carriage, in which he placed great confidence. The result was that a small engine was constructed with a cylinder four inches in diameter, which was placed in a small double pleasure boat, owned by Mr. Miller, in October, 1788. An experiment was made with this miniature vessel, on Dalswinton lake, at Mr.

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