Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/364

 352 STEAM NAVIGATION" feet heat engine. See Tredgold, " Treatise on Steam Engines " (3 vols. 4to, London, 1852) ; Bourne, "Treatise on the Screw Propeller" (new ed., London, 1873), "Treatise on the Steam Engine" (new ed., 1873), "Handbook of the Steam Engine " (new ed., 1873), and "Examples of Modern Steam, Air, and Gas Engines" (1868 et seq., to be completed in 24 4to parts); Kankine, "Manual of the Steam Engine and other Prime Movers" (7th ed., London, 1874) ; and Clark, " Steam and Steam Engines" (London, 1875). STEAM NAVIGATION. The origin of the pad- dle wheel for propelling vessels antedates the Christian era. The earliest application of steam to turn the paddle wheel was anticipa- ted by Roger Bacon. The attempt of Blasco de Garay in 1543, if it was made as asserted, is the earliest on record. Papin is said to have experimented with his engine in a model boat in 1707, on the Fulda at Cassel. Jonathan Hulls patented a marine steam engine Dec. 21, 1736, proposing to employ his vessel in towing. He published a descriptive pamphlet in 1737, con- taining a sketch (fig. 1) of a Newcomen engine, with a system of counterpoises, ropes, ratch- ets, and grooved wheels, giving a continuous motion. William Henry of Chester co., Pa., FIG. 1. Hulls's Steamer, 1T36. tried a model steamboat on the Conestoga river in 1763. The count d'Auxiron, a French nobleman, assisted by M. Perier, made a simi- lar attempt in 1774, and Perier repeated the experiment in 1775. The marquis de Jouffroy was engaged in the same work from 1776 to 1783, using a larger vessel and meeting with encouraging success. James Rumsey was en- gaged in experiments in the United States as early as 1784, and in 1786 drove a boat on the Potomac near Sheppardstown at the rate of 4 m, an hour by means of a water jet forced out at the stern. Rumsey subsequently went to England and continued his experiments on the Thames. (See RUMSEY, JAMES.) John Fitch worked at this problem at the same time with Rumsey, and had an experimental steamer on the Delaware in 1786. His propelling instru- ments were paddles suspended by the upper ends of their shafts and moved by a series of cranks. This boat (fig. 2) was 60 ft. long. An- other vessel in 1790 made many trips on the Delaware, reaching an average speed of 7-J- m. an hour. It was laid up in 1792. In 1796 Fitch resumed his experiments at New York, using a screw. (See FITCH, JOHN.) In 1788 three Scotch gentlemen, Miller, Taylor, and Symington, obtained a speed of 5 m. an hour with a steamboat on Dalswinton loch. In this vessel two .connected hulls were driven by a single paddle wheel placed between them and turned by a small engine. In 1789 a larger vessel, propelled by an engine of 12 horse power, attained a speed of 7 m. an hour. In 1801 Symington constructed for Lord Dundas a steamboat for towing on the canal, named the Charlotte Dundas, which was used success- fully in 1802. It had a stern wheel driven by an engine, 22 in. in diameter of cylinder and of 4 ft. stroke. It drew vessels of 140 tons burden 3 m. an hour, but was laid up soon afterward in consequence of a fear that the banks of the canal might be seriously injured Fio. 2. Fitch's Steamboat, 1T86. by the waves. Robert Fulton, an American artist, and subsequently a civil engineer, built a steamboat on the Seine in 1803, assisted by