ing the boat, and procuring such information regarding it as I might be pleased to communicate. He at the same time mentioned" (continues Symington) "however advantageous such an invention might be in Great Britain, it would certainly be more so to North America, on account of the many extensive navigable rivers in that country. And as timber of the first quality for building the vessels, and also for fuel to the engines, could be purchased there at a small expense, he was decidedly of opinion it could hardly fail in a few years to become very beneficial to trade in that part of the world; and that his carrying the plan to North America could not turn out otherwise than to my advantage; as, if I were inclined to do it, both the making and superintending of such vessels would naturally fall upon me, provided my engagements with steam-boats at home did not occupy so much of my time as to prevent me from paying any attention to those which might afterwards be constructed abroad. In compliance with his earnest request, I caused the engine-fire to be lighted up, and in a short time thereafter put the steam-boat in motion; and, carrying him four miles on the canal, returned to the place of starting, to the great astonishment of Fulton and several gentlemen who, at our request, came on board. During the above trip, Fulton asked me if I had any objections to his taking notes respecting the steam-boat; to which question I said, 'None.' And after putting several pointed questions respecting the general construction and effect of the machine, which I answered in a most explicit manner, he jotted down particularly every thing then described, with his own remarks upon the boat. But he seems," says Symington, "to have been altogether forgetful of this; as, notwithstanding his fair promises, I never heard any thing more of him till reading in a newspaper an account of his death.” Thus provided with practical information from Symington, Fulton proceeded to America in 1806; and in 1807 Fulton had completed his steamboat, and in the spring of that year it was launched on the Hudson. The steam-engine manufactured by Boulton and Watt had arrived; and, with the assistance of the engineers who had been sent out with it, it was fitted up in the boat; and in August of the same year the first trial was made. On this occasion, Livingstone and Fulton had invited many of their friends to witness the progress of the first steam-boat.

Nothing," says the historian of the event, "could exceed the surprise and admiration of all who witnessed the experiment. The minds of the most incredulous were changed in a few minutes before the boat had made the progress of a quarter of a mile, the greatest unbeliever must have been converted. The man who, while he looked on the expensive machine, thanked his stars that he had more wisdom than to waste his money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of his features as the boat moved from the wharf, and gained her speed; his complacent smile gradually stiffened into an expression of wonder. The jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling enough to repress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced for the moment by a vulgar astonishment, which deprived them of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius extorted from the incredulous multitude which crowded the shores, shouts and acclamations of congratulation and applause.. This famed vessel, which was named the Clermont, soon after sailed for Albany (150 miles from New York), and on her first voyage arrived at her destination without any accident."

The speed attained was about five miles an hour. She was ultimately placed as a passenger-boat between the above places, and succeeded so admirably as to place Fulton very speedily in a position of independence. The dimensions of the Clermont were, length 133 feet, depth 7 feet, breadth of beam 18 feet. The diameter of cylinder was 2 feet, stroke 4 feet; the diameter of paddle-wheels 15 feet; the float or ducket 4 feet long, and dropped 2 feet into the water. The burden was 160 tons; the boiler was

20 feet long, 7 deep, and 8 broad.

In the year 1808, a steam-boat called the Comet was tried on the river Clyde, in Scotland, by Mr. Henry Bell, a name deserving of honourable mention in the history of steam-navigation, as one who, by his persevering exertions, was a great instrument in bringing steam-vessels into use in this country. The attention of Bell, it appears, was directed to steam-boat propulsion by receiving a letter from Fulton. Whether this letter was written anterior to the starting of the Clermont is not known.

"Fulton," says Bell, "had occasion to write me about some plans of machinery in this country, and begged the favour of me to call on Mr. Miller of Dalswinton, and see how he had succeeded in his steam-boat scheme; and if it answered the end, I was to send him a drawing and full description of it, along with my machinery. This led me to have a conversation with Mr. Miller, and he gave me every information I could wish for at the time. I told him where, in my opinion, he had erred, or was misled by his engineer; and at the same time I told him that I intended to give Fulton my opinion on steam-boats. Two years after I had a letter from Fulton, letting me know that he had constructed a steam-boat from the different drawings of machinery that I had sent out, which was likely to answer the end, but required some improvement upon it."

Bell, as stated by Symington, frequently investigated the steam-boat constructed by the latter, while laid up in the creek of the canal formerly alluded to; and was led, after receipt of Fulton's letter, "to think of the absurdity of sending his opinion on these matters to other countries, and not putting them in practice himself in his own." From these considerations, he says, "I was roused to set on foot a steam-boat, for which I had made a number of different models before I was satisfied. When I was convinced they would answer the end, I contracted with a ship-builder in Greenock to build me a steam-vessel according to my plans, with a 40-feet keel and a 10-feet beam, which I fitted up with a small portable engine having the power of three horses, and paddles, and called her the Comet, because she was built and finished the same year that a comet appeared in the north-west of Scotland." The Comet plied between Glasgow and Greenock, but was by no means a successful speculation for Bell. For the first six months very few, he says, "would venture their precious lives in her; but in the course of the winter of 1812, as she had plied all the year, she began to gain credit, as passengers were carried twenty-four miles as quick as by the coaches, and at a third of the expense, besides being warm and comfortable. But even after all, I was a great loser that year. In the second year I made her a jaunting-boat all over the coasts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, to show the public the advantage of steam-boat navigation over the other mode of sailing; having done what no king, prince, admiral, or general could do—make vessels go against both wind and tide,

which had not before been accomplished in this country so as to make them of any use to this country."

A monument is erected on the banks of the Clyde in honour of Bell, as the father of public steam-navigation in this country. Bell having thus led the way, station after station throughout the kingdom was supplied with a steam-boat. At the end of 1823 there had been ninety steam-boats built in Scotland.

The opinion of nautical men during the first few years of the introduction of steam-boats was inimical to the idea that steamers were calculated

to make progress against a heavy sea. This question was, however, set at rest, and decided triumphantly in their favour, by the deep-sea voyage undertaken by Dodd, who went to Glasgow for the express purpose of taking a steam-boat from that port up to London. The vessel he navigated was "90 feet long and 14 feet broad, with a burden of about 75 tons; the engine was calculated to have a power of 14 horses, and the wheels were 9 feet in diameter. She was rigged with a square sail on the chimney mast, a bowsprit sail, and another on the mainmast. The crew consisted of a mate, four seamen of the first order, an engineer, a furnace-man, and a ship's boy. This was the first vessel of the kind that any one had ever dared to venture in on the tempestuous sea that terminates St. George's Channel on doubling Cape Lizard. This interesting voyage, 758 nautical miles, was run in 122 hours.”

The bold experiments of Napier, too, tended to hasten the application f steam-boats to deep-sea navigation.

On fairly considering the various claims put forward by different individuals for the honour of having introduced steam-navigation, we clearly think that the honour should be paid to William Symington, as being the first contriver of a steam-boat which was carried out into successful practice. The claims both of Henry Bell and Fulton are now, by the generality of authorities, set aside, and the high honour is left to be divided among Miller, Taylor, and Symington. What share Miller had in introducing the invention we have already shown; he played the part—and an important one, doubtless of the capitalist who found the means to conduct the experiment; but he did nothing more. It is between Taylor and Symington that the matter rests; what claim Taylor had to be considered the inventor we must now endeavour to show. The documents from which our extracts are made have been furnished us by the son of William Symington, already alluded too.

The document chiefly relied upon in the Memoir of Taylor, as establishing his claims to the invention of steam-navigation, was a letter addressed to him by Mr. Symington, in the following terms:

Glasgow, Feb. 9, 1821. "SIR,-In terms of my former agreement, when making experiments of sailing by the steam-engine, I hereby bind and oblige myself to convey to you by a regular assignation the one-half of the interest and proceeds of the patent taken by me upon that invention, when an opportunity occurs of executing the deed, and when required.

"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
(Signed)

"WILLIAM SYMINGTON."

"To Mr. James Taylor, Cumnock.

"We were not aware of the existence of this letter at the time we

penned our former remarks. We think it right, therefore, to take the present opportunity of stating, that it does not alter our view of the case in the least, but, on the contrary, confirms it in the strongest possible manner. Why should Mr. Symington bind himself to assign a share in the patent for the invention to Taylor, if the whole right to it rested with Taylor, which is what Taylor's friends maintain? It could not have been because Symington acquired by any pecuniary means an interest in the invention that the patent for it was taken out in his name, for Symington was notoriously and confessedly a person without money. It must have been the invention of the thing, and that alone, which constituted Symington's title. The monied person in the business, or at least the person who procured from others the money to take out the patent, was Taylor; he also was the person who introduced Symington to the influential patronage of Mr. Miller of Dalswinton; and it seems to have been on these grounds— partly pecuniary considerations and partly gratitude-that Symington covenanted to assign to Taylor one-half of the fruits of his invention. If Taylor had been the principal in the affair, he would have been the assigning party, and Symington the party to receive the assignment. As it is, Symington appears as the principal, and Taylor as a mere auxiliary; which, no doubt, was the relation in which the parties actually stood towards each other.

"The improvement in the steam-engine devised by Mr. Symington was accomplished in 1785-1786; and it was in the spring of 1786 that Mr. Miller, as already mentioned, engaged him to carry on some experiments upon steam-navigation. These were made upon the lake at Dalswinton, Mr. Miller's property, in 1788. It is asserted that Mr. Taylor remained in Edinburgh after Mr. Miller had left, to superintend castings of the parts of the engine intended to be employed in moving the boat. But if this were necessary, why did not Taylor afterwards put the engine together? If he were capable of furnishing the drawings and models by which the various parts were to be constructed, surely there could be no necessity for sending for Mr. Symington from the Lead-hills to put the different pieces properly in situ. Mr. Miller would have been little less than mad to employ Symington in these experiments, when he had such a brilliant and inventive genius as Taylor residing under his own roof. If (as has been asserted) Taylor was the author of these experiments, where are the drawings and documents to substantiate his claim? Have they ever been seen by any person? Or, indeed, have they ever existed, except in the imagination of his partisans ?

"There is an account of these experiments to be found in the Scot's Magazine for 1788, which it has been allowed was drawn up by Taylor himself. He acknowledges, in this statement, that the merit of the expense of trying the experiment was due to Mr. Miller, but that the engine used upon the occasion was the sole invention of Mr. Symington; and throughout the whole account he never introduces his own name, either directly or by implication. The notice alluded to was as follows:

"On October 14 a boat was put in motion by a steam-engine, upon Mr. Miller's, of Dalswinton, piece of water at that place. That gentleman's improvements in naval affairs are well known to the public. For some time past his attention has been turned to the application of the steamengine to the purpose of navigation. He has now accomplished, and evi

dently shown to the world, the practicability of this, by executing it upon a small scale. A vessel, twenty-five feet long and seven broad, was on the above date driven, with two wheels, by a small engine. It answered Mr. Miller's expectations fully, and afforded great pleasure to the spectators. The success of this experiment is no small accession to the public. Its utility in canals and all inland navigation points it out to be of the greatest advantage, not only to this island, but to many other nations of the world. The engine used is Mr. Symington's new patent engine.'-Scot's Magazine, Nov. 1788, p. 566.

"In 1789, Taylor is represented as being located at the Carron Iron Works, for the purpose of superintending the castings of an engine of increased size, the cylinders being 18 inches in diameter. But, in opposition to this, we have the affidavit of Mr. Stainton, one of the managers of these works, who states, that

"He (Taylor) was never considered capable of superintending the work; that he never furnished a single drawing or model by which the work might be forwarded; but that, on the contrary, Mr. Symington was looked up to as being the person to whom all the necessary inquiries for the completion of the engine were to be addressed; and that, so far from considering Taylor a principal, he was rather looked upon as a spy appointed by Miller to watch Symington's conduct, that he did not waste too much of his time upon some experiments he was conducting at the same moment for the Wanlock Head Company.'

"The experiments with the new engine succeeded entirely; but when it had arrived at that point, that by a little more exertion it might have been perfected, Mr. Miller's excitement was over. He had been bitten by an agricultural mania, dismantled the steam-boat, and left steam-navigation to be promoted by other hands.

"In 1801 and 1802, Mr. Symington renewed his experiments, under the patronage of Lord Dundas, that nobleman having purposely gone down from London to engage him. He continued them until 1803, when he completed a steam-tug, which towed two merchant vessels 191⁄2 miles upon the Forth and Clyde Canal, against the wind, in the presence of many spectators. Mr. Symington took out a patent in the usual way for the protection of his invention in 1801; and this fact must dispose of the charge of his having practised any concealment or secrecy with regard to the matter.

"A letter has been published from Mr. Symington to Taylor, in which the former promises to make over half the profits of the invention to the latter. This originated, I am told, in a representation made by Taylor, that he was possessed of considerable influence amongst noblemen and members of parliament, through whose intercession a parliamentary grant might be obtained. But even supposing Mr. Symington was not entitled to the honour of being the first applier of steam to the purposes of navigation, Taylor, from his own showing, and from that of his friends, must have still less claim; for he states that he (Taylor) called upon Mr. Miller, and endeavoured to persuade him to secure the right to the invention by a patent. If it was Miller's invention, Taylor's regretting his own incapability of securing the right by patent is an absurdity. * * * * That neither Mr. P. Miller (the son of the Mr. Miller of Dalswinton) nor Lord Dundas, who employed Symington to construct a boat on the Forth and