benefitted the country, has been frequently admitted in bestowing compensation. Compton was granted £5,000 for his mule-jenny; Cartwright £10,000 for the power-loom; Harrison £20,000 for his chronometer; and Palmer a considerable sum for his system of mail-coach travelling; besides others. After these instances, it would be difficult to discover upon what ground Symington's family have no claim upon the nation, for facilitating intercourse by water against the formidable barriers of wind and tide, particularly after Palmer was rewarded for the far less important improvement of inland travelling. THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE IS SELECTED FROM AUTHORITIES IN FAVOUR OF SYMINGTON'S CLAIM TO THE INVENTION For correct dates, see page 125. "IN 1795, Lord Stanhope made an experiment in Greenland Dock. "From this period (1794) till 1801, but little progress appears to have been made in this species of navigation. In that year Mr. Symington, who had been employed in the construction of Miller's vessel, tried a boat, propelled by steam, on the Forth and Clyde Inland Navigation."-London Encyclopædia, Article, "Steam Engine." "Mr. Symington took out a patent for steam boats, in the same year, (1801;) and he has the undoubted merit of being the first person who applied the power of the steam engine to produce motion in vessels."-Captain Basil Hall's Travels in North America, vol. ii. page 387. "Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, having seen a model of a steam carriage, invented by Mr. W. Symington, of Falkirk, was so much pleased with it, that he directed the inventor to make a small steam engine to work a twin or double boat. An experiment was made in 1788, and answered so well that he had another boat made on a larger scale; which he tried on the Clyde and Forth canal, in 1789. The method employed by Mr. Symington for making the connexion between the paddle-wheel and piston, was by placing the cylinder in a horizontal position."-Encyclopædia Metropolitana, Article, "Manufactures," page 218. H |