in a few weeks after Fulton's successful experiment, was prevented from using it.

We may here pause to remark on what small circumstances the claim to original invention may rest. Stevens had now been engaged for seventeen years in attempts to apply the steam engine to the purposes of navigation, and was on the very eve of success, when forestalled by Fulton, while the latter was entitled to his right of priority by no more than a few weeks. It is, however, to be remarked, that the engine, with which Fulton's successful experiment was made, had been planned and constructed several years before; and it appears probable, that the exertions of Stevens, and of his son, who had now come forward as his father's engineer, were stimulated by the knowledge of Fulton's confidence in a successful issue of his experiments. If, however, it were necessary for us to decide to whom, of all the rivals of Fulton, any share of the honors of success were due, there could be no hesitation in awarding them to Stevens.

This controversy with the State of New Jersey, which embarrassed, and often interrupted wholly, the communication by steam between Philadelphia and New York, was not adjusted during the life of Fulton, and may indeed be said to have continued until the grant of the State of New York was finally decided to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Although thus harassed by litigation, Fulton did not permit his mind to be wholly diverted from mechanical pursuits. The insular position of the City of New York, however favorable to commerce, both domestic and inland, subjected it to great difficulty in its communications with the adjacent country and diminished materially the value of the lands situated on the opposite shores of its rivers and bay. From the magnitude of these masses of water, row-boats were an unsafe mode of communication, which, if attempted by them, was subject to continual interruptions; and large sail-boats, although more safe, were, in consequence of the rapidity of the tides and the irregularity of the winds, liable to great uncertainty in their passage. That these difficulties

might be overcome by steam was now obvious, and Fulton tasked himself to contrive the most appropriate means of applying that mover to the object.

It appeared necessary that the vessels should be so constructed, that carriages might be driven into them without difficulty. He was in consequence led to adopt the plan of twin boats, having the paddle wheels between them, and connected by a deck, sufficiently strong to bear the feet of horses and the weight of loaded carriages. It is probable, that he now, for the first time, availed himself of the experiment of Symington, whose boat was of similar structure; and it was at this period, that he consulted the work which contains a drawing of that vessel. The assistance he derived from an inspection of this draft was however but small; for there is not the slightest resemblance in the arrangement and distribution of the two inventions, with the exception of both being twin boats, and both moved by a single paddle wheel set in motion by a steam engine. Fulton had found no difficulty in the navigation of rivers, in the direction of their length, by a single boat with wheels on each side; but the circumstances of the case were far different, when a movable road, bearing both foot passengers and carriages, was to be employed to cross a stream. So far as the theory then received of the resistance of fluids could be a guide, the form selected by Fulton was a good one; but it is now determined, by observations upon the ferryboats constructed by him and others, that twin boats are retarded by a resistance of a more powerful character than single ones.

This increase of resistance, to an amount far greater than is pointed out by theory, appears to be due to a wedge of water which lies between the two conjoined boats, and which must be removed as the vessel advances. Of this Fulton could not have been aware, as no observations or experiments existed by which it could have been determined. With this exception, the ferryboat of Fulton is to be classed with the very few machines, which come perfect, on the first trial, from the hands of the inventor; and, with the substitution of a single hull

for the twin boat, it has in its arrangement and distribution undergone little or no change.

Steam Terryboats were first established upon the ferry between New York and Brooklyn, and a short_time afterwards, between the former city and Paulus Hook. The latter were completed shortly after the breaking out of the war between Great Britain and the United States. An immediate opportunity was afforded to prove the importance of the invention. It became necessary to transport a troop of flying artillery, with its battery of guns and other carriages. The whole were conveyed across this ferry, whose breadth is about a mile, in less than an hour, by a single boat, although comprising upwards of a hundred mounted men, and more than twenty carriages, each drawn by four horses.

A difficulty existed, on account of the ebb and flow of the tide, in making his ferryboats answer the purpose of a movable road, into and from which carriages might be driven without delay or danger. This was obviated, in a simple and ingenious way, by means of a floating bridge; and the danger to the wharves and the vessel itself arising from the shock attending their contact, was prevented by an apparatus governed by a floating counterpoise. These exhibited much skill in practical mechanics, and knowledge of the laws of hydrostatics. The latter part of his invention has, however, been rendered useless by the dexterity, which the ferrymen have attained in the management of the boats, but was at first of the utmost importance to prevent injury, not only to the machines themselves, but to the passengers.

The steamboats on the Hudson River were increased in number, before the death of Fulton, to five. A sixth was built under his direction for the navigation of the Sound; and, this water being rendered unsafe by the presence of an enemy's squadron, the boat plied for a time upon the Hudson. In the construction of this boat, he had, in his own opinion, exhausted the power of steam in navigation, having given it a speed of nine miles an hour; and it is a remarkable fact, which manifests his acquaintance with theory and skill in calculation, that he in all

cases predicted, with almost absolute accuracy, the velocity of the vessels he caused to be constructed. The engineers of Great Britain came long after to a similar conclusion in respect to the maximum of speed.

It is now, however, well known, that with a proper construction of prows, the resistance to vessels moving at higher velocities than nine miles an hour, increases in a much less ratio than had been inferred from experiments made upon wedge-shaped bodies; and that the velocity of the pistons of steam engines may be conveniently increased beyond the limit fixed by the practice of Watt.

For these important discoveries, the world is indebted principally to Robert L. Stevens. That Fulton must have reached them in the course of his own practice can hardly be doubted, had his valuable life been spared to watch the performances of the vessels he was engaged in building at the time of his premature death. These were, a large boat, intended for the navigation of the Hudson, to which the name of his partner, Chancellor Livingston, was given, and one planned for the navigation of the ocean. The latter was constructed with the intention of making a passage to St. Petersburgh; but this scheme was interrupted by his death, which took place at the moment he was about to add to his glory, as the first constructor of a successful steamboat, that of being the first navigator of the ocean by this new and mighty agent.

CHAPTER XII.

Fulton's Torpedoes.-His Submarine Guns.-Steam Frigate.-Submarine Vessel.-He is called before the Legislature of New Jersey as a Witness.—Is detained on the Hudson by the Ice.-His Illness.Death and Character.

THE prime of Fulton's life had been spent in ineffectual attempts to introduce a novel mode of warfare. In these efforts he was encouraged by the hope, that, were its efficacy once established, his native country would be safe from the aggressions of European powers. The war of 1812, promised an opportunity of applying his carefully matured schemes to the purpose for which they were originally intended, and of realizing his longcherished hopes. He had, almost immediately after his return to the United States, instituted a set of experiments with his Torpedo; these were successful in destroying a vessel anchored in the bay of New York. The attention of the general government being thus awakened, he had received instructions to perform another set of experiments, in which he was to receive the aid of officers of the navy; or, rather, was to attempt the application of his Torpedoes to a vessel, which they were to defend.

It is no dishonor to Fulton, that, in the course of these experiments, he was foiled. The officers of the navy, fully aware of the manner of his approach, took such measures as prevented all access to the vessel to be attacked. It is, however, obvious, that the very necessity of taking such precautions as they found indispensable, was a proof of the greatness of the danger; and it was evident, that, had they not had weeks for preparation, and all the means, both in men and material, furnished by a large navy yard at their disposal, some

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