producing a vacuum without cooling the cylinder, and also his grand improvement of the substitution of steam for the atmosphere as a prime mover. This was another and the most important footstep in advance made by our giant, and which introduced a new era in steam; for the atmospheric engine now became for the first time a steam-engine, and Watt by his experiments completely distanced all the men of his time.

HULL'S STEAM BOAT. INVENTED IN 1736:

We propose now to make a halt in our gossip, and take a retrospec

tive glance at the progressive efforts of the human mind to convert

steam into a labourer. And, first, we have attempts to make an engine without a piston, like the firewater machine of the earliest ages. Then we have Papin's invention, which combined the three essential members of a steam-engine, a boiler, a piston, and a cylinder. Then came Newcomen's atmospheric engine, in which these three parts were extended to two vessels; the one was a cylinder and piston, which was also a condenser, and the other was a boiler, connected with the former by a pipe. Then came Watt and his engine, which was divided into three parts connected by pipes, viz., the boiler, the cylinder and piston, and the condenser. It may be said of these three great steps in the progress of steam, that Papin's scheme represents its infancy, Newcomen's its youth, and Watt's its manhood; for the first has been described as possible but not practicable; the second, practicable but wasteful; and the third, practicable, economical, and vigorous.

Our gossip has now brought us up to the year 1782, when an important event, which happened in France, first introduced steam upon the water; for in this year the Marquis de Jouffroy put in practice the idea of employing the steam-engine, as improved by Watt, to propel vessels. Until the discoveries of our immortal countryman, the steamengine had not arrived at that stage in which it could be conveniently applied to the purposes of navigation. There were two conditions wanted to adapt it to this purpose, viz., rotatory instead of rectilinear, and continuous instead of intermitted motion. These mechanical triumphs were achieved by Watt, about the year 1781, when he took out a patent to produce rotatory motion.

Whether the Marquis de Jouffroy was indebted to Hulls, for his notion of propelling vessels, we cannot say, but, in the following year, after Watt had produced rotatory motion, the French Marquis constructed a steamboat, which plied on the Soane at Lyons. This fact is incontes' table, odd as it may sound in English ears. His boat was 140 feet long, and 15 feet wide, and drew 3 feet 2 inches of water, and it was in use on the river for fifteen months, when it was laid up. This was, we believe, the first steamer that ever plied for hire, although six years afterwards, Patrick Millar, of Dalswinton, constructed a double vessel, with a wheel in the centre between them, and the Duke of Bridgewater used steamboats for towing barges, and in 1795 Lord Stanhope constructed a boat which moved by steam; but it may be said that none of these vessels, including the Marquis de Jouffroy's, were practicable. However, as all the triumphs of steam are important ones, and none more so than its progress upon the seas, and as it is no part of our plan to follow its development upon land, we shall confine our gossip to the noticing of the startling results that sprung into existence, as soon as our modern giant began to paddle in the water.

If Watt may be considered, and he undoubtedly is, the father of the present steam-engine, Mr. William Symington is the father of the present system of steam navigation. As early as the first year of the present century he made experiments on the application of steam to vessels, which produced the Charlotte Dundas, the first practical steamer that ever floated. We say this advisedly, for it must be borne in mind, that the Marquis de Jouffroy's boat failed, inasmuch as no one imitated it. In all probability, like the steam, gun of Da Vinci, it would have

never been used again, but the Charlotte Dundas contained all the inventions of Watt, the connecting-crank and rod of Pickard, and Millar's improved paddle. And in 1807 the Americans, assisted by Fulton, who had taken plans and models of Symington's boat, in 1801, proved by practice its safety and utility. They built a boat called the Clermont, upon the lines of the Charlotte Dundas, which plied from New York to Albany, and this was the first steamer that was put in actual practice in America. It should, however, be remembered, that the Americans have no claim whatever to originality in this affair, for the engines of their first steamer, the Clermont, were supplied by Boulton and Watt.

It may occasion a feeling of disappointment to find that England, the land of the steam-engine, should be thus deprived of the honour of introducing steamers into successful operation for the conveyance of passengers. But it is readily explained how it happened that America took the lead in this particular instance. The chief object of the American engineers in the early career of the steam-engine, was to render it useful in navigating their immense rivers; and, in considering the paramount importance of a cheap and speedy method of communication to a thinly populated country, like the scattered states of America, it is not surprising that the application of steam to propelling vessels should have been first carried into successful practice on that continent. Steamboats were, therefore, fairly afloat on the rivers in America, before they were introduced for the conveyance of passengers into Britain; but the news of the success of the Clermont soon suggested to a person of an enterprising disposition, that he might establish the same kind of communication upon the Clyde, between Glasgow and Helensburgh. This person was Mr. Henry Bell, the proprietor of an hotel at the latter place. He caused a vessel to be built according to his own plans, with a 40 feet keel, and 10 feet 6 inches in beam, and called the Comet, because she was built and finished the same year that the celebrated comet of 1811 appeared. She was furnished with two sets of paddles, or two wheels on each side; her burden was about 30 tons, with a steam-power equal to three horses. It is a singular fact, in the history of the steam-engine, that the firth of the Clyde at Helensburgh, nearly opposite to Greenock, which was the birth-place of Watt, should have been the place where the first practical application of the steam-engine, for the purpose of navigation in England, should have been tried.

The Comet was successful, but was soon eclipsed by other boats of superior power, and in 1815, the fourth year of her running, ten vessels were employed as packets for the conveyance of passengers, and the demand for further accommodation was upon the increase. But what was steam doing for the inhabitants of London at this period? We hear of steamers upon a Scotch river, but not upon the mighty Thames. How is this accounted for? Few people who now witness the countless thousands that crowd the penny boats, the half-penny boats, the Citizen, the Greenwich, the Woolwich, the Hammersmith, the Gravesend, the Margate, Ramsgate, to say nothing of the hundreds of coasting and foreign steamers, are aware that the jealousy of a few privileged watermen prevented the introduction of steamers upon the Thames, until it had

become well established upon the Clyde. They resisted, as is customary with all privileged classes, all innovation; but, fortunately, this prejudice was overcome in 1815, when a steamer was brought from the Clyde to London, by canal, and was, after much squabbling and opposition on the part of the London watermen, used in conveying passengers from London to Gravesend. Steamers once upon the Thames, soon became a necessity; and so urgent was the demand for more boats, that early in the spring of the year 1815, a steamer named the Argyle, then plying from Glasgow to Grenock, was taken off that station, re-christened the Thames, and actually sailed round the Land's End to London, rigged with a square sail on the chimney, which served as a mast, accomplishing the first experimental sea voyage ever made by a steamer. She was at once put upon the London and Margate station, which trip she performed with a creditable speed of seven miles an hour.

We seem to be looking through the mists of a century when we allude to the Margate Hoy that sailed, weather permitting, and made the voyage within twenty-four hours upon an average; and, indeed, there are not many who remember, although it is not forty years since, those wonders of steam science, the Victory, the London, the Favorite, and the Diana, Margate packets, that averaged only twelve hours on the trip, at the small fare of ten and fifteen shillings, fore and aft.

In the year 1818 steam hoisted his black pennant upon the high seas, and made the first sea voyage with passengers, from Glasgow to BelfastScotland taking the lead again, as she had already done in the development of this new motive power upon our rivers. A vessel called the Rob Roy, of 90 tons, and 130 horse power, made the voyage regularly in defiance of all sorts of opposition, including the weather, and the selfish interests of many, establishing the fact, that the steam-engine could be rendered available in sea navigation.

The following year (1819) the Talbot, of 150 tons, with two engines of 30 horse power each, plied daily between Holyhead and Dublin; and, in conjunction with the Ivanhoe, of 170 tons, were established as postoffice packets on that station. Steam now began to carry the mails as well as passengers, between Dover and Calais, and was gradually extending itself along the coast of England and Ireland, placing beyond all doubt that steamers were safe vessels even in the most tempestuous weather.

The marine steam-engine of 1821 was a very different sort of machine to what it is at present, but there is one important fact connected with its progress that is worthy of the attention of the English reader, viz., that the marine engine in the highest state of perfection it has yet attained is entirely of British origin. And this remark extends even to the discovery of physical principles, as well as mechanical combinations. No new principle, no new combination of principles, have, as far as we know, been derived from a foreign source. We have carefully investigated this subject, and have come to the conclusion that the most perfect foreign engines, and we have examined many, are professedly copied from British ones, and not unfrequently manufactured by English workmen.

The history of the Rob Roy, the first steamboat that carried the mails

between England and France, will serve as an exemplification of the above remark. This vessel was, as we have before stated, built upon the Clyde, but was transferred to Dover, to carry the mails to Calais; and the French having no steamer to compete with her, were always behind in the transmission of their mails to England. Of course the government of France felt conscious of its inferiority, and became anxious to obtain a steamer. But at that period there was no manufactory in France in which a marine engine could be made. And it was impossible, or at least dangerous, to sell the Rob Roy, as there existed at that time a law prohibiting the exportation of English machinery. How was this difficulty to be got over? It was done in the following ingenious manner. One day as the Rob Roy entered Calais harbour she was boarded by the douaniers and immediately seized, examined, and smuggled English fabrics being found in her hold, she was confiscated, engines and all. Everybody of course expected that she would be restored upon application and payment of the trifling amount of duty upon the concealed goods. But, strange to say, her owners gave themselves no concern about the matter. And no wonder, for it leaked out that an ample indemnification had been received from some French source beforehand. However, be that as it may, it is certain that from the models of the engines of the Rob Roy, the subsequent post-office packets of France were manufactured. Any of our old continental visitors can vouch for this statement when they call to mind the fuss that was made about the Duc de Bordeaux and Henri Quatre, the first steamers France possessed capable of trying conclusions with old Neptune.

There was no timidity shown in the expansion of steam upon the sea. The Rob Roy, the Talbot, and the Ivanhoe, after establishing the fact, for the first time in maritime history, that a vessel could sail at a fixed hour regardless of wind or tide, were in their turn soon extinguished by a superior class of boats. In 1821 Messrs. Wigram and Green built the City of Edinburgh to ply between London and Leith, and they have the honour of being the shipwrights that built the first vessel that made a long sea voyage. This vessel was of considerable dimensions, being 400 tons burden, with engines of 80-horse power, and her length between perpendiculars 135 feet.

It is thus, in good keeping with the antecedents of the sea kings of England who ruled the waves under canvas, that they should be the first to begin to rule them under steam. America was before us in the application of this power to river navigation, but she was behind us in ocean steaming, as will appear hereafter. It would be tedious to recapitulate the manner in which English vessels propelled by steam now began to search out every nook where a cargo could be obtained, but we cannot avoid noticing one event that happened at this early period of ocean steaming, because it reminds us of the dashing enterprises of some of our ancient navigators. At this period (1823) several influential persons formed themselves into a committee to open a steam communication with the East Indies; for as yet steam had not doubled the Cape-the dreaded Cape-now robbed of all its terrors by science. But Captain Johnson sailed from Plymouth on the 16th of August, 1825, in the Enterprise, and, luckier than Vasco de Gama, reached