as of the connecting and paddle machinery, having been "undertaken by Mr. Fulton himself. He built a vessel from "his designs at New York, called the 'Clermont,'* and having "erected the machinery on board of her, the first trial was “made in the spring of 1807, and was eminently successful; " and this vessel was soon after established as a regular steam"packet between New York and Albany."+

Within six years from the first trial-trip of the "Clermont," six steam-vessels had been built for Mr. Fulton, and were in constant and successful use in America for the conveyance of passengers.

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"It is a Mr. Fulton," writes Mr. Watt to Dr. Townsend of Bath,+ "who has constructed the steam-boats in America: "two of the engines have been made by Boulton, Watt, and Company, but the machinery has been made entirely in "America, under his own direction. The following is his "account of his boat, (Sept. 15th, 1810):- The first engine "thus in use was 24-inch cylinder, 4-feet stroke, which drove "a boat 166 feet long and 18 feet wide, drawing 2 feet of "water, at the rate of 5 miles an hour on the Hudson river; "that is, taking the tide for and against the boat, the ""average velocity is 5 miles an hour.' The boats go regu

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larly between New York and Albany, distant 160 miles, "and he is forming similar establishments on other rivers, "and has had a second engine of 28-inch cylinder, 4-feet "stroke; and one of the latter size has been made to navigate a boat between Montreal and Quebec.

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"I am informed by a friend who has seen the steam-boat, "that the engine and boilers occupy about one-third of the length of the boat, and that the engine operates by communicating motion to a water-wheel on each side of the "boat, which he said were about 6 feet diameter, and 3 feet "wide in the sole; but I think they must be of a larger " diameter.

From a residence of Mr. Livingstone's on the Hudson river, about two-thirds of the way from New York to Albany.

The distance between New York

and Albany has, we believe, been ascertained by a recent survey to be 125 geographical miles.

April 13th, 1812.

"You will readily see that a machine of this kind could "not pass bridges and locks, which all our navigations are “full of; but might navigate in the tide-way of the Thames "or Severn, or other rivers clear of bridges, &c., and suffi"ciently wide.

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"Peter Miller, Esq., of Dalswinton, in Scotland, tried many experiments, ten or more years ago, with a boat of this construction, and might have succeeded if he had had a better engineer. He is now a very old man. On the whole, as far as it is at present known to me, I think it would not answer "the purpose you want. I believe Mr. Rennie is engineer to "your canal: nobody is more able to advise you on this head."

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In 1811, Mr. Henry Bell, a citizen of Glasgow, who, since 1800, had repeatedly urged the subject of steam-propulsion on the attention of the British government, and had also aided Fulton with drawings of machinery, &c., took the decided and enterprising step of himself trying in Scotland, at his own risk and under his sole direction, an experiment similar to that which had succeeded so well in America. He had a boat, called from the great heavenly body of that kind which made its appearance in that year, the "Comet," built at Port Glasgow, in the yard of Messrs. J. and C. Wood, which, propelled by a steam-engine of his own construction, was finished by the end of 1811. It plied on the Clyde, between Glasgow and Greenock, early in 1812; and thus became the forerunner of that system of practical steamnavigation which has since so widely extended itself in this country. The "Comet" was forty feet in length, of twentyfive tons measurement, and four horse-power; but other vessels soon followed of somewhat greater dimensions, fitted with engines of proportionally greater powers;-the largest, built in 1813, of which we are aware, being the "Glasgow," of 74 tons and 16 horse-power,-in 1814, the "Morning "Star," of 100 tons and 26 horse-power,-and in 1815, the "Caledonia," of 102 tons and 32 horse-power. In that year, two steam-vessels went from the Clyde to the Thames; one by the Forth and Clyde Canal to Leith, and thence by the east coast; and the other by the west coast and round the Land's

End: these being, so far as we know, the first attempts at steam-navigation made in the open sea of our coasts.

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"During his last visit to Greenock in 1816," says Mr. Williamson, "Mr. Watt, in company with his friend Mr. Walkin"shaw,-whom the author some years afterwards heard relate "the circumstance,-made a voyage in a steam-boat as far as Rothsay and back to Greenock,—an excursion which, in "those days, occupied the greater portion of a whole day. "Mr. Watt entered into conversation with the engineer of "the boat, pointing out to him the method of backing' the engine. With a foot-rule he demonstrated to him what was "meant. Not succeeding, however, he at last, under the impulse of the ruling passion, threw off his overcoat, and, "putting his hand to the engine himself, showed the practical application of his lecture. Previously to this, the back"stroke' of the steam-boat engine was either unknown or "not generally known. The practice was to stop the engine entirely a considerable time before the vessel reached the point of mooring, in order to allow for the gradual and "natural diminution of her speed."

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In April, 1817, Mr. James Watt, jun., having purchased the "Caledonia," which from defects in her engines had been little used since her launch in 1815, had her machinery taken out, and replaced by two new engines of Soho manufacture, of 14 horse-power each. In October of that year, he went over in her to Holland, and ascended the Rhine as far as Coblentz; having thus been the first to leave the British shores and cross the Channel by so novel, and, as it was then esteemed, so hazardous a mode of transit. But even he could scarcely then foresee that in later days the imitation of his daring enterprise would be circumscribed only by those bounds by which the proud waves of the ocean are stayed.

The "Caledonia" having left Margate on the 14th of October, 1817, arrived off West Kapelle, Walcheren, in ten minutes more than twenty-four hours, and came to anchor in the Keeting near Vianen three hours later; having run, under

* Memorials of Watt,' p. 234.

steam, at an average speed of 7 knots an hour. In her voyage from Rotterdam to Cologne, by Nimeguen, Emmerick, Wesel, and Düsseldorf, the time actually occupied under way, with a strong easterly wind and current against the vessel during the whole of it, and for nine hours only one engine at work, was 48 hours, 52 minutes. As she steadily forced her course against the impetuous waters of the Rhine, her track marked by

"Smoke in air and foam upon the wave,"

she excited, as may well be imagined, the admiring wonder,— in some cases the wondering horror,-of the natives. She presented a strange contrast, such as has often since struck the eye of the traveller, to those most shapeless and primitive of all vessels, the huge rafts of timber from the Helvetian forest, which with whole families, with their flocks and herds, inhabiting them for weeks together, seem, as sluggishly they descend the stream, to be leviathan villages of diluvian date.

On her homeward voyage from Coblentz, the "Caledonia" entered the Scheldt, and visited Antwerp. She was then laid up for part of the winter in the harbour of Rotterdam, for repairs and alterations. After her return to the Thames in the spring of 1818, Mr. J. Watt, jun., made no fewer than thirty-one series of experiments with her on the river, (the whole number of those experiments amounting to two hundred and fifty);† which resulted in the adoption of many most material improvements in the construction and adapta

* Cary's Dante; 'Hell,' canto xxiv. 1. 50.

From a memorandum made by one of the party present on the occasion, we find that on the 14th of July in that summer, the "Caledonia" steamed to the Nore and back-nearly 100 miles-in ten hours; to the great astonishment, among others, of a French gentleman on board, and the delight of Chantrey the sculptor, who was another member of that party of pleasure. We cannot resist the temptation of placing side by side with the creditable performance of the "Caledonia" of those early days,

the still more dazzling speed of the voyages made, in later ones, by the beautiful "Persia," an iron steam-ship built by Robert Napier and Sons, in 1855; measuring 375 feet in length, 46 in breadth, and 3590 tons, with a power of 850 horses. The "Persia," propelled by paddles, made her "out passage from Liverpool to New York, (adding difference of time), in 10 days, I hour, 1 minute; and her "home" passage on her return from New York to Liverpool, (deducting difference of time), in 9 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes.

tion of marine engines, and in an immense, though gradual extension of that branch of the manufacture at Soho. From the particulars already given of the amount of steam-power produced at that establishment, it appears that the marine engines manufactured there, up to 1859, were in number 405; of 26,348 nominal, or 79,044 real horse-power.*

The memory of James Watt will now be worthily perpetuated in the British navy, by the fine screw steam man-ofwar of that name, of 91 guns; which was launched at Pembroke dock-yard in 1853, and fitted with Soho engines.†

Of the far more gigantic steam-ship launched at Millwall in 1858, at first named the "Leviathan," but now the "Great "Eastern," our limits will not permit us to give more than the principal particulars of dimensions and power. But her engines are the largest ever manufactured for marine navigation; and, together with the vastness of her size, and the amount of mechanical skill and resources employed in her whole construction, deservedly render her one of the greatest wonders of the world.

The hull of this enormous ship is formed of 8000 tons weight, or 60,000 superficial feet, of wrought iron plates, fastened with upwards of 2,000,000 wrought iron rivets. She measures 692 feet in length on her upper-deck, 120 feet in breadth across the paddle-boxes, and 58 feet in depth from deck to keel. She is to be propelled both by paddles and by a screw; and her engines are, in all, no fewer than twentytwo in number, viz.-four engines (or cylinders) to work two paddle-wheels of 56 feet diameter; four engines to work the screw, which is 24 feet in diameter, and of 44 feet pitch, having four fans or blades, the screw-shafting being 150 feet in length, and weighing 60 tons; two engines, each of 20 horse-power, to pump out the ship, raise anchors, &c.; two

See p. 409, 410, suprà.

The engines in question, as we have been informed by one of their makers, were originally intended for the "Vulcan," to exert the power of 700 horses at 60 strokes per minute; in the "James Watt," owing to the employment of a larger size of screw

propeller, they are only to make 50 strokes per minute, and the estimate of their power will be reduced to that of 600 horses. In casting the fine brass screw-propeller for H.M.S. the "James Watt," ten tons and a half of metal were employed.