ORIGIN OF STEAMSHIPS.

Evening Star, Issue 4159, 26 June 1876, Page 4

ORIGIN OF STEAMSHIPS.

number of years, and great improvements have been made in engines since the first steamer was used, or said to have been used, in 1854, by a captain of Spain, who propelled a ship of 200 tons at the rate of two miles an hour. The next mention made of steamboats occurs in a work written by the Marquis of Worcester, in 1665, when boats propelled by steam were proposed for the Thames. After this Papin, of France, built a small steamboat in 1690 ; but the boatmen destroyed it, fearing it as a rival. Next we learn that Jonathan Hulls, in 1736, and M. Genavis, in 1759, made models of steamboats, and then Miller, of Dumfries, and Taylor and Symmington, fitted up a large boat that steamed st-ven miles an hour. After these came Fulton, who built the Clermont, and obtained by her a rate of five miles an hour on a voyage from New York to Albany, about 150 miles. Eobert Fulton was ridiculed, but he astonished the natives Avhcn she really started on her voyage. After that the Comet appeared on the Clyde. She was about twenty five tons, and had engines of three horsepower. This was in 1812. She was a successful speculation to her owners. She was started by Henry Bell, of Helensburgh. After this others followed. The first steamer that navigated the ©pen sea was the Argylc, launched in 1813. She was enabled to steam against a strong wind at the rate of three and a-half knots per hour. This steamer was a success. She was re-named Thames. Many such boats were made after this, and the first steam man-of-war was devised by Fulton, and is described by R. M. Ballautyne, in ' Man on the Ocean.' The new vessel received the rather quaint title of Fulton the First. She consisted of two boats joined together. Those who were appointed by Congress to examine her and report give the following account of this curious man-of-war :—" she is a structure resting on two boats joined together, and keels separated from end to end by a channel 15ft wide 66ft long. One boat contains the caldrons of copper, to prepare her steam, the girder of iron; its piston, lever, and wheels occupy part of the other. The water-wheel revolves in the space between them. The main, or gun deck, supports the armament, and is protected by a parapet 4ft lOiu thick of solid timber, pierced by embiasures. Through thirty port • holes as many thirty - two pounders are intended to fire red hot shot, which can be heated with great safety and convenience. Her upper or spar deck, upon which several thousand men might parade, is encompassed by a bulwark that affords safe quarters. She is rigged with two short mast?, each of which supports a large lateen yard and sails. She has two bowsprits and jibs, and four rudders ; one at each oxtremity of each boat, so that she can be steered with either end foremost. Her machinery is calculated for the addition of an engine which will discharge an immense column of water, which it is intended to throw upon the deck and through the port-holes of the enemy, and thereby deluge her armament and ammunition." If, in addition to all this, we suppose her to be furnished, according to Mr Fulton's intention, with hundred-pound cohunbraids, twosuspendedfromcach bow, so as to discharge a ball of that size into an enemy's ship ten or twelve feet below her water-line, it must be allowed that she has the appearance, at least, of being the most formidable engine of warfare that human ingenuity has contrived. She was, and even at the present time, the Fulton the First would eut no insignificant figure if placed alongside our gunboats, floating battei-ies, and steam frigates. The ocean steamer Savannah was launched in New York in 1818, and was a great sucess, crossing the Atlantic in twenty-five days. England followed by sending to New York the Sirvas and Great Western, but this was not until 1838. Steamers after tha 1 : regular, ly ran across the Atlantic. The largest steamer built before the Great Eastern was the Persia. She was 376 ft long, 75ft broad, and had engiaes of 930 horse-power. The Greit Eastern is so well known that I will not describe her. She was intended for the India and Australian route via the Cape.

A windy orator once got up and said, " Sir, after much reflec ion, consideration, and examination. I have calmly and deliberately and ca efully come to the determined conclusion that in those cities where the popul >tion is very large there are a greater number of men, women, and children than in cities where the population is less." , > . * Sis fdot in his stocking* ! " exclaimed Mrs Partington " Why, Ike has only two in his, and I can never keep 'em darned at that."