CHAPTER 3

The Trail Boat on the Seine

In the year 1807 it remained for Robert Fulton to arrive, after years of study and numberless tests, at the definite knowledge of proper proportions, and to build the steamboat which successfully navigated and proved its utility upon the picturesque waters of the Hudson River. This happy combination of undaunted perseverance and achievement upon a scene of unrivaled beauty, with a group of historic witnesses, and Fulton’s subsequent developments in the art of steam navigation, combine to make the occasion worthy of national honor at the close of a century.

It should be observed that the civilized world awaited the invention. In several countries inceptive attempts to solve the problem were manifest, and these are permanently recorded in history. In America John Fitch, William Henry, James Rumsey, and Edward West had experimented with varying degrees of success; in Scotland, as early as 1781, Symington and Bell had tried an experiment upon the waters of the Forth and Clyde Canal, and in the same year, in France, the Abbé Arnal propounded his theories.

In 1795, as already stated, Earl Stanhope of England experimented with a web-foot paddle; in 1801, Hunter and Dickinson, his countrymen, attempted a trip upon the River Thames with a boat which proved a failure. Robert R. Livingston, who later was associated with Fulton as partner in the enterprise of the Clermont, had tried his hand at the venture, as had also Nicholas J. Roosevelt, who subsequently (1809) was employed by Livingston and Fulton to study the possibilities of navigation by steam upon the Mississippi and other important Western rivers.

To this already long, though incomplete, list of sometime claimants for the honorable title of inventor may be added the names of William Longstreet, Samuel Morey, and John Stevens. Truly with Robert Fulton the “psychological moment” of demonstration had arrived.

But earlier than any of these essays toward the new art should be noted an experimenter, John Mien, M.D., who in 1730 mentioned a method of propelling a vessel by steam. He was a scientific Englishman whose fondness for experiment led him to publish a paper entitled “Navigation in a Calm.” The advance of the becalmed sailing ship could be effected, he averred, “by the propulsion of water through an aperture in the stern of the vessel by pumps actuated by the labor of many men”; and he further suggested that “a fire-engine [evidently Newcomen’s atmospheric steam-engine, patented 1705] with its furniture should be put on board a 70-gun ship having on board a ‘Pneumatick engine’ above described, with two 7 foot cylinders and their pistons,— the force, being equivalent to the labor of ninety or one hundred men, would drive a ship of twelve or fourteen tons at the rate of three knots an hour.”

These experiments are all links in an interesting chain which successively led to the perfecting of the first steamboat built by Robert Fulton. It is important to emphasize the fact that Fulton himself was fully cognizant of those earlier attempts; indeed, he would have deprecated the inference that he had not duly profited by the prior experiments of other scientists. His generous mind sought for comradeship in the solution of the important problem. In his hitherto unpublished “Notes for an Argument on Steam Boats, Should Argument Become Necessary” (in the possession of the estate of his daughter, Cornelia Livingston Crary), he distinctly states:

It is now about thirty years since experiments commenced in Europe and America, with a view to move boats or vessels to advantage by the power of steam engines. All of which failed of any useful result. As a proof of this, there were nowhere, either in Europe or America, any kind of steamboat in actual operation when Messrs. Livingston and Fulton commenced their experiments upon the Seine near Paris in the year 1802. And the repeated failure of men of science, among whom were the ingenious Earl of Stanhope, gave an impression to the public mind both in Europe and America, that it was impracticable to make a useful steamboat, and under this belief those who attempted it were considered as visionaries or mad men.

In this state of things Mr. Livingston, while in Paris in 1802, persuaded Mr. Fulton to make the attempt, and he, fortunately for our country, has succeeded. America therefore claims the honor of this important invention which may justly be considered an epoch in the useful arts, to the incalculable advantage of these young and rising states.

THE FULTON-LIVINGSTON PARTNERSHIP Memorandum of an Agreement entered into this tenth day of October in the Year One Thousand Eight hundred and two, between Robert R. Livingston Esq., of the State of New York, and Robert Fulton of the State of Pennsylvania. Whereas the said Livingston and Fulton have for several years past separately tried various mechanical Combinations for the purpose of propelling boats and vessels by the power of Steam Engines, and conceiving that their experiments have demonstrated the possibility of success, they hereby agree to make an attempt to carry their invention into useful operation, And for that purpose enter into partnership on the following conditions: First: That a passage boat moved by the power of a Steam Engine shall be constructed at New York, for the purpose of navigating between New York and Albany, which boat shall not exceed 120 feet in length, 8 feet in width nor draw more than 15 inches water; that such boat shall be calculated on the experiments already made, with the view to run 8 miles an hour in stagnate water and carry at least 60 passengers allowing 200 pounds weight to each passenger. Second: That a patent shall be taken in the United States of America in the name of said Fulton for a new mechanical combination of a boat to navigate by the power of a Steam Engine for which Patent the said Fulton shall deposit every necessary drawing, model, and specification, and when such patent is obtained, the property thereof shall be divided into One hundred shares, fifty of which shares shall be transferred to the said Livingston as his property, and fifty shares shall be held by the said Fulton as his property, and all emoluments arising from said Patent in America, or from any extension of said Patent, or for any Patent premium or privilege in any other Country shall be equally divided, one half to the said Livingston, and one half to the said Fulton. Third: That for the purpose of proving the utility of this invention by a fair experiment, the said Fulton agrees to go immediately to England, and there construct a boat and engine as near the dimensions and powers of the Steam Boat mentioned in Article the First as the Engine he may find will admit, which boat being for the purpose of experiment, it is presumed that a steam engine may be borrowed for that purpose; it is also estimated that if the experiment should not succeed, the loss on the different parts of the machinery together with the expenses of the said Fulton will amount to Five Hundred Pounds sterling, which sum the said Livingston agrees to furnish at any time or times which the said Fulton may think proper to draw for the same. And the said Fulton binds himself to pay to the said Livingston, one half of the expense which such experiment may cost, within two years from the abandoning said enterprise, with interest for the same at seven per cent per annum. But should the experiment succeed to the satisfaction of the here contracting parties, the first object shall be to obtain a Patent in America and establish a passage boat to run to and from New York and Albany which work the said Fulton agrees to superintend, during which time his reasonable expenses. shall be estimated as part of the general expenses of the establishment. Fourth: And when such boat shall be in complete activity and the principle of navigating by Steam fully established, each of the here contracting parties may dispose of any number of their shares, not exceeding forty shares, that they may think proper; but the purchasers of shares, or share holders shall have no voice or command in conducting the business of the concern; but the number of boats, offices and agents shall be augmented or diminished as may be thought proper by the said Livingston and Fulton, nevertheless all augmentations and expenses shall he made out of the profits of the undertaking and not by a demand for advances on the part of shareholders, and the surplus profits shall be divided twice a year in proportion to the shares, for which purpose the share holders or their agents shall be at liberty to examine the books during the first week of May and the first week of October in each year: Fifth: And Whereas the duration of a Patent in the United States of America is for fourteen years, this partnership is made for fourteen years, or for any greater period to which the privilege in any of the American States can be extended, But at any period over fourteen years at which the Patent expires in America, the partnership shall cease also, And the whole stock of boats, warehouses or other property shall be considered the property of the share holders, who as a Company of proprietors will make such regulations as they think proper to govern their affairs, each share being a voice in such arrangement: Sixth: And it is further agreed that in case of the death of the said Livingston or Fulton within fourteen years, or before the termination of the period specified for the duration of the partnership, each heir or assign who holds at least twenty shares shall be considered as an active partner, with full power to act in place of the deceased, but as this arrangement may introduce two partners, Should two partners be introduced, the surviving primitive partner shall be considered equal to two voices, whatever may be the number of shares which he at such time may possess: Seventh: And it is hereby agreed that the said Livingston may withdraw from this enterprise at any period he thinks proper, after the Five Hundred Pounds before mentioned shall be expended in the first experiment, but until he signifies to the said Fulton in writing, his determination to decline any further pursuit of the experiment he shall be considered as a partner in the undertaking.

(Signed) Robert R. Livingston Robert Fulton (LS) (LS)   Witnessed by   (Signed) Robert L. Livingston

The same terms were accepted in the Letter written, in 1814, by the chancellor’s heirs, wherein they affirm that “they will always be ready and willing to comply with the Articles of Agreement entered into and executed by you [Robert Fulton] and the Honble. Robert R. Livingston.” The chancellor left no son, and the paper is signed, “Robert L. Livingston and Edward P. Livingston.”

A complete description of Fulton’s trial boat on the Seine is contained in an interesting paper in present possession of the Hon. Peter Barlow, of New York, who inherited the family papers of his famous kinsman, Joel Barlow, former minister to France. The paper was prepared for Barlow’s signature by Fulton himself, in the year 1811. When rival companies threatened to invade the patent rights of Fulton and Livingston, Fulton writes to Barlow:

I want your deposition as follows:

Joel Barlow of the City of Washington, district of Columbia, being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith: That in the year of our Lord, 1802, Robert Fulton at that time residing in said Barlow’s house in Paris, did commence experiments with a view to discover the principles on which boats or vessels should be propelled through the water by the power of Steam engines,—that having made various experiments on a model about 4 feet long and 12 inches wide, which was worked by two Strong clock springs to ascertain the best mode of taking the purchase, whether by paddles, skulls, endless chains, or water wheels, he about Christmas 1802 gave the preference to a wheel on each side of the model,—and in the spring of 1803, in partnership with Robert R. Livingston, our then resident minister in France, did build a boat 70 French feet long, 8 French feet wide, 3 French feet deep, in which he placed a Steam engine of about 8 horses power, which was hired of Mr. Perrier for the experiment on this large scale, with the engine in the boat and one water wheel of about 12 feet diameter on each side of the boat, the power from the engine being communicated to the wheels by mechanical combinations which I do not recollect.

In July 1805 an experiment was made by the said Robert Fulton on the River Seine between the Pont Revolution and the Barrier de Chaleot [sic] in presence of a great number of people, and particularly Messrs. Volney, Carnot, Bossu and Proney, who were members of the National Institute appointed to examine the machinery. The speed of said boat on Still water was three miles and a quarter an hour, and on this velocity and the power of the engine I recollect that the said Robert Fulton, formed tables of resistances, powers and proportions, which he then showed me and which he said should govern the construction of steamboats designed to run from 2 to 5 ½ or 6 miles an hour.

I well recollect having mentioned to him that previous to the experiment on the large boat he had estimated a boat to be driven 16 or 24 miles an hour by the power of steam and his answer was that by the experiments he found so much power was lost in taking the purchase on the water that he was of opinion 5 or 5 ½ to 6 miles an hour in still water was as much as a boat could be propelled by any steam engine now known. In April 1804, the said Robert Fulton left my house for London: while in England he purchased an engine of Messrs. Boulton and Watt which was shipped for New York while I was in London, and which as he has informed me is in the first boat that he built on Hudson’s River, and which as he says drove the boat with the velocity which he had previously calculated it had the power of doing.

During my residence in Paris from the year [date not given] to 1804, I never heard of any other experiments on the Seine, to move boats by steam except the one made by the said R. Fulton. Previous to the year [   ] there was a project by Mr. Rumsey & one by Fitch to establish steamboats on the Seine, but they were only projects which were never executed. A Frenchman of the name of Le Blanc, as I have been informed, made in 1808 some experiments on the Rhoan to navigate boats by steam which failed.

If your mind is satisfied perhaps it is not worth while, as Livingston seems to be satisfied with this part of the business. . . . He talked of forming a company etc. I wish that Parker or I had the money instead of him, tho’ his influence in the State of News York would be energetic.

In 1802, Fulton viewed the patent of M. Des Blanc, to which he refers in the foregoing statement, and described his unsatisfactory impressions in his note-book, hitherto unpublished and now in possession of the estate of Cornelia Livingston Crary. He concluded, after he had inscribed a series of drawings and descriptive text, that two thirds of the steampower which the Frenchman sought to apply to propulsion would be lost.

Fulton also dismissed the possibility of Rumsey’s device, and all others which had preceded his own. His biographer, Colden, writes that Rumsey had seen the failure of Fitch’s enterprise, but Fulton “after a variety of calculations came to an opinion that this [Rumsey’s] was the worst of all the methods which had been proposed.”

As early as 1793, in a letter to Earl Stanhope, previously mentioned, Fulton defined his project to invent a new process of steam navigation. This highly important letter, never before published, is here presented through the personal courtesy of the present Earl of Stanhope, owner of the Fulton-Stanhope correspondence; two drawings are included, from Fulton’s originals.

My Lord
I extremely regret not having received your Lordship’s letter in time to have the pleasure of an interview at Exeter as a Mechanical conversation with your Lordship would have been infinitely interesting to a young man. To atone for such loss and conform with your Lordship’s wish I have made some slight drawings descriptive of my Ideas on the Subject of the steamship which I submit with diffidence to your Lordship. In June ‘98 I begun the experiments on the steam ship: my first design was to imitate the spring in the tail of a Salmon,—for this purpose I supposed a large bow to be wound up by the steam engine and the collected force attached to the end of a paddle as in No. 1 to be let off which would urge the Vessel forward. This model I have had made of which No. 1 is the exact representation and I found it to spring forward in proportion to the strength of the bow, About 20 yards, but by the return of the paddle the continuity of the motion would be stopped. I then endeavored to give it a circular motion which I effected by applying two paddles on an axis: then, the boat moved by jerks. There was too great a space between the strokes; I then applied three paddles forming an equilateral triangle to which I gave a circular motion by winding up the bow. I then found it to move in a gradual and even motion 100 yards with the same bow which before drove it but 20 yards.

No. 2 is the figure of my present model, on which there are two equilateral triangles, one on each side of the boat acting on the same shaft which crosses the Boat or Ship and turns with the triangles. This, my Lord, is the line of experiment which led me to the triangular paddles which at first sight will convey the Idea of a wheel or perpendicular oars which are no longer in the water than they are doing execution. I have found by repeated experiment that three or six answer better than any other number as they do not counteract each other. By being hung a little above the water it allows a short space from the delivery of one to the entrance of the other, it likewise enters the water more on a perpendicular as the dotted lines will shew its situation when it enters and when it is covered the circular dots exhibit its passage through the water. Your Lordship will please to observe in the small wheel with a number of paddles A. B. C. and D. strike almost flat in the water and rise in the same situation whilst E. is the only one that pulls, the others act against it which renders the purchase fruitless; while E. is urging the Ship forwards B. A. is pressing her into the water and C. D. is pulling her out, but remove all the paddles except E and she moves on in a direct line. The perpendicular triangular Paddles are supposed to be placed in a cast Iron wheel which should ever hang above the water, it will answer as a fly and brace to the perpendicular oars. This boat I have repeatedly let go and ever found her to move in a steady direction in proportion to the original purchase. With regard to the formation of ships moved by steam I have been of opinion that they should be long, narrow and flat at bottom, with a broad keel as a flat Vessel will not occupy so much space in the water; it consequently has not so much resistance. A letter containing your Lordship’s opinion of this mode of gaining a purchase on the water and directed for me at the postoffice, Exeter, will much oblige your Lordship’s most obedient and

Very humble servant,
Robert Fulton

The Right Honorable
The Earl of Stanhope

One manuscript in possession of the Rev. Robert Fulton Crary, D.D., Fulton’s grandson, to whom it was presented by his friend Philip Hamilton, Esq., son of Alexander Hamilton, describes with painstaking accuracy, in Fulton’s own writing, no fewer than six experiments in which Fulton tested his discovery with varying degrees of success. The paper is dated “Paris, the 19 Nevose, Anno II. January the 9th, 1803 [sic],” and is entitled “Experiments on the model of a boat to be moved by a steam engine.”

A boat 3 feet long and 8 inches wide served as model. It was propelled by two strong clock springs, and Fulton made a comparative table to denote gradations in power, and the progressive distance gained in each test. He concluded that “large paddles would be unwieldy and inconvenient, hence for the large experiment it will be best to commence with paddles which present about twice the surface of the boat’s bow reduced to flat resistance. . . The power of the steam engine is 1500 pounds running two miles an hour, or equal to 3000 lb. running 1 mile an hour. Thus the 3000 pounds ought to draw her 12 miles an hour.”

It will be noted that at this point Fulton felt himself master of the situation, and that, throughout all his maneuvers, he contemplated the introduction of his patent in his native land is indisputably shown by many references. A sketch of a steamboat with two side paddles was made on June 5, 1802, while Fulton at Plombières was experimenting with his submarine contrivances for the French government. It is entitled, “The Steamboat from New York to Albany in 12 hours,” and is in the estate of Fulton’s daughter, Cornelia Livingston Crary. As a preface to the detailed experiments which follow, Fulton asserted:

Propelling a boat through water is the act of separating two bodies—the boat from its oars or paddles, or whatever else is applied— and this is governed by laws reducible to simple calculations.

The model being arranged a small rivulet was stopped so as to form a stagnant pond 66 feet long, 9 or 10 feet wide and from 3 to 2 feet deep at the upper end; thus prepared and with a good watch which beat the seconds, the experiments were commenced.

As there is much space in this boat I will add to her velocity by making her go 12 miles an hour instead of 8—the additional weight of this engine will be about S tons making in total 21 tons, having 25 tons for passengers equal to 280 at 200 lbs for each this boat would make the voyage [from New York to Albany] in 14 hours instead of 20 as there would be 6 hours saved in time it would merit a dollar extraordinary in the price. The expense of such a boat in coals and men would not be 25 dollars a day. Suppose then that the commerce between New York and Albany can give to such a boat 150 passengers per day at 8 dollars each, the amount would be 450 dollars. Hence it seems advisable to go quick, carry cheap, and thus avoid the competition of boats with sails or carriages.

For great speed requires great power and a large and heavy engine. But suppose a boat I 2 feet wide and 200 feet long, drawing one foot of water. She would displace 2000 cube feet or 68 tons to drive such a boat 16 miles an hour will require 9216 lbs purchase. Suppose 200 (passengers) at 8 dollars each or 600 dollars—Such a boat would make the voyage in 10 or 12 hours. In which time the Engine would not burn more than 3 tons of coals worth perhaps 15 dollars, expense of men perhaps 5 dollars, total 20. To go 16 miles the chains must run 24 miles or 86 feet a second. The engine makes 3—the multiple then is 12 to one. Here it is worthy of observation that as the boat and engine increases in size, the expense in proportion to their passengers is diminished in the first and small boat which carries only 50 persons their expense is 10 dollars. This is twenty cents each and the time 20 hours.

Second boat—280 persons—the Voyage 14 hours—the expense 25 dollars—this is about 11 cents per person.

In the third boat which goes the Voyage in 12 hours and carries 880 persons, the expense, say 30 dollars, or 8 cents per person. The reason of this is the difference in the squares of the boats. A boat 6 feet wide and 90 feet long is only 14 tons whereas a boat 12 feet wide only twice the resistance of the first, will carry near 5 times the burden or 68 tons and instead of 50 will carry 880 persons which is 7 times the number and this enables one to add to the power and velocity of the engine yet carry cheaper than in the first case.

Rob^t Fulton

The preceding January, 1808, Fulton had formally offered his steamboat to the consideration of a Government commission, and the First Consul appointed three members of the Institute to study its merits. Fulton’s original letter, in French, is on file in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris, together with his accompanying drawing.

The unfortunate accident which postponed the official trial trip from the early spring of 1803 to midsummer, brought to Fulton, according to his own confession, a despondency which he never felt on any other occasion of his life. After a restless night, he was precipitately visited by a messenger, who exclaimed:

“Oh, sir, the boat has broken in pieces and gone to the bottom!”

The vivid description of the accident which Colden, Fulton’s biographer, has given, is corroborated by Dr. Edward Everett Hale in his “Memories of a Hundred Years” through an interview with Edward Church, an American, who was with Fulton in France, and an eye-witness of the event. These records amply refute a rumor, current though Paris at the time, that Fulton himself had purposely sunk the boat because chagrined and disappointed by the continued inactivity and lack of appreciation of the Napoleonic commission.

The reconstruction of the boat occupied several months, and not until July was it again in readiness for the official demonstration. Joel Barlow and Robert Fulton had a friend, Fulner Skipwith by name, who, during the preceding year of 1802, had written to Fulton asking the details of patent laws in France. Fulton wrote his reply from Paris, which is given in the Appendix.

When the postponed trial trip was about to take place, Fulton wrote again to Mr. Skipwith, with whom his friendship had increased. Mr. Skipwith had been married in Paris, while Fulton was experimenting upon the French coast, and in 1802 his first child was born. Fulton’s merry letter of invitation should be read in the light of this recent happy experience to be fully understood:

Paris, the 5th Thermidor, Anno 11
(24 July, 1805)
Mr. Skipwith,
My dear friend, You have experienced all the anxiety of a fond father, on a child’s coming into the world. So have I. The little cherub, now plump as a partridge, advances to the perfection of her nature and each day presents some new charm. I wish mine may do the same. Some weeks hence, when you will be sitting in one corner of the room and Mrs. Skipwith in the other, learning the little creature to walk, the first unsteady step will scarcely balance the tottering frame; but you will have the pleasing perspective of seeing it grow to a steady walk and then to dancing. I wish mine may do the same. My boy, who is all bones and corners, just like his daddy and whose birth has given me much uneasiness, or rather, anxiety,—is just learning to walk, and I hope in time he will be an active runner. I therefore have the honour to invite you and the ladies to see his first movements on Monday next from 6 till 9 in the evening between the Barrière des Bons Hommes and the steam engine. May our children, my friend, be an honour to their country and a comfort to the gray hairs of their doting parents.

Yours
R. FULTON

On the 21st Thermidor [August] 1 a trial was made of a new invention of which the complete and brilliant success should have important consequences for the commerce and internal navigation of France. During the past two or three months there has been seen at the end of quay Chaillot, a boat of curious appearance, equipped with two large wheels, mounted on an axle like a chariot, while behind these wheels was a kind of large stove with a pipe, as if there were some kind of a small fire engine (pompe a feu) intended to operate the wheels of the boat. Several weeks ago some evil-minded persons threw this structure down. The builder, having repaired this damage, received, the day before yesterday, a most flattering reward for his labour and talent.

At six o’clock in the evening, aided by only three persons, he put his boat in motion with two other boats attached behind it, and for an hour and a half he produced the curious spectacle of a boat moved by wheels, like a chariot, these wheels being provided with paddles or flat plates, and being moved by a fire-engine.

In following it along the quay, the speed against the current of the Seine appeared to us about that of a rapid pedestrian, that is, about 2,400 toises’ an hour; ( toise was an old French measurement equal to 6.39 English feet) while in going downstream it was more rapid. It ascended and descended four times from Les Bons-Hommes as far as the pump of Chaillot; it was maneuvered with facility, turning to the right and left, came to anchor, started again, and passed by the swimming school.

One of the boats took to the quay a number of savants and representatives of the Institute, among whom were Citizens Bossut, Carnot, Prony, Perrier, Volney, etc. Doubtless they will make a report which will give to this discovery all the éclat which it merits; for this mechanism, applied to our rivers, the Seine, the Loire, and the Rhone, will have most advantageous consequences upon our internal navigation. The tows or barges which now require four months to come from Nantes to Paris, would arrive promptly in ten to fifteen days. The author of this brilliant invention is R. Fulton, an American and a celebrated mechanic.

Paris, 6th August, 1808.

Gentlemen:
If there is not a law which prohibits the exportation of steam engines to the United States of America, or if you can get a permit to export parts of an engine, will you be so good as to make me a cylinder of 24 horse power double effect, the piston making a four foot stroke; also the piston and piston rod.

The valves and movements for opening and shutting them.

The air pump piston and rod.

The condenser with its communications to the cylinder and air-pump. . . . etc.

The other parts can be made in New York, and as it will save the expense of transport, and they require a particular arrangement which must be done while I am present, I prefer to have them done there. Therefore if it is permitted to export the above parts you will confer on me a great obligation by favoring me with them, and placing me the next on your list.

When finished please to pack them in such a manner as not to receive injury, and send them to the nearest port, which I suppose is Liverpool, to be shipped to New York to the address of Brockhurst Livingston, Esq. The amount of the expenses will be placed to your order in the hands of George William Erving, American Consul, Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, No. 10, London. The situation for which this engine is designed, and the machinery which is to be combined with it, will not admit of placing the condenser under the cylinder as usual, but I hope the communicating tube to the condenser will not render the condensation less perfect or injure the making of the engine.

Should you find a difficulty in getting a permit to export the parts above mentioned, I hope to be able to obtain it through our Minister, Mr. Monroe. And as there is some difficulty in passing letters to and from Paris and Birmingham, which may lose much time, you will be so good as to furnish me the above parts as soon as possible without waiting to hear further from me.

Please to write as soon as possible under cover to Mr. Erving as before mentioned. In which I beg you to answer the following questions:

What must be the size of the boiler for such an engine?

How much space for the water and how much for the steam? What is the most improved method of making the boiler and economic mode of setting it? How many pounds of coal will such an engine require per hour, and what is the expense at Birmingham?

Can you inform me what is the difference in heating with coals or wood, as in most cases wood must be used in America; and must not the furnace be made different when wood is to be used?

What will be the consequences of condensing with water salt, as in places where the engine is to work the water is brackish?

What will be the interior and exterior diameter of the cylinder and its length, and what will be the velocity of the piston per second?

This information will enable me to combine the other parts of the machinery.

When can the engine be finished, and how much will be the expense? Your favoring me with the execution of this order, and answering the above questions will much oblige

Your most obedient servant,
ROBERT FULTON.

Rue Vatsgirard, No. 50 Paris.

Can the position and arrangement of the cylinder condenser and air-pump be adhered to as in the drawing, without injuring the working of the engine?

Amsterdam, November 3rd, 1803.

His EXCELLENCY JAMES MONROE:
Sir: You have perhaps heard of the success of my experiment for navigating boats by Steam Engines; and you will feel the importance of establishing such boats on the Mississippi and other rivers of the United States as soon as possible. With this view I have written to Messrs. Boulton & Watt of Birmingham, to forward me a steam engine to America. They answer that they cannot export the engine without the permission of Government. I therefore beg of you to apply to Government for permission for you to ship a Steam Engine of a 249 horse power to New York. It will be well to ask this permission for yourself without mentioning my name, as I have reason to believe Government will not be much disposed to favour any wish of mine. Messrs. Boulton has a House of Agency [in] London Street in the City, who will inform you what office to apply to. And Mr. Huntingdon, a young gentleman who left this [place] some days ago will call on you, or may be heard of at Mr. Erving’s [American Consul] will go to the offices with your request and transact the business for me, but perhaps your best and shortest mode will be to apply direct to Lord Hawksbury. Your desire to see useful arts introduced or created in our country is the strongest reason for your urging the permission and accepting no refusal; —the fact is I cannot establish the Boat without the engine. The question is then,—shall we or shall we not have such boats? Please to write me under cover to Mr. Livingston as soon as possible the result of your application.

ROBERT FULTON.

P. S. For greater safety I take the liberty to inclose in your letter one for Boulton & Watt, which you will be so good as to order into the Post Office, and when you obtain the permission send it directly to them. I should apologize for this trouble, but that I have no hope of success but through your goodness.

There is a strange pathos in the inexplicable delays which postponed the important invention. Presumably Fulton had no reply from Mr. Monroe, for he wrote to him again, from Paris, November 17 [1803], renewing his request. He says in part:

I wrote you on the 3rd inst from Amsterdam, and two letters afterwards from Rotterdam on a subject which a good conveyance gives me an opportunity to repeat. Having succeeded in my experiment for navigating boats by steam, I wrote to Messrs Boulton, Watt & Company of Birmingham to forward me a steam engine to America. They write me in answer they cannot export the engine without the permission of Government. etc.

London, Storl, Gate Coffee House,
the 30th of May, 1804.

Mr. Hammond will have the goodness to obtain from Government permission that Mr & Mrs Barlow may pass through London on their way to America, to which they purpose to sail in August, the object is to consult the London physicians on Mr. Barlow’s health. Whatever reasons Government might have to be displeased with Mr. Barlow, I am convinced that they will find no umbrage in his present sentiments and tranquil disposition. His late writings to prove the happy effects of British, in preference to French, colonization by extending the arts, civilization and liberal ideas, are worthy your admiration.

I also beg permission to ship one of Mr. Watt’s Steam engines to New York for the purpose of carrying into effect an experiment in which I have fortunately succeeded,—that of navigating boats against currents of not more than 4 miles an hour, hence calculated for most of our rivers. Your Government must be sensible that every improvement which may tend to augment the produce of industry in America, creates the means of paying for British manufactures, increases the demand and adds to the wealth of England. The time will come when America alone will take more of your manufactures than you now diffuse over the whole globe, and is to give you a perspective of immense wealth, which it is your interest to nourish.

I hope Government will see nothing impudent in these two requests. I shall esteem it a favor if they are granted.

There is no doubt that Fulton contemplated an early return to America, when he left France in 1804, but he was detained by the negotiations with the British Government which repeatedly buoyed him to expect an acceptance of his torpedo project. Four days after his arrival in England he wrote to Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, as follows:

London, May the 23rd, 1804

His EXCELLENCY THOMAS JEFFERSON:
Sir: On arriving in England I find I shall be detained some weeks longer than I first calculated. I therefore forward your letters committed to my care in Paris. I am, Sir, with profound respect,

Your most obedient,
ROBERT FULTON.

Finally, in 1806, the British ministry rejected his project of the submarine torpedo. Fulton immediately set about to arrange his affairs for the return to America. He wrote to Mr. Parker, a friend, during September, 1806:

MY DEAR PARKER,
On the 29th I sail for New York. Some time ago I begged of you to purchase any kind of American funds with the 1927£ in your hands, and to forward them to Gen’l Mason to be transferred into my name. You will have the goodness to do this as soon as possible, as I and my friend [Barlow] will need all our means to settle down comfortable. Believe me, my dear friend, how sincerely I love and esteem you and how much it would add to the pleasure of our Athenian Garden in America, to have you living on the margin of it.

Truly
R.F.

Washington 9, March 1806.

My very dear and excellent friend

I write you with a heavy heart. Your letter of the 12th January came upon us like a shipwreck. We see in it at least the wreck of our most brilliant projects of domestic happiness, if not of public usefulness. . . . We can say nothing to your proposal except that you ought by all means to pursue your own ideas of your own happiness, well weighed and well considered. On this last clause I must offer a word, tho’ it may probably come too late to be of any use, if indeed advice in such cases can in its nature, be of use. My friendship is unlimited and unabated, and I have no reason to doubt of the variety of excellence you find in the person you describe. But her education, habits, feelings, character and cast of mind are English and London. And what is perhaps more unfortunate for you, she has a fortune. These things render it extremely improbable that she can be happy in this country. I should think it equally impossible that you can be very happy in that country. Your mind is American, your services are wanted here. Your patriotism, your philanthropy, your ideas of public improvement, your wishes to be a comfort to me and my wife in our declining years (if we should unluckily have many of them) would tend to make you uneasy at such a distance from the theatre of so much good.

Oh, my estimable friend, my younger self, my expansion and prolongation of existence! You cannot conceive the pain it gives me to communicate these ideas. I was contemplating the pleasure I should have, among the other things, in getting forward and finishing the fine Scientific Poem of the Canal, of which you were to write the Geological and I the historical and mythological notes,—of which you were to furnish the philosophy and I the poetry,—you the ideas, and I the versification,—all of which we could only do together. Is the mighty fabric vanished? It seems forever gone. You have a more substantial happiness in view, at least, you think so, and who shall say the contrary. I cannot in friendship and conscience, advise you to give it up.

As to fortune; I would rather take you with only what you now have, than with the largest in the world. Great expenses are great vexations. My taste is so decided for simplicity and moderation, that it would spoil me, whatever it did you, to be the slave of a splendid income. I hope the Fox Administration [then in consideration of Fulton’s Torpedo Project] will settle with you liberally and let you off. And in your case, I would not demand a great sum, neither would I have it by way of annuity. But this affair must depend on your taste, and is perhaps an improper subject of advice.

My heart is so full of these subjects that I cannot write upon any other by this occasion which is probably by the April packet from New York.

Adieu, my excellent friend.
[JOEL BARLOW.]

In September, 1806, Fulton had written to Mr. Barlow, who was then enjoying the delights of his new country-place “Kalorama,” near Washington, to which Fulton had previously alluded as “the Athenian Garden in America”:

My arbitration [with the British ministry] is finished, and I have been allowed the £10,000 which I had received, with £5000 salary, total £15,000, though £1600 which I have received on settling accounts will just square all old debts and expenses in London and leave me about £200. My situation now is, my hands are free to burn, sink, and destroy whom I please, and I shall now seriously set about giving liberty to the seas by publishing my system of attack. I have, or will have, when Mr; Parker sends my two thousand pounds, 500 sterling a year, with a steam sterling a year, with a steam engine and pictures worth two thousand pounds. Therefore I am not in a state to be pitied.

I am now busy winding up everything and will leave London about the 23rd inst. for Falmouth, from whence I shall sail in the packet the first week in October, and be with you, I hope, in November, perhaps about the 14th, my birthday, so you must have a roast goose ready. Do not write me again after receiving this. The packet, being well manned and provided, will be more commodious and safe for an autumn passage, and I think that there will be little or no risk, yet accidents may happen, and that the produce of my studies and experience may not be lost to my country, I have made out a complete set of drawings and descriptions of my whole system of submarine attack, and another set of drawings with description of the steamboat. These, with my will, I shall put in a tin cylinder, sealed, and leave them in the care of General Lyman, not to be opened unless I am lost.

Should such an event happen, I have left you the means to publish these works, with engravings, in a handsome manner, and to which you will add your own ideas—showing how the liberty of the seas may be gained by such means, and, with such liberty, the immense advantages to America and civilization: you will also show the necessity of perfecting and establishing the steamboat and canals on the inclined plane principle. I have sent you three hundred complete sets of prints for the “Columbiad” by the Orb, directed to Mr. Tolman, New York, value £80. As the transport by land to Philadelphia will not be much, I have sent them by this opportunity, that they may arrive before the law for prohibiting such things is in force, and that the shipment and risk may not approach too near to winter. All my pictures, prints, and other things I mean to leave here, to be shipped in spring vessels, about April next, when the risk will be inconsiderable.

How shall we manage this winter, as you must be in Philadelphia for the printing, and I want to be at New York to build my boat? I am in excellent health, never better, and good spirits. You know I cannot exist without a project or projects, and I have two or three of the first order of sublimity. As all your prints are soldered up I do not see how I can leave the number you desire with Phillips, [the London publisher] but as I leave the plates with Mr. West the necessary number can be struck off when the sheets arrive. We will talk of this in America. Mr. West has been retouching my pictures: they are charming.

Fulton’s characteristic optimism was again speedily illustrated. With a sublime disregard for the fact that his torpedo project had been dismissed by two important governments, France and England, be immediately offered to America his plan for this destructive machine, designed to provide a weapon sufficiently strong, in the hands of a righteous nation, to maintain universal peace.

His offer was favorably considered by President Jefferson, and in the presence of Naval experts, Fulton publicly demonstrated its power by blowing up a brig in the harbor of New York, July 20, 1807, less than a month before the successful voyage of the Clermont. Subsequently (1814) Fulton was authorized by Congress to build the first steam war vessel of the world, the Demologus, also known as Fulton the First.

Truly could Robert Fulton say that he had “two or three projects of the first order of sublimity.” His area of usefulness was as wide as the world; his theory of peace included all nations; and with true American spirit he illustrated,—by his advocacy and improvement of Canal Navigation, and by his inventions of the Submarine Torpedo and the Steamboat,— his great original motto, “The Liberty of the Seas will be the Happiness of the Earth.”

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