Part 20 (1/2)

This was the first voyage of considerable length ever made by a steam-vessel; and Fulton, though not to be cla.s.sed with James Watt as an inventor, is ent.i.tled to the great honor of having been the first to make steam-navigation an every-day commercial success, and of having thus made the first application of the steam-engine to s.h.i.+p-propulsion, which was not followed by the retirement of the experimenter from the field of his labors before success was permanently insured.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 81.--Engine of the Clermont, 1808.]

The engine of the Clermont (Fig. 81) was of rather peculiar form, the piston, _E_, being coupled to the crank-shaft, _O_, by a bell-crank, _I H P_, and a connecting-rod, _P Q_, the paddle-wheel shaft, _M N_, being separate from the crank-shaft, and connected with the latter by gearing, _O O_. The cylinders were 24 inches in diameter by 4 feet stroke. The paddle-wheels had buckets 4 feet long, with a dip of 2 feet. Old drawings, made by Fulton's own hand, and showing the engine as it was in 1808, and the engine of a later steamer, the Chancellor Livingston, are in the lecture-room of the author at the Stevens Inst.i.tute of Technology.

The voyage of the Clermont to Albany was attended by some ludicrous incidents, which found their counterparts wherever, subsequently, steamers were for the first time introduced. Mr. Colden, the biographer of Fulton, says that she was described, by persons who had seen her pa.s.sing by night, ”as a monster moving on the waters, defying wind and tide, and breathing flames and smoke.”

This first steamboat used dry pine wood for fuel, and the flames rose to a considerable distance above the smoke-pipe. When the fires were disturbed, mingled smoke and sparks would rise high in the air. ”This uncommon light,” says Colden, ”first attracted the attention of the crews of other vessels. Notwithstanding the wind and tide were averse to its approach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly coming toward them; and when it came so near that the noise of the machinery and paddles was heard, the crews (if what was said in the newspapers of the time be true), in some instances, shrank beneath their decks from the terrific sight, and left their vessels to go on sh.o.r.e; while others prostrated themselves, and besought Providence to protect them from the approach of the horrible monster which was marching on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited.”

In the Clermont, Fulton used several of the now characteristic features of the American river steamboat, and subsequently introduced others. His most important and creditable work, aside from that of the introduction of the steamboat into every-day use, was the experimental determination of the magnitude and the laws of s.h.i.+p-resistance, and the systematic proportioning of vessel and machinery to the work to be done by them.

The success of the Clermont on the trial-trip was such that Fulton soon after advertised the vessel as a regular pa.s.senger-boat between New York and Albany.[80]

[80] A newspaper-slip in the sc.r.a.p-book of the author has the following:

”The traveler of today, as he goes on board the great steamboats St.

John or Drew, can scarcely imagine the difference between such floating palaces and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were wafted 60 years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of that time, two of which are as follows:

[”_Copy of an Advertis.e.m.e.nt taken from the Albany Gazette, dated September, 1807._]

”The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler's Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Sat.u.r.day, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.

”The charge to each pa.s.senger is as follows:

”To Newburg dols. 3, time 14 hours.

” Poughkeepsie ” 4, ” 17 ”

” Esopus ” 5, ” 20 ”

” Hudson ” 5-1/2, ” 30 ”

” Albany ” 7, ” 36 ”

”For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street.

”_September 2, 1807._

[”_Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2, 1807._]

”Mr. Fulton's new-invented _Steamboat_, which is fitted up in a neat style for pa.s.sengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 pa.s.sengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour.”

During the next winter the Clermont was repaired and enlarged, and in the summer of 1808 was again on the route to Albany; and, meantime, two new steamboats--the Raritan and the Car of Neptune--had been built by Fulton. In the year 1811 he built the Paragon. Both of the two vessels last named were of nearly double the size of the Clermont. A steam ferry-boat was built to ply between New York and Jersey City in 1812, and the next year two others, to connect the metropolis with Brooklyn. These were ”twin-boats,” the two parallel hulls being connected by a ”bridge” or deck common to both. The Jersey ferry was crossed in fifteen minutes, the distance being a mile and a half.

To-day, the time occupied at the same ferry is about ten minutes.

Fulton's ferry-boat carried, at one load, 8 carriages, and about 30 horses, and still had room for 300 or 400 foot-pa.s.sengers. Fulton also designed steam-vessels for use on the Western rivers, and, in 1815, some of his boats were started as ”packets” on the line between New York and Providence, R. I.

Meantime, the War of 1812 was in progress, and Fulton designed a steam vessel-of-war, which was then considered a wonderfully formidable craft. His plans were submitted to a commission of experienced naval officers, among whom were Commodores Decatur and Perry, Captain John Paul Jones, Captain Evans, and others whose names are still familiar, and were favorably commended. Fulton proposed to build a steam-vessel capable of carrying a heavy battery, and of steaming four miles an hour. The s.h.i.+p was to be fitted with furnaces for red-hot shot. Some of her guns were to be discharged below the water-line. The estimated cost was $320,000.

The construction of the vessel was authorized by Congress in March, 1814; the keel was laid June 20, 1814, and the vessel was launched October 29th of the same year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 82.--Launch of the ”Fulton the First,” 1804.]