Steam-ships : The story of their development to the present day by R. A. Fletcher

established by sworn testimony of many notable witnesses, including General Horatio Gates, conqueror of Burgoyne, and by a multitude of astonished and delighted spectators. This practically successful trial took place twenty years before the Hudson River trial in 1807, and the speed of Rumsay’s boat was fully equal to that of the _Clermont_ in its initial trip to Albany--four miles an hour--without sails, paddles, and the complexities of the Hudson River boat.” Rumsay afterwards launched on the Potomac a boat propelled by a steam-engine and machinery, both of which were of his own construction. His method of propelling the boat was to force out a stream of water at the stern, a system known as the “Jet,” which has never commended itself to engineers in general, owing to the friction caused in the pipes by the water rushing through them. A trial trip, in December 1787, was successfully made in the presence of a great number of spectators, and resulted in Rumsay being granted the right to navigate the streams of New York, Maryland, and Virginia. His scheme was taken up by an organisation formed in Philadelphia for that purpose, and known as the Rumsay Society. Benjamin Franklin was among its members. Rumsay also visited England and the Continent, and obtained patents for his invention in Great Britain, France, and Holland, but he did not live long enough to develop his schemes. He made a successful trip on the Thames in 1792, and died in London the same year. His great rival was John Fitch, who, in 1785, conceived the idea of using steam-power for land carriages and afterwards for vessels. His first model of a steamer carried large wheels at the sides, but these were found to labour too much in the water, and in his experiments in July 1786 upon a skiff with a steam-engine having a three-inch cylinder, the wheels were replaced by paddles or oars supported by a framework above the vessel. Convinced of the success which must ultimately attend the use of steam-power, he petitioned Congress and the State Legislature for a grant of money, but without avail. As a result of his efforts to interest “the leading scientific and public men of that day, everywhere and at all times,” and his bold advocacy of the adoption of steam for purposes of navigation, he was generally considered insane. But in 1786 he succeeded in persuading the State of New Jersey to grant him for fourteen years the sole and exclusive right to navigate its waters by steam, and this example was followed in 1787 by the States of New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He had earned some money by map-making, and now formed a company and built a boat of 60 tons. She was 45 feet long with a beam of 12 feet, had six oars or paddles on each side, and carried an engine with a 12-inch cylinder. She made a successful trial trip at Philadelphia in