Show is rito 0 N tin till is IN 11 artor oil till hi the question stion lias has again arisen whether robert ye ulton fulton was wait really entitled to the credit of inventing t the steamboat whilo wo we linao no disposition to 0 disturb the cha lacto of fama that tho the da D 3 0 0 jr I 1 fulton 1 I ton or any other great plan man living or dead 1 et ct acy it t is bat that all the lacta facts io in lie l cs biec c lo be cnown we in tho historical jacc oril ord an article on tho the subject I in which is introduced tho the of a well known saratoga inventor invent ori mr ransom cook na M gl given en to wm win L stone WO we give tho the artl artillo ia entire it being an interesting account ot 01 a topic that never loses its ila zest cst popular po pular inquiry and investigation mako make it nece necessary sary essary lor for tho the descendants of eminent men to look after the laurels laurela warn by their bisti distinguished ingul abed this has been done in a 1 most vig orous roua manner in ia tho the cases of generals schuyler chuyler 0 green r een and reed whose laurels have bee been n d disturbed s by kr mr liane Ilan croft in tho the ninth volume ol of hi liis hii i IIii tory of tho the united states state now the custodians custodians oft of tho he famo facie ot robert fulton as the in ina venter of the steamboat must exercise duo ile y vigilance i g lance for his title to that distinction 10 li again again it in his admirable iff lifo of john fitch several ago mr thompson n est of philadelphia one ot of the most painstaking pains taking or of american historians floriana bi and altif seriously disturbed the charleton cha eba peton Pul tons brow anil and now mr william L stone itono another most pain painstaking historian lii and biographer in ID his hii if story of the city of yew york just published du discourses courses as follows probably no person has received to so much praise and deserved it so BO little as robert fulton A man of no cal ingenuity of no rower power of conceiving touch much less of executing an original mechanical idea his bis friend golden colden has succeeded in persuading tho the public that to him alone is due tho the successful navigation of our rivers by steam etcar the however as I 1 gathered them from the lato lalo bishop potter of pennsylvania who in turn received them from chancellor livingston himself a are as follows thirteen years before I itch fitch experimented with his steamboat upon the collect collat in new york ho be had as is well known run a little steamer on the delaware between philadelphia and bordon borden town with great success during that period he be bad experimented with tri v various kinds of propelling power powe the screw the ride fide wheel and sweeps or 1 long g oars rs the most primitive thing about his bia vessel was the boiler which consisted of two potash kettles riveted together ather mr livingston who was tog greatly betly interested in the success of I 1 fitcha experiments experiment set ted tho the opportunity when to I 1 france rance to visit the workshops of watt bolton li olton in En engana gand where for the first time fina ho he saw it a properly constructed steam boiler dut but how was lie to introduce it into the united states unless i w aich was then impossible lie went there him himself s at this crisis ho he thought of robet robert fulton who originally an artist in in philadelphia was then exhibiting a panorama in paris IRS his panorama 3 however fallin filling to pay was att attached bedd and he himself arrested for debt and into prison is on livingston also at this timo lime lad had in in lis his possession the plans models and drabin drawings S or of what was wag afterwards the success successful fu f catboat t cam boat w which lie had obtained 1 from the lie american consul on sul then residing it at havre who i in a turn had purchased bed them of fitch when villen the latter completely Complete ily discouraged cou raged and a stranger in J france utterly destitute had given up in dc despair livingston Livi falling into the error so common t to many of believing tb that at bC because atlO an artist can draw cl cleverly everl he must necessarily succeed equal y v well in mechanical conception and execution paid kofl Ful tons debts and sent bent him bim over to new york with ono one of james walts boilers fulton however thoroughly incompetent and untrustworthy failed to rise nac equal to the elie occa ion dion and when waca civington returned a icar C ar titter alter he found his pet pr project cc t precisely where lie had bad left it several years before lie therefore at once took hold of it himself and by his energy f and peri clerance finally brought his big idea ica to a successful issue fulton whom he could not entirely off acting as a kind of general superintendent cheso facts moreover are arc confirmed not only by the late dent william wilham A I 1 duer ducr in liia his neur ew yorker letter ath th but by mr ilan ilanone Il anoni om cook now vir 1872 living at saratoga rig X N Y mr cook informs wo uio that in the summet summer of 1837 he was in the city of new york yok engaged upon his electro mag aelic machinery among his workmen were two bo had been employed by Ij ivingston and fulton while tho those thoo O gentlemen were acro perfecting their steamboat they surprised him great greatly by bealing that pullen aulton was a capital draughtsman and that was all they lidded added that he was so deficient in a knowledge of tho the I 1 laws of mechanics us to furnish daily mirth for the workmen and that i it t was a long time before livingston could convince him that the starting bar of an engine bo be made larger jarger at the fulcrum end than at the handle sar at ato oglan gian |