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Show Friday December 26, 1930 THE OGDEN POST 5 Events and Percons in the Current News ... i excursion bunt Eureka which Mew up anil burned near Miami Beach, Fla., several lives being lest. 2 Edward Wlngartcn and Joseph Jones, young New York aviator. who are flying to South America by of lloil.vuood, Calif., who confessed that he Imd embezzled easy Ktugen In a powered gilder. 3 (lilliert II. IS.iNHl.OOi) from a building and loan association and a Iwml and aiorlgage company. 1 Cluss-bottoii- IleeM-aiye- r Putting Captured Stills to a Good Use V; .. 'i-- 110 ;..U; ' , y- ' " . - ? 1 ' S ' -- iv' rV V:M V'i- J - ;r I. Invented' steamboat? Ask ten Americans that question and the chances are that nine out of the ten, remembering a few outstanding names In their school histories, will answer Robert Fulton," thereby proving once more what a strange Jumble of fact and fiction Is the average American's conception of the history of. his country. For the question of who deserves credit for Inventing the steamboat has recently started another of those controversies over historical matters, which sometimes results In clearing up certain disputed points In the annals of our nation. More often It does not, principally because the partisans never seem able to agree upon a strict definition of terms, without which It is virtually impossible to settle such disputes conclusively. In this particular case the word Inventor Is the crux of the situation. While popular opinion accords that distinction to Robert Fulton, and In 1900 he was elected to the Hall of Fame at New York university as the Inventor of the steamboat, being the first Inventor and the ninth American chosen to membership among America's Immortals, his right to that title has been challenged on behalf of no less than eight other Americans. Outstanding among these claims is that In behalf of Lieut John Fitch, who, It Is asserted, made a successful trip on the Delaware river In a steamboat which he had designed more than 20 years before Fulton's historic voyage up the Hudson in the Clermont Fitchs right to the title of Inventor" Is supported by his descendants whojare members of tbe Fitch Family association. They have nominated his name for Inclusion In tbe Hall of Fame at New York university with the demand that either the name and bust of Fulton be removed or that those of Fitch be added. They are planning a nation-wid- e celebration In 1935 to mark the one hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of the Invention of the steamboat by Fitch in 1785, and they ask that this celebration be given recognition by the government and that public agencies and national patriotic In It as they, did societies In the Hudson-Fulto- n celebration of 1907. They base their contention that Fitch rather than Fulton was the Inventor of the steamboat upon certain official acts of ' the government, the chief one being that both houses of congress by a unanimous vote, approved on February 12, 1920, an appropriation of 315,000 for a suitable monument to Fitch as the first in the world's history to successfully apply steam propulsion of vessels through water. This memorial was unveiled May 27, 1927, In the public where square In Bardstown, Ky Fitch died July 2, 1798, In poverty and despair of proving to an unbelieving world the practical value of a steamboat. They 10101 out, too, that the labels on the models of steamboats In the Smithsonian Institution bears out their contention that he was the inventor. These labels read as follows : STEAMBOAT JOHN FITCH'S I '(.Signed by John Fitch, built In In 17S0, and first tested on the iH'laware river July 27 of that Sir. when a successful public trial tv made. Equipped with a steam iiifttii-etcby geared UiilClilne Phil-riMjihi- n - Students of Hie Henry J. Scluiuf Junior high achool of I'urmu, Oldo, dismantling n still, which was taken In a raid by the I'urnm police and turned over to the achool for use of the art metal class la making hammered copper urt objects, such as culondur pads, nsh trays and letter openers. n Tennessee Has a Singing Chicken chlnery, sprocket wheel and chain, op- erated six oars placed vertically In a frame on each side of the boat In 1788 Fitch completed his first commercial boat for carrying passengers, and It was driven In a similar manner. This boat was 60 feet long and 8 feet wide. She made a trip from Philadelphia to high-pressu- Burlington, about 20 miles, In July, 178' the longest ever made by any steamboat up to that date. October 12, 1788, the boat took SO passengers from Philadelphia to Burlington In 8 hours and 10 minutes, a speed of over six miles an hour. In 1790 Fitch built another boat which attained a speed of an hour and continued to run on the Delaware river, carrying passengers and freight, for three or four months. ProRUMSEYS STEAMBOAT pelled by Jets of water forced out through tbe stern. Tested on the Potomac river at Shepherdstown, Va eight-mile- s STEAMBOAT CLERMONT, 1807 Designed by Robert Fulton, built In tbe city of New York, and made Its first trip from that city to Albany In August, 1807. Of these labels, the one on Fitch's model Is the only one which uses words successful public trial. If, then, a "successful public trial Is proof of Invention, It would seem that there Is no doubt as to the right of Fitch to be given the title of Inventor of tbe steamboat However, there are those whose definition of invention Is a vastly different one and they assert that no one person can claim the credit for the Invention of Commerce by Malcom Keir In the Yale University Press, Pageant of America, has this to say : "Samuel Morey of New Hampshire, with a who began experimenting steamboat In 1790. built a paddle-whee- l steamer which in 1794 ran from Hartford to New York at a speed of about 15 miles an hour. Tla boat had the paddle wheel at the stern. A later boat of Morey's, built at Bonlentown on the Delaware, was operated with two side paddle wheels. Others who were seized with the 'steam mania,' as It was derisively called at the time, were William Longstreet of New Jersey, whose bout made five miles an hour against the current of the Savannah river In 1790, and Elijah Orms-lieof Connecticut, who made paddles t. Imitate ducks feel and operated il Jst he nav limn !v Me;im u a . e re half-doze- n 1787." the steamboat Of the other Inventors of the steamboat the volume The March of igated .from Cranston to Providence and Pawtucket and return. Oliver Evans, who Invented tbe steam engine and tubular.boiler, applied It to moving boats as well as highway wagons and mills. Steam dredges built by him, such as the Oruktor Amphlholos, operated in 1804 through the water under their own power. Robert R. Livingston, afterward associated with Fulton, built a steumboat and ran It on the Hudson. John Evans of Hoboken, N. J., experimented with a different steamboats after 1791, and eventually bit upon the Idea of tbe screw propeller in place of the more usual setting poles, paddles, oars, or paddle wheels. 8tevens himself, however, soon discarded the screw propeller In favor of paddle wheels, and It was not until years later In 1839 that the screw propeller received fur IN HER ROYAL ROBES Queen Mary Lou Waddell of th Pasadena Tournament, of Roses clad In her royal gown and crown. 1931 ther attention. Benjamin Franklin, who had a finger In nearly every pie, that was cooking during his lifetime, was a member of an association headed by James Rumsey, a native of Maryland, that proposed to try Franklin's Idea of propelling a boat by sucking In water at the bow and ejecting It at the stern. A boat was built and run on this principle by Rumsey In 1787, a steam pump being the means of ejecting the water. Rumsey bad In 1784 exhibited a steamboat before General Washington at Bath. 7a. In this earlier boat the power had been steam applied by cranks to a series of setting poles. moFitch, who had applied for state contested over steamboats, nopolies Rumsey's Invention.' so Rumsey took his ideas to London but died there In 1792, before they became practical" ' iq mentioning the men who contributed to the success of the steamboat there Is one name which cannot Justly be omitted. Fitch. Fulton and the others bsd built steamboats which would bodies of wag operate on ter In tbe East, but It remained for another man to tame tbe swift waters of the West. Fulton snd Livingston tried It and failed. But Henry 31 Shreve, whose name Is perpetuated to the city of Shreveport, La succeeded Shreve called bis boat the Wash Ington and In It he made two round New trips between Louisville, Ky andIn the Orleans, making tbe return trip then unbelievably fast time of 25 days or less than a fourth of the time It took the bargemen and keelboat pole men to make the same distance. From that time on steamboats went everywhere, no matter how swift tbe cur rent they had to buck. NEW HARVARD COACH Here Is Domlneck, the hen prima donna of Nashville, Tenn., with her mistress, Mrs. J. M. Peebles, who accompanies her as she sings. Youngest Member of Hoover Family Edward 31. Casey, one of Harrvardi football heroes, who comet back to hit alma mater next year as bead coact of the Crimson football squad. Hi succeeds Arnold Uorween. The coach-elecwas known as Lightning Eddie,' a Walter Camp choice for the gently-flowin- ( by Wtsitra Nawipapvr Usli ) t Being grunddanghter of the President means nothing to this young lady. She doesn't care thing for all this publicity and wanted the photographer to hurry, ao ahe could go to sleep. She la Joan Hoover, youngest daughter of Ur. end Mr a Herbert Hoover, Jr. First Sectional Football The first football game played be tween the East and West was In San Francisco, between Chicago and Stanford, on Christmas day, 1894. Two lays latef a' return' game wae played In Los Angelas. The second occasion was on Christmas day, 1S09, between Carlisle Indians and the University ot California. |