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Show I Little Journeys in? t Americana I ; ; B, LESTER B. COLBY The First Steamboat RESEARCH reveals strange and unexpected un-expected facts. Robert Fulton did not build the first steamboat. Neither did be build the second nor the, third. And bis famous Clermont, which has come down In popular history his-tory as the first steamboat, was not Fulton's first. When we get to digging Into dusty records we discover that one William Wil-liam Henry, of Lancaster, Pa., had a boot which was operated with a steam engine and paddles in 1700. It wa a cumbersome affair and early In Its career was accidentally sunk. That dampened the hopes of William Henry. John Fitch a little later built another an-other boot, an Improvement over Henry'a effort. It was sixty feet long, eight feet wide and Its paddles were fitted In the stern. It made s speed of seven miles an honr and records show that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were among those who marveled at Its mechanical me-chanical wonders. FHcb's boat, though It worked, was a finnnclnl failure. He commit led suicide In 1798 when bis backers deserted him. Next to try his hand at steamboat building was John Stevens of New Jersey. After experiments over a period of ten years he launched Ms first bout In 1708. Stevens was the first to nse a screw propellor. About the same time Inventors in England were at work on the same Idea. Robert Fulton was bora In a small town In Pennsylvania In 1705, five years after Henry had tried out his boat Fulton's parents were poor and while he early showed Inventive genius, he made his first money painting paint-ing pictures and drawing plana for bouses. Among Fulton's Intimates was Franklin and, on a visit to England, he became a friend of Watt, who was the Inventor of the steam engine. Fulton Ful-ton started his experiments In steamboat steam-boat development In 1802 and his first effort was lauuched In France. This boat was sunk, raised and rebuilt' He ordered a 24 horse-power engine en-gine from England In 1803 to be shipped to New lork. The result was the Clermont which was floated In 1806. The Clermont, 150 feet long, made Its first trip up the Hudson from New Tork to Albany, starting on August Au-gust 17,, 1807. The trip was made tn about thirty hours. Fulton achieved the feat of making the first steamboat to be operated with profit, and within eight years ten boats which be designed were In operation. Hla next step was to build a fleet of ferry boats for operation across East river and the Hudson. Stevens was In the field almost as soon as Fulton. His steamer, the Phoenix, was In operation on the Dela-I Dela-I ware In 1807, a year after Fulton launched the Clermont, and by 1810 steamboats were In regular operation on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. . The famous Savannah was the first steamer to cross the Atlantic. This was accomplished tn 1810, but Fulton did not live to see It, having died tn 1811V. One of Fulton's gifts was the ability to make money. Before he was twenty-one years old, he had made enough profit from his paint brush and easel so that be presented bis mother with a small farm. He also developed as a gunsmith and computed new proportions for firearms. Gifted In mechanics, he bad the vision to make hla achievements practical. Fulton did not make the first steamboat, but he made the first profitable one and without profit nothing noth-ing can succeed. That was the secret of bis fame. & till, Ltr B, Colby.) |