194 OF STEAM NAVIGATION. CHAPTER X. OF STEAM NAVIGATION. 138. Preliminary Remarks.—The application of steam to the purpose of propelling vessels, the proportionate impulse which has hereby been communicated to commercial prosperity, and the direct relation of the invention to the art of warfare, are among the most remarkable phenomena of the present day. The beneficial effects derived from this mode of employment of steam power may be estimated by the rapid extension of its use, in our own country alone, within a comparatively short period of time. In 1812, a solitary steam boat began to ply on the Clyde; in 1825, fifty-one steam boats were in operation on the same river; in 1837, sixty-three vessels, comprising a burden of 6,644 tons, were sailing on the Clyde. In Great Britain and Ireland, in 1814, there were, exclusive of government vessels, eleven steam vessels, of 542 tons burden in all; in 1828, this number was increased to 344, with a burden of 30,912 tons; in 1838, there were 760 vessels, of 78,664 tonnage, and 56,490 horse power; of these, about 480 were river steamers and small coasting vessels, and 280 large coasting and marine vessels. The total extent to which steam power was applied in Great Britain, in 1825, was estimated by Baron Dupin as equivalent to the power of 320,000 horses in constant action; from that period its employment has been prodigiously increased; the amount of capital afloat in steam ships may be said to be nearly six millions of money. In America, steam communication has proceeded with an equally rapid proIn 1807, the first American steam boat was launched at New York; in 1838, the whole number of steam vessels gress. OF STEAM NAVIGATION. 195 employed in that country, was from 700 to 800. In a late return from the secretary of the Treasury of the United States, it is stated, that on the western and south-western waters alone, near 400 vessels are supposed to be running, where none were used till 1811; and where, in 1834, the number was computed to be 234. On the Ohio river alone, in 1837, 413 different steam boats are reported to have passed through the Louisville and Portland Canal. As an illustration of the rapid increase of business in steam boats on the Ohio, the number of their passages throughout the Louisville canal was, in 1831, 406 passages, and 1501 passages in 1837, being nearly fourfold in six years. In this path of national improvement, in the discovery of physical principles and their application to mechanical operation, it is the proud boast of Great Britain, that she has taken the lead. In the words of Tredgold, "No new principle, no new combination of principles, has yet been derived from a foreign source; the most perfect of foreign steam engines being professedly copied from British ones, and not unfrequently manufactured by British workmen." We are now placed in that interesting period of time, when steam navigation promises to connect the most distant habitable parts of our globe, its extension being limited only by local deficiencies of the material to which it owes its power. Already has the surface of the ocean, as well as that of the land, been traversed by a network of lines ramifying from the great centres of civilization. Communication is now opened between the Old and the New Continents by an easy passage of only fourteen days; and a project is now in contemplation for establishing a line of steam communication between Great Britain and India. The moral and political results arising from the extended operation of this power can at present be but feebly calculated; but the philanthropist may well indulge a hope, that the dissemination of the arts, sciences, literature, and natural productions, of the most favoured spots of the earth, may, at no very distant period, effect the most glorious revolution in the annals of man. 196 OF STEAM NAVIGATION. The subject of this chapter may be arranged under the following heads : 1. History of Steam Navigation. 1. Form of boiler. 2. Indicators of saltness. 3. Blowing out; brine pumps. 4. Of the Cylinder of the Marine Engine. 1. Dimensions of the Cylinder, and 2. Application of the Steam. 1. Common Injection Condenser. 2. Steam Saver. 3. The "Queen" Steam ship. 4. The "Megara" and "Volcano." 5. The "British Queen." 3. Howard's method of vaporization. 6. Of Paddle Wheels. 1. Paddle wheels with fixed floats. 1. Common paddle wheel. 2. Field's cycloidal wheel. 2. Paddle wheels with feathering floats. 2. Morgan's paddle wheel. 3. Hall's reefing paddle wheel. 7. Engines of the Steam Packet “Ruby.” Description of a Marine Engine. 8. Engines of the Steam Frigate "Gorgon." EARLY HISTORY OF STEAM NAVIGATION. 197 139. Early History of Steam Navigation.-The project of Blasco de Garay, in 1543, has been already noticed (p. 20). The application of steam to navigation by Hulls has also been briefly described and illustrated (p. 32); his method of converting the reciprocating into the rotatory motion was ingenious, but not so simple as that of the crank. From the date of his invention, it appears that his engine was a modification of the atmospheric engine of Newcomen. In 1785, two Americans, James Ramsay, of Virginia, and John Fitch, of Philadelphia, claimed the renown of discovering the application of steam to navigation, but their plan was not reduced to practice. The merit of the invention appears to belong to three British subjects, and the first successful application of it to an American; their respective claims must be adjusted by reference to dates. In 1788, a steam boat was constructed by Mr. William Symington, of Falkirk, under the patronage, or, as some say, the directions, of Mr. Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, and Mr. James Taylor, the tutor of his family; this boat was capable of being driven at the rate of five miles an hour. In the following year, Mr. Symington constructed a larger boat, which was tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and went at the rate of seven miles an hour. In 1801, Mr. Symington was encouraged by Lord Dundas to construct an experimental steam boat for towing vessels on the Forth and Clyde Canal; it had a steam cylinder of twenty-two inches in diameter, and four feet stroke; it appeared well adapted to the purpose for which it was made; the plan was, however, abandoned, probably on account of the motion of the water injuring the banks of the canal. Mr. Fulton, an American engineer, and Mr. Henry Bell, of Glasgow, had an opportunity of inspecting the steam boat, constructed in 1801, by Mr. Symington; and the consequence was that, in 1807, Mr. Fulton launched the first steam vessel, the Clermont," on the Hudson, and in 1812, Mr. Bell fitted up another, the "Comet," for the Clyde; these were the two first vessels of the kind ever employed for public 66 198 service in either hemisphere. Mr. Fulton's engine was made in 1804 by Messrs. Boulton and Watt; its first voyage was performed between New York and Albany, a distance of 160 miles, in about thirty hours. Mr. Bell's boat plied the whole summer from Glasgow to Helensburgh; the engine exerted a force of about three horse power; the weight of the vessel was about twenty-five tons. The rate of speed of both the above vessels was about five miles an hour. Shortly after the experiment of Fulton's boat, Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, in America, performed a successful voyage, by means of steam, on the open sea; his construction of the vessel, and modification of the machinery, appear to have realized the great objects of steam navigation. In our own country, the enterprise of steam navigation on the open sea began to be successfully prosecuted, in 1818, by Mr. David Napier; by his industry, communications were opened between Great Britain and France, during the stormy period of winter; post-office packets were regularly established between Dover and Calais, between Liverpool, Greenock, and Belfast, between Holyhead and Dublin; and before the year 1822, a fleet of commercial steam ships was constructed, combining greater power and speed than any at that time in Europe; these vessels ranged from 150 to 240 tons burden, and their engines from 60 to 70 horse power. In 1822, the "James Watt" steam vessel plied between Leith and London; this vessel was of 448 tons burden, and carried two engines of 50 horse power each; its rate of speed was ten miles an hour. The "United Kingdom," the engines of which were furnished by Mr. Napier, and were of 200 horse power, was the noblest vessel constructed at that period. Various improvements were subsequently introduced by inventors whose names will appear in the following pages. In completing this brief sketch of the history of marine navigation, it will be sufficient to notice the performance of a steam vessel which plied for twelve months, in the years 1836-37, between Greenock and Liverpool, a distance of 220 miles the "Unicorn" performed this voyage, during EARLY HISTORY OF STEAM NAVIGATION. |