A History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine Part 20

This was the first voyage of considerable length ever made by a steam-vessel; and Fulton, though not to be cla.s.sed with James Watt as an inventor, is ent.i.tled to the great honor of having been the first to make steam-navigation an every-day commercial success, and of having thus made the first application of the steam-engine to s.h.i.+p-propulsion, which was not followed by the retirement of the experimenter from the field of his labors before success was permanently insured.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 81.--Engine of the Clermont, 1808.]

The engine of the Clermont (Fig. 81) was of rather peculiar form, the piston, _E_, being coupled to the crank-shaft, _O_, by a bell-crank, _I H P_, and a connecting-rod, _P Q_, the paddle-wheel shaft, _M N_, being separate from the crank-shaft, and connected with the latter by gearing, _O O_. The cylinders were 24 inches in diameter by 4 feet stroke. The paddle-wheels had buckets 4 feet long, with a dip of 2 feet. Old drawings, made by Fulton's own hand, and showing the engine as it was in 1808, and the engine of a later steamer, the Chancellor Livingston, are in the lecture-room of the author at the Stevens Inst.i.tute of Technology.

The voyage of the Clermont to Albany was attended by some ludicrous incidents, which found their counterparts wherever, subsequently, steamers were for the first time introduced. Mr. Colden, the biographer of Fulton, says that she was described, by persons who had seen her pa.s.sing by night, "as a monster moving on the waters, defying wind and tide, and breathing flames and smoke."

This first steamboat used dry pine wood for fuel, and the flames rose to a considerable distance above the smoke-pipe. When the fires were disturbed, mingled smoke and sparks would rise high in the air. "This uncommon light," says Colden, "first attracted the attention of the crews of other vessels. Notwithstanding the wind and tide were averse to its approach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly coming toward them; and when it came so near that the noise of the machinery and paddles was heard, the crews (if what was said in the newspapers of the time be true), in some instances, shrank beneath their decks from the terrific sight, and left their vessels to go on sh.o.r.e; while others prostrated themselves, and besought Providence to protect them from the approach of the horrible monster which was marching on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited."

In the Clermont, Fulton used several of the now characteristic features of the American river steamboat, and subsequently introduced others. His most important and creditable work, aside from that of the introduction of the steamboat into every-day use, was the experimental determination of the magnitude and the laws of s.h.i.+p-resistance, and the systematic proportioning of vessel and machinery to the work to be done by them.

The success of the Clermont on the trial-trip was such that Fulton soon after advertised the vessel as a regular pa.s.senger-boat between New York and Albany.[80]

[80] A newspaper-slip in the sc.r.a.p-book of the author has the following:

"The traveler of today, as he goes on board the great steamboats St.

John or Drew, can scarcely imagine the difference between such floating palaces and the wee-bit punts on which our fathers were wafted 60 years ago. We may, however, get some idea of the sort of thing then in use by a perusal of the steamboat announcements of that time, two of which are as follows:

["_Copy of an Advertis.e.m.e.nt taken from the Albany Gazette, dated September, 1807._]

"The North River Steamboat will leave Pauler's Hook Ferry [now Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Sat.u.r.day, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.

"The charge to each pa.s.senger is as follows:

"To Newburg dols. 3, time 14 hours.

" Poughkeepsie " 4, " 17 "

" Esopus " 5, " 20 "

" Hudson " 5-1/2, " 30 "

" Albany " 7, " 36 "

"For places, apply to William Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street.

"_September 2, 1807._

["_Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2, 1807._]

"Mr. Fulton's new-invented _Steamboat_, which is fitted up in a neat style for pa.s.sengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a Packet, left here this morning with 90 pa.s.sengers, against a strong head-wind. Notwithstanding which, it was judged she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour."

During the next winter the Clermont was repaired and enlarged, and in the summer of 1808 was again on the route to Albany; and, meantime, two new steamboats--the Raritan and the Car of Neptune--had been built by Fulton. In the year 1811 he built the Paragon. Both of the two vessels last named were of nearly double the size of the Clermont. A steam ferry-boat was built to ply between New York and Jersey City in 1812, and the next year two others, to connect the metropolis with Brooklyn. These were "twin-boats," the two parallel hulls being connected by a "bridge" or deck common to both. The Jersey ferry was crossed in fifteen minutes, the distance being a mile and a half.

To-day, the time occupied at the same ferry is about ten minutes.

Fulton's ferry-boat carried, at one load, 8 carriages, and about 30 horses, and still had room for 300 or 400 foot-pa.s.sengers. Fulton also designed steam-vessels for use on the Western rivers, and, in 1815, some of his boats were started as "packets" on the line between New York and Providence, R. I.

Meantime, the War of 1812 was in progress, and Fulton designed a steam vessel-of-war, which was then considered a wonderfully formidable craft. His plans were submitted to a commission of experienced naval officers, among whom were Commodores Decatur and Perry, Captain John Paul Jones, Captain Evans, and others whose names are still familiar, and were favorably commended. Fulton proposed to build a steam-vessel capable of carrying a heavy battery, and of steaming four miles an hour. The s.h.i.+p was to be fitted with furnaces for red-hot shot. Some of her guns were to be discharged below the water-line. The estimated cost was $320,000.

The construction of the vessel was authorized by Congress in March, 1814; the keel was laid June 20, 1814, and the vessel was launched October 29th of the same year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 82.--Launch of the "Fulton the First," 1804.]

The "Fulton the First," as she was called, was considered an enormous vessel at that time. The hull was double, 156 feet long, 56 feet wide, and 20 feet deep, measuring 2,475 tons. In the following May the s.h.i.+p was ready for her engine, and in July was so far completed as to steam, on a trial-trip, to the ocean at Sandy Hook and back--53 miles--in 8 hours and 20 minutes. In September of the same year, with armament and stores on board, the same route was traversed again, the vessel making 5-1/2 miles an hour. The vessel, as thus completed, had a double hull, each about 20 feet longer than the Clermont, and separated by a s.p.a.ce 15 feet across. Her engine, having a steam-cylinder 48 inches in diameter and of 5 feet stroke of piston, was furnished with steam by a copper boiler 22 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet high, and turned a wheel between the two hulls which was 16 feet in diameter, and carried "floats" or "buckets" 14 feet long, and with a dip of 4 feet. The engine was in one of the two hulls, and the boiler in the other. The sides, at the gun-deck, were 4 feet 10 inches thick, and her spar-deck was surrounded by heavy musket-proof bulwarks. The armament consisted of 30 32-pounders, which were intended to discharge red-hot shot. There was one heavy mast for each hull, fitted with large latteen sails. Each end of each hull was fitted with a rudder. Large pumps were carried, which were intended to throw heavy streams of water upon the decks of the enemy, with a view to disabling the foe by wetting his ordnance and ammunition. A submarine gun was to have been carried at each bow, to discharge shot weighing 100 pounds, at a depth of 10 feet below the water-line.

This was the first application of the steam-engine to naval purposes, and, for the time, it was an exceedingly creditable one. Fulton, however, did not live to see the s.h.i.+p completed. He was engaged in a contest with Livingston, who was then endeavoring to obtain permission from the State of New Jersey to operate a line of steamboats in the waters of the Hudson River and New York Bay, and, while returning from attending a session of the Legislature at Trenton, in January, 1815, was exposed to the weather on the bay at a time when he was ill prepared to withstand it. He was taken ill, and died February 24th of that year. His death was mourned as a national calamity.

From the above brief sketch of this distinguished man and his work, it is seen that, although Robert Fulton is not ent.i.tled to distinction as an inventor, he was one of the ablest, most persistent, and most successful of those who have done so much for the world by the introduction of the inventions of others. He was an intelligent engineer and an enterprising business-man, whose skill, acuteness, and energy have given the world the fruits of the inventive genius of all who preceded him, and have thus justly earned for him a fame that can never be lost.

Fulton had some active and enterprising rivals.

Oliver Evans had, in 1801 or 1802, sent one of his engines, of about 150 horse-power, to New Orleans, for the purpose of using it to propel a vessel owned by Messrs. McKeever and Valcourt, which was there awaiting it. The engine was actually set up in the boat, but at a low stage of the river, and no trial could be made until the river should again rise, some months later. Having no funds to carry them through so long a period, Evans's agents were induced to remove the engine again, and to set it up in a saw-mill, where it created great astonishment by its extraordinary performance in sawing lumber.

Livingston and Roosevelt were also engaged in experiments quite as early as Fulton, and perhaps earlier.

The prize gained by Fulton was, however, most closely contested by Colonel JOHN STEVENS, of Hoboken, who has been already mentioned in connection with the early history of railroads, and who had been since 1791 engaged in similar experiments. In 1789 he had pet.i.tioned the Legislature of the State of New York for a grant similar to that accorded to Livingston, and he then stated that his plans were complete, and on paper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 83.--Section of Steam-Boiler, 1804.]

In 1804, while Fulton was in Europe, Stevens had completed a steamboat, 68 feet long and of 14 feet beam, which combined novelties and merits of design in a manner that exhibited the best possible evidence of remarkable inventive talent, as well as of the most perfect appreciation of the nature of the problem which he had proposed to himself to solve. Its boiler (Fig. 83) was of what is now known as the water-tubular variety. It was quite similar to some now known as sectional boilers, and contained 100 tubes 2 inches in diameter and 18 inches long, each fastened at one end to a central water-leg and steam-drum, and plugged at the other end. The flames from the furnace pa.s.sed around and among the tubes, the water being inside them. The engine (Fig. 84) was a _direct-acting high-pressure_ condensing engine, having a 10-inch cylinder, 2 feet stroke of piston, and drove a _screw_ having four blades, and of a form which, even to-day, appears quite good. The whole is a most remarkable piece of early engineering.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 84.--Engine, Boiler, and Screw-Propellers used by Stevens, 1804.]

A model of this little steamer, built in 1804, is preserved in the lecture-room of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Stevens Inst.i.tute of Technology; and the machinery itself, consisting of the high-pressure "sectional" or "safety" tubular boiler, as it would be called to-day, the high-pressure condensing engine, with rotating valves, and twin screw-propellers, as just described, is given a place of honor in the model-room, or museum, where it contrasts singularly with the mechanism contributed to the collection by manufacturers and inventors of our own time. The hub and blade of a single screw, also used with the same machinery, is likewise to be seen there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 85.--Stevens's Screw Steamer, 1804.]

Stevens seems to have been the first to fully recognize the importance of the principle involved in the construction of the sectional steam-boiler. His eldest son, John c.o.x Stevens, was in Great Britain in the year 1805, and, while there, patented another modification of this type of boiler. In his specification, he details both the method of construction and the principles which determine its form. He says that he describes this invention as it was made known to him by his father, and adds:

"From a series of experiments made in France, in 1790, by M. Belamour, under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Sciences, it has been found that, within a certain range the elasticity of steam is nearly doubled by every addition of temperature equal to 30 of Fahrenheit's thermometer. These experiments were carried no higher than 280, at which temperature the elasticity of steam was found equal to about four times the pressure of the atmosphere. By experiments which have lately been made by myself, the elasticity of steam at the temperature of boiling oil, which has been estimated at about 600, was found to equal 40 times the pressure of the atmosphere.

"To the discovery of this principle or law, which obtains when water a.s.sumes a state of vapor, I certainly can lay no claim; but to the application of it, upon certain principles, to the improvement of the steam-engine, I do claim exclusive right.

"It is obvious that, to derive advantage from an application of this principle, it is absolutely necessary that the vessel or vessels for generating steam should have strength sufficient to withstand the great pressure from an increase of elasticity in the steam; but this pressure is increased or diminished in proportion to the capacity of the containing vessel. The principle, then, of this invention consists in forming a boiler by means of a system, or combination of a number of small vessels, instead of using, as in the usual mode, one large one; the relative strength of the materials of which these vessels are composed increasing in proportion to the diminution of capacity.

It will readily occur that there are an infinite variety of possible modes of effecting such combinations; but, from the nature of the case, there are certain limits beyond which it becomes impracticable to carry on improvement. In the boiler I am about to describe, I apprehend that the improvement is carried to the utmost extent of which the principle is capable. Suppose a plate of bra.s.s of one foot square, in which a number of holes are perforated; into each of which holes is fixed one end of a copper tube, of about an inch in diameter and two feet long; and the other ends of these tubes inserted in like manner into a similar piece of bra.s.s; the tubes, to insure their tightness, to be cast in the plates; these plates are to be inclosed at each end of the pipes by a strong cap of cast-iron or bra.s.s, so as to leave a s.p.a.ce of an inch or two between the plates or ends of the pipes and the cast-iron cap at each end; the caps at each end are to be fastened by screw-bolts pa.s.sing through them into the plates; the necessary supply of water is to be injected by means of a forcing-pump into the cap at one end, and through a tube inserted into the cap at the other end the steam is to be conveyed to the cylinder of the steam-engine; the whole is then to be encircled in brickwork or masonry in the usual manner, placed either horizontally or perpendicularly, at option.

"I conceive that the boiler above described embraces the most eligible mode of applying the principle before mentioned, and that it is unnecessary to give descriptions of the variations in form and construction that may be adopted, especially as these forms may be diversified in many different modes."

Boilers of the character of those described in the specification given above were used on the locomotive built by John Stevens in 1824-'25, and one of them remains in the collections of the Stevens Inst.i.tute of Technology.

The use of such a boiler 70 years ago is even more remarkable than the adoption of the screw-propeller, in such excellent proportions, 30 years before the labors of Smith and of Ericsson brought the screw into general use; and we have, in this strikingly original combination, as good evidence of the existence of unusual engineering talent in this great engineer as we found of his political and statesmanlike ability in his efforts to forward the introduction of railways.

Colonel John Stevens designed a peculiar form of iron-clad in the year 1812, which has been since reproduced by no less distinguished and successful an engineer than the late John Elder, of Glasgow, Scotland.

It consisted of a saucer-shaped hull, carrying a heavy battery, and plated with iron of ample thickness to resist the shot fired from the heaviest ordnance then known. This vessel was secured to a swivel, and was anch.o.r.ed in the channel to be defended. A set of screw-propellers, driven by steam-engines, and situated beneath the vessel, where they were safe against injury by shot, were so arranged as to permit the vessel to be rapidly revolved about its centre. As each gun was brought into line of fire, it was discharged, and was then reloaded before coming around again. This was probably the earliest embodiment of the now well-established "Monitor" principle. It was probably the first iron-clad ever designed. It has recently been again brought out and introduced into the Russian navy, and is there called the "Popoffka."

The first of Stevens's boats performed so well, that he immediately built another one, using the same engine as before, but employing a larger boiler, and propelling the vessel by _twin screws_, the latter being another instance of his use of a device brought forward long afterward as new, and frequently adopted. This boat was sufficiently successful to prove the practicability of making steam-navigation a commercial success; and Stevens, a.s.sisted by his sons, built a boat which he named the "Ph[oe]nix," and made the first trial in 1807, but just too late to antic.i.p.ate Fulton. This boat was driven by paddle-wheels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 86.--Stevens's Twin-Screw Steamer, 1805.]

The Ph[oe]nix, being shut out of the waters of the State of New York by the monopoly held by Fulton and Livingston, was used for a time between New York and New Brunswick, and then, antic.i.p.ating a better pecuniary return, it was concluded to send her to Philadelphia, to ply on the Delaware.

At that time no ca.n.a.l offered the opportunity to make an inland pa.s.sage; and in June, 1808, Robert L. Stevens, a son of John, started with her to make the pa.s.sage by sea. Although meeting a gale of wind, he arrived at Philadelphia safely, having been the first to trust himself on the open sea in a vessel relying entirely upon steam-power.

From this time forward the Stevenses, father and sons, continued to construct steam-vessels; and, after the breaking down of the Fulton monopoly by the courts, they built the most successful steamboats that ran on the Hudson River.