The men soon became exhausted,
and on Miller mentioning the subject to William Symington, who
was then exhibiting his road locomotive in Edinburgh, Symington
at once said, "Why don't you employ steam-power?"
There were many speculations in early times as to the application
of steam-power for propelling vessels through the water. David
Ramsay in 1618, Dr. Grant in 1632, the Marquis of Worcester in
1661, were among the first in England to publish their views upon
the subject. But it is probable that Denis Papin, the banished
Hugnenot physician, for some time Curator of the Royal Society,
was the first who made a model steam-boat. Daring his residence
in England, he was elected Professor of Mathematics in the
University of Marburg. It was while at that city that he
constructed, in 1707, a small steam-engine, which he fitted in a
boat--une petite machine d'un, vaisseau a roues--and despatched
it to England for the purpose of being tried upon the Thames.
The little vessel never reached England. At Munden, the boatmen
on the River Weser, thinking that, if successful, it would
destroy their occupation, seized the boat, with its machine, and
barbarously destroyed it. Papin did not repeat his experiment,
and died a few years later.
The next inventor was Jonathan Hulls, of Campden, in
Gloucestershire. He patented a steamboat in 1736, and worked the
paddle-wheel placed at the stern of the vessel by means of a
Newcomen engine.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87