Chambers's papers for the people Author:Chambers W. and R. ltd Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAMBERS'S PAPERS FOR THE PEOPLE, OCEAN ROUTES. pONSIDERABLY more than a century ago, when the citizens of London J were recovering from the losses... more » caused by the South-Sea Bubble, and tiie citizens of Edinburgh were suffering on account of the Porteous mob— 'hen the population of Liverpool was under 20,000, and the Customs' revenue of the United Kingdom was not a tithe of its present amount— before the battle of Culloden had been fought, or the United States of America had asserted their independence : there was granted to Jonathan Hulls a patent for a boat propelled by steam-power, ' for carrying vessels or sliips out of or into any harbour, port, or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm.' The pictures we have of this vessel make her look very clumsy and peer when compared with a modern steamer. The single paddle-wheel of Hulls's boat was placed at the stem, and motion was produced by an atmospheric engine on Newcomen's plan: there was a small funnel, but there were neither sails nor masts. The boat, in fact, was merely a substitute for !i rope and a strong windlass; but nevertheless it was the beginning of a long series of experiments that have led to the navigation by steam of almost every river, sea, and ocean of the world. Half a century afterwards, when Jonathan Hulls was in his grave, and during the same years that George W ashington was elected first President of the United States of America, Several experiments were made by Mr Symington, an engineer employed t Wanlockhead Mines in Dumfriesshire, in conjunction with Mr Miller of iJalswinton, and Mr Taylor, tutor in the family of the latter, by which a pleasure-boat was propelled by steam-power on a. small lake, at the rate of live miles an hour, and a speed of seven miles attained in another boat on die F...« less