All About Engines

Engines for Ships 275 Bell, however, was anticipated by Robert Fulton, an American, who about 1793 forsook art for engineer- ing. From the beginning he went about his work in a scientific spirit, making numerous experiments to ascertain the resistance of various forms when towed through the water. His first vessel was launched on the Seine in 1803 and broke up—an accident which not infrequently happened in those days. In the following year he ordered a Boulton and Watt engine, which he conveyed to America in 1806. The Clermont was launched on the Hudson in the spring of 1807, and before the end of the year had astonished the world with its performance. It was 133 feet long, 18J feet beam, and 9 feet deep. With Watt’s engine and a pair of paddles it made the journey from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles, in about thirty hours. Dry pine wood was used for fuel, so that smoke, sparks, and flame issued from the funnel, and as it sped along the river in the dark- ness there were not a few timorous people who thought that the end of the world had arrived. Fulton also built the first steamship of war, the Fulton the First, in 1814. It had two hulls, side by side, with a space between them for a single paddle wheel 16 feet in diameter. The sides were 4 feet 10 inches in thickness, and the armament consisted of thirty 32-pounder guns for throwing red-hot shot. A copper boiler, 22 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet high, provided steam for the engine, which had a cylinder 48 inches in diameter with a stroke of 5 feet. A curious contrast, surely, to the warships of to-day !