The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-01-14
THE PIONEER STEAMER.
Neither Fulton Nor symington' BUT
Yankee Named Fitch, Built It.

Neither Fulton Nor symington' But q
Yankee Named Fitch, Built It.
The Western British American,
published in this city, claims that
Robert Fulton is wrongfully credited
with the first successful application
of steam as a motor for ships. LII
saws that in 1901 Fulton got from
William Symington, a native OF
Lanarkshire, Scotland, the original
ideas which he put into operation on
the Hudson some six years later,
when he made trip of ITO miles IN
the Clermont in twenty-four hours.
1t says that as early as 1888 Syming-
ton attained a speed Of four miles an
hour with little boat on Delawinton
Loeb, and in 1901 made a successful
trip to Glasgow in a vessel named
Charlotte Dundas, which towed up
the River Carron four or five sloops
that had been detained in the Forth
by contrary winds. Fulton, 1t says,
was a passenger on that vessel ana
took copious notes.
If the question involved be one OF
priority of invention the credit does
not belong to Symington but to John
Fitch, native of Windsor, Conn.,,
who, the 18th Of April, 17S5, con-
ceived the idea Of steam as motive
power to propel wagons and vessels.
Later in that year he completed his
first model of steamboat with wheels
at the sides; but as these were found
to labor too much in the water he re-
placed them in July, 1886, with pad
dies upon shift which had a steam
engine with a three-inch cylinder.)
After vainly trying to obtain aid from
Congress and the Pennsylvania Legis-
lature, and acquiring the reputation
of being insane he began in February.
1857, the construction of his second
boat, forty-fve feet long and with
twelve feet beam, which "made its
trial trip on the Delaware at Phila-
delphia the 22nd of August, 1884," in
the presence of the members Of the
convention to frame the Federal
Constitution. A still larger boat was
constructed in 1888, and another in
April, 1890, the latter being run dur
ing the whole summer as regular
passenger boat between Philadelphia
and Burlington with speed of eight
miles an hour. Another boat, the
Perseverance, designed for both
freight and passengers, on the Missis-
sippi, was damaged by a storm and
the project was abandoned. In 1871
he received a patent from the United
States for his inventions, and two
years later went to France to build
steamboat, but arriving there in the
midst of the revolutionary troubles
he left his plans and specifications
with the American Consul, who subse-
quently loaned them to Robert Full
ton while Fitch was absent in Lon
don.
We must accord to John Fitch, Of
the credit for priority Of
of the steamboat, as he
thought out the scheme two or three
years ahead of Symington, of Scotland.
But, after all, it must be conceded
that the first practical commercial
success in steam navigation was
achieved by Robert Fulton. Fitch
was some twenty years ahead OF him,
but for some inscrutable reason the
people of the United States did not
recognize the usefulness or possible
tiles of his great idea, not to say the
necessity of the invention, though
water transportation was the bond
absolutely needed to tie together the
States, both by seaboard and interior
The people did not
believe in Fitch's scheme-regarded
it as chimerical or at least impracti-
cable-and even so eminent an engi-
neer as Latrobe said the scheme
would not amount to anything and
must end in financial failure. But
when Fulton came along later and
pushed the matter theoretically, and
built a steamboat that did a paying
business, steam navigation was adj
mitted to be good thing, and al
most from the moment the demonstra-
ton has been forced upon their atten-
ton they took hold of it with custom
airy Yankee vigor and thoroughness,
accepting itrather as an essential than
as luxury. In very short time the
steamer was prominent object on
all our inland waters as well as on
the ocean coast, and did very much
to aid the opening up of the Mississippi
Valley to settlement. For this prac-
cal and profitable application of steam
navigation to commercial uses and in
terror development Robert Fulton Is
entitled to the credit, while to John
Fitch belongs the honor of having
first pointed out the path for Fulton
to travel; and it does not appear that
Symington deserves to rank in history
with either Of these illustrious men.