The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-07-26

priving him of his rights and privileges
Governor Fuller gives a degree of
publicity to Morey's invention that we
have not elsewhere noticed. He states
that Morey built boat in Connecticut,
sailed in it to New York and thence to
Bordentown, N. j. The voyage from
Connecticut to New York city would
have been matter of great moment in
the earliest infancy of the invention,
but the continuation of the trip to
Bordentown on the Delaware, below
Trenton, was marvel of achievement.
This voyage was made long before
Fulton's production of the Clermont,
and would naturally attract worldwide
attention. 1t would certainly be a
notable event in all the centers of in
telligence in the United States, and was
an occurrence to arrest the eye of the
federal government and of every per-
son of Importance in the country.
How Fulton could consummate his
claims to priority of invention, if Morey
made this voyage, is difficult to under
stand; but it is easy to see, if the
career of Morey's boat ended with his
trips on the Connecticut ferry between
Oxford and Fairlee, or on Fairlee Pond,
how the confiding backwoodsman
could be overmatched and circum-
vented by the enterprisinq New Yorker,
backed by the powerful aid of Chancel-
lor Livingston and all the advantages
of the chief commercial city of the
country.
Among the curiosities to be seen at
Fairlee pond is the original model of
the engine Morey invented to move his
boat. 1t is a rare mechanical curiosity,
which, in the absence of illustrations,
defies intelligent description. 1t is a
rotary engine, the cylinder being bal
anced on standard above the boiler
and revolving horizontally. From the
disc upon which the engine is attached
to the standard, the power is COM
municated. The ingenuity of this de-
vice for doing in roundabout way
what was subsequently done through a
stationary cylinder and piston rod
connecting with crank or walking
beam, commands the admiration of the
observer.
Local tradition AYERS that the steam.
boat of Morey's invention was loaded
with stone and sunk in Fairlee pond
between 1920 and 1925. No man living
in Fairlee during the last generation
has seen the boat since it was sunk, or
has personal knowledge of the sinking,
or the exact present locality of the
boat; but persons now living have been
credibly informed of the fact by indi.
viduals who had seen the craft at the
bottom of the pond in some twenty.
five feet of water. There is reason To
believe that the Morey steamer is
somewhere at the bottom of Fairlee
pond, and later information locates
more positively the exact point of the
sinking. A systematic, but unsuccess-
full, search was made last winter for the
boat. 1t will be renewed, we are told
during the coming winter.
Why was the boat sunk, and by
whom? BY the emissaries of Fulton,
tradition says, to destroy the tangible
evidence of the priority of Morey's in.
vention and to clinch Fulton's claims.
If the original Morey steamboat, OF
steamboat built by Morey, and sailed
by steam power of his devising, is
at the bottom of Fairlee pond, it should
be found and brought to the surface
The production of such tangible proof
of Morey's invention will go further
than carloads of such evidence as has
hitherto been produced to recover and
restore to Samuel Morey the honor thai
is claimed for him and the honor thai
his champions maintain is unwarrant
ably accorded to Fulton. Vermont anG
New Hampshire seem to have com
mon interest in this matter. Public
spirited citizens of each state would
undoubtedly contribute to fund fol
prosecuting the search in some efficien
and conclusive manner, under a com
petent engineer. The individual-aI
elderly citizen of Fairlee-who has
been prosecuting the search has beer
laboring, alone and single-handed
under great disadvantages. He de
serves great praise for what he ha
done and what he proposes to continu
to do, for the originality of his metho'
of search and the thoroughness of hi
quest. The men of New Hampshir
and Vermont should turn in and assis
him, or organize an independent hun
for the lost evidence of Captain Morey'
claim to immortality.
Trying to Blink the Real Cause.