The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-03-05
THE STEAMBOAT.
An Old EnEineer Speaks ON a. later
eatInG Sabject.

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"Grandpa," said the old engineers
pet and pride as he looked up from his
history book. "in what year did Mr..
Fulton invent the steamboat"
HE didn't" responded grandpa, with
a snap of his jaws.
This book says he did" protested
the youngster.
eve can't help that. my lad, but come
over here and let me tell you some real
history" The boy obeying by gladly
firing his book into q corner and climb
ing into the old gentleman's lap. the
grandfather proceeded: Away back
yonder only about so years after Colum-
bus discovered America, that is TO say.
in 1543, when Charles V. was liingof
Spain, n Spanish captain named ElascO
de Guerrero, put a 2OO-ton steamboat on
the water at Barcelona that made a rec
oord for itself ia no time. There was
an exhibition run before the king and
all his court and there wasn't a hitch
in the whole trial trip. The secret OF
the propelling power was unknown,
but there was . big tank of boiling wa
ter and steam on board and there were
two wheels visible on the outside OF the
hull. AS said, ske was a success and
the king was greatly pleased and want
ed his treasurer to buy the whole thing
from Capt. Guerrero and build some
government steam vessels, but the
treasurer was away behind the times
and poked around until Guerrero took
the engine out Of the hull and let the
boat rot in the water. As for himself,
he died from disappointment, taking
his secret to the grave with him. Spain
had discovered America and the effort
had been too much for her in the pro-
gressive line, SO she simply laid down
on the poor captain, my child, and
killed him.
For hundred years after that the
steamboat business was as dull as it Is
on o western river during a drought.
and then in 1887 one Solomon de Coste
came into France from Normandy with
an engine that would propel a vessel on
the water or a carriage on land, and he
showed it to the king. and later to Car
dinnl Richelieu, who held a mortgage
on France, body and soul. This engine
OF de Coste's was pretty much all that
was claimed for ii, and was without
question quite as successful as its sue
cessors, yet the best Richelieu could do
for de Coste was to shut him up in n
mad house for his persistence, where
in good time, suppose, the poor fellow
died. France wasn't any better than
Spain in the navigation business, and
the steamboat interests languished for
another hundred years, when up on the
Potomac al Shepherdstown, Va, James
Ramsey had a steamboat that that high
ly respected citizen George Washing
ton thought was a good thing, and ad-
vised him 10 push IL along. Mr.. Fitch
ran in one about the same time and poor
Ramsey had such a hard row to hoe
with his invention that at last he gave.
ii up In despair. Two hundred years
wasted, my lad, and still no steamboat
doing regular passenger and freight
business. The next trial was made by
William Symington on the Forth and
Clyde canal in Scotland, with the tug
Charlotte Dundas, and nobody said then
that steam navigation was a new thing.
The Dundas towed for awhile and was
laid by because her wheels washed the
banks OF the canal. This was in 1902,
and there gvas another lapse until 1907.
when the Fulton, you mention, showed
a little steamboat called the Clermont
out on the Hudson river and made q
trip to Albany In her. He had failed
On the Seine and would have done 1t In
America, but he had the money behind
him this time and he got there exactly
as Capt. Guerrero would have done 300
years ahead of him il he had only had
the backing That's history, my child"
concluded the old gentleman, "and
whenever anybody talks to you about
Robert Fulton inventing the steamboat
you tell him what your grandfather
tells you. Do you hear?"-Detroit
Free Press.