Evening star., 1907-07-14

steamboats,. To this exhibit attaches added
Importance in view of the international
maritime exposition now being held at
Bordeaux to celebrate the hundredth
niversary of the Inauguration of steam nav
igation by the American inventor Robert
Fulton. model of Fulton's first success
full steamboat the Clermont. which made
its historic trip on the Hudson from New
York to Albany in the summer of 1907. is
shown. There also models of John
Fitch's crude steamboat of 1855 which
red passengers between Philadelphia and
Burlington, John Stevens Phoenix. the first
steamboat to navigate the ocean, the Sa-
vanah. the first steamboat to cross the At
lantic, John Ericssons r. +. Stockton, with
an iron hull, twin-screw steamboat de-
signed by Stevens as early as 1904, model
Of one of James Rumseys boats. and a
model of the peculiar craft of the Missis
sippi river. OF earlier American ships es
pecaly prominent in the discovery and set
tlement of America ere shown an early
Viking galley of the same period as Lief
Ericssons voyage in 1901. constructed after
q ship excavated from Kings Mound' In
Norway: the Santa Maria in which Colum-
bus on October II. 1892, discovered one of
the Bahama Islands named by him San
Salvador, the first-found land of America;
the Susan Constant, one of the three ships
to bring to jamestown the first permanent
English settlers; the Half Moon Of Henry
Hudson. which conveyed the party OF eX-
plorers of the Dutch East India Company
in 1909 along the Atlantic coast from Maine
TO ' NirSlnla, the MlJIlOWeI OF the 'ltDi -4ii7'
and in a fitting case by itself the lih-year-
old survivor of many wars. the frisate Con
stitution "Old Ironsides," ordered rebuilt
and preserved by the last Congress
The development of land transportation
begins with very primitive devices rudely
constructed from material hewn from the
forest up to the stage coach and railroad
locomotive From the old Virginia tobacco
rolling hogshead used for transporting to-
bacco as early 1850, primitive sleds OF
early settlers, the Indian travOis and CO.
lonial chaise the story runs through differ
ent styles OF carts and ox-wagons stage
coaches. and the Conestoga wagon of the
AlIeghenies, to the beginnings of the loco
motive. Here are models OF famous en-
glnes, including Stevens locomotive OF 1875,
the hrSt locomotive in America of which
there is reliable record. the Tom Thumb
or Peter Cooper of Baltimore which in 1S29
drew car carrying twenty four passengers
distance of thirteen miles IN the phenom-
email time Of 81 minutes, the English Stour-
bridge Lion the American Best Friend, the
first locomotive built in America for actual !
use on a railroad us3D, the Baldwin loco |
motive Old Ironsldes, and the Sandusky.
Other inventions strictly American in |
their origin and perfection are the Morse
telegraph and the Bell speaking telephone |
the different forms of which from the very
beginning are ON exhibition. a special case
shows various features of the original work
of Prof Joseph Henry, first secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution. in his re-
searches In electrical science. Prof Henry
discovered and applied the magnetic prop
erty of electricity which has since been de-
veloped into so many different forms each
of vital Importance to mankind.
An exhibit which has attracted much
attention. especially from the many Of
fcials and men of the army and navy at
the exposition. is the collection of Ameri-