The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1907-10-17

,r..s ~ ~ ssss~ - = , ~
Napoleon, Grant and Lee; inventors
from Archimedes TO Fulton and Edison;
artista from Rubens and Millet to St.
Gaudens; martyrs from Savonafols to
Lincoln and all the other uncrowned
kings of the earth whose glorious
deeds make history luminous and CIV
ilization possible.
Robert Fulton, whose talented hand
and master mind made possible the
ocean greyhound of today. was born in
1765 IN the town of Little Britain, Pa.
In later years, in honor of the memory
of her illnstriOus son, the name was
changed and the town is now known
as Fulton. Fulton was descended
from Scotch-Irish stock his family had
been established for centuries in the
land of the Thistle, but one branch emf
grated to Ireland when the Scotch were
going there in large numbers, and from
this viriie stock the great inventor
gained his aggressiveness and the push
which stood him in such great stead
when with the great idea throbbing in
his brain, friends and believers were so
few and doubters and scoffers SO plen-
tiful. Fulton never claimed to have
conceived the idea of the steamboat,
nor did he claim to be the first man
who had propelled craft by steam.
In fact he followed long line of ex-
perimenters who had been vainiy
working for more than century, bat
he did claim to be the originator of the
walking beam and it is fact that the
boat to which he applied this principle
was q success.
1t il far cry from the little Cler-
| mont, one hundred and thirty feet
in length, with her one sheet iron boil
tef incased 10 solid masonry: the one
cylinder arranged in an upright posi-
ton, the piston being connected with
one end OF a walking beam, the other
end of which was in turn connected
with the crank shaft which drove the
paddle wheels arranged on either eide
| OF the bJat; to the gigantic Lnsitania,
100 feet in length, or more than six
times as long as the CiermOnt; with
her mighty turbine engines capable af
| developing 5000 horsepower and able
to drive her thru the protesting waters
of the sullen Atlantic at speed of
twepty-eight and three-quarter miles
per hour, speed attained by few and
exceeded by none of the local paesen-
ger trains now running on the railways
Of the Northwest; with her 50 feet
breadth of beam; almost as wide rs tie
beautiful and famous Michigan Ave
| nue. In Chicago; with her moulded
depth of sixty feet; with her bridge at
an equal altitude from the surface of
| the water as Is the top Of a skyscraper
from the level os the street; with the
eating, sleeping and pleasure-taking
accommodations for three thousand
passengers, to say nothing of her crew;
with her electric freight and passenger
elevators, ice machines, electric light
plant, triple steering gear, and the
thousand and one other necessities and
luxuries that 60 to make up one of
these floating palaces which have
brought the people of the Old and New
World within one hundred and twenty
hours of each other, but 1t is interest
Ling and instructive to reflect that with
out the master mind that made the
former fact the latter might not have
been possible, at least in our day and
aye.
| The Clermont was constructed in q
shipyard on East River during the
winter of 18O8-07 The builder was
Charles Brown, who later gained fame
and fortnBe by constructing so many
of Faiton's steamers. In Washington
there is model of the Clermont ia
the Smithsonian Institute. If l may
be permitted to Judge it differs very
much from the pictures Of the Cler-
mont that have come down to US. The
friend who guided me said thu model
was built not so many years ago ac-
cording. to Fulton's plans, but it is Of
course possible that the original boat
was not built according to the plans;
Fulton's active brain may perhaps hare
discovered where improvements could
be made so the changes we're made in
lthe boat bat the plans we're left un-