The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-29

of the steamboat, but it was he who gave 1t to the world as an accomplish ed fact and utility. Therefore he Is entitled to all the honors that have been bestowed upon him. The very first steamboat was built by William Henry of Lancaster. Penn, and was tried on the Canatoga river in 1763. It went to the bottom but MT. Henry still believed that steam could be successfully applied to navigation. The unfortunate John Fitch conceived the idea of steam navigation, although he did not know that there was such thing as a steam engine in the world. When he went before the Philadelphia Philosophical society he was told or MT Henry's boat and that Thomas Paine had also thought of the same thing.
 Fitch made a boat which was pro pelled by oars worked by steam power. It was successful In its trials at Phil adelphia. but the company which had been formed to back the enterprise declined to advance any more money on account of the public ridicule to which the new contrivance was sub iected. Fitch's successful experiments were made in 1786. Ten years later he died in Kentucky. believing firmly that although he had failed another sh ould bring his dreams to realiZa-
 
 tion.
 The first successful steamboat voyage was even earlier than Fftch's experi- ment In 17S4 the boat built by James Rumsey of Berkeley county, virginia (now West Virginia), made a success full trial trip on the Potomac river This experiment was witnessed by Gen. George Washington, who signed A certificate attesting it's success. But Mir. Rumsey was so anxious to keep secret the means by which he made boat go up stream as the rate or elgh. miles an hour, that the word steam was not used by him until after the Fitch experiments, The Rumsey ana Fitch entered into a bitter controversy The Ramsey boat was the first, but 1t was constructed on q principle which has never been of practical use, al- though tried many times. The Rumsey boat was propelled by the Jet sys- tem. the steam engine being used 10 force jets of water to the rear or the boat. thereby forcing the boat forward. Fitch's experiments were more useiui in that they were the actuai "a9o oh Fulton's success.
 The astonishing feature of the whole +hing Is that while Rumsey and Fitch had the patronage of such men us George Washington and Patrick Henry, they could not get anybody Wlth money to back their confidence with cash, Ihe case Is like that of the United States sovernment refusing to buy the whole electric telegraph system for Sl0O,0oo' despite the advocacy of men like Clay and Calhoun.
 Fulton was Pennsylvanian, an artist civil engineer and machinlst. He began his experiments with steam on the river Seine, in France, In lSos; under the patronage of Livingstone ana Joel Barlow. He returned to Amerlca in 1906 and began to make plans for the Clermont. The engines were made from Fulton's designs by Watts S Bolton. in England. and the hull was made by Charles Brown in East river. The ship was put together py Fulton. A great jeering crowd gath cred to see her make the first attempt to cross to the Jersey shore in a dead calm. To the crowds great surprise the Clearmont sailed off. caught her speed and made a comparatively fast crossing. Within a fortnight she was in regular packet duty between New York and Albany, and steam naviga- tion had come to stay.
 Tomorrow-The Worlds Cotton Con gress.