The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-05-11
Steam Navigation Makes
Rapid Strides Since Fulton

improvements has been that of cut
offs and cams entirely inside. taking
the motion from the cross-head and
connecting rod, thereby doing away
with cams on the shaft-which lessons
the danger of being fouled.
One of the greatest advances in
steamboat building was the use of
stcam-steering devices. thus doing
away with % quartermasters to han
die the big double steering-wheels in
the pilot house.
Sailors We're Envious.
AS to the construction or the steam
boat itself. the ''Clermont" was de-
scribed by one who was a passenger on
its first trip as having a hull like a
Long Island skiff. but. of course, deck
cd. II was $50 feet long. is feet beam
covered the boiler from the engine aft,
this same superstructure containing
the officers apartments. The BOAT
was Il side-wheeler. but Fulton did not.
inven! the paddle-wheel. as this de-
vic was used by the ancient Romans
and the Chinese. The famous vertical
wheel. an invention of Nicholas ].
Roosevelt of New York. a noted en-
gineer, is said to have made the
wheel was placed in the New Or
leans" four Years later. There were
no whccl-guards at first, but as cnvi-
Gus sloop shippers tookff delight in
fouling the vessel. Fulton added beams
and a cover for the paddle. Tho rud-
der was similar to that of a sailing
vessel and was worked by a wheel.
The Clarcmont averaged tive miles
an hour. covering the $50 miles be-
tween New York city and Albany in
50 hours. Masts with sails had been
Installed on this pioneer steamer. but
We're of no service on the initial trip.
as the wind was tho wrong way. Of
this Noyag Fulton said at the time:
"Although prospect of personal en-
me. Yet | feel infinitely more pleas
ure i'm rejecting IN the immense adj
vantage my country will derive from
the invention"
second an Auxiliary.
About 1916 Fulton built the Chan
cellor Livingston, named after his
financial hacker in the Clermont and
an advance over either of these in
size; had engines of I5-horsepowcr,
and made eight and one-half miles
an hour against the Hudson. 1t car
ried three masts. a. howsprlt, a .jib-
boom and Yard topsails on the fore
mast.
The New Orleans. the first steam
boat built for and navigated on the
western rivers-and the centenary of
which was the occasion of the Pitts
burg celebration October ii last-was
LIS feet Keel. ZIG feet length, 20 feet
beam and of 400 tons burden. She
Was a Stern-wheefer With engine of "a
inch cylinder. Painted blue the craft
was said to have resembled a Dutch
barn" She cost $3S.O 600. There were
tWomasts M a big smokestack. The
| ladies' c.iI hin, ~, ,rici,,, fn,,,. l,o,tl,.
was aft, and the gentlcmcn's cabin
forward. She started OH her first voy-
age the last part of September, 1911,
and arrived at her destination, Nat
chez. safe and sound. In the winter of
1872 h made her first trip to New
Orleans. taking IA days. Two years
later she struck a snag near Baton
Rouge and sank.
Tn" second Western steamboat was
the Comet, OF % tons; the third the
NcsuNius. owned by Fulton. The
fourth was the Enterprise. All were
built at or near Pittsburg.
One of the able contemporaries of
Fulton was Robert l.. stevens, the in
Nentor of the concave wHter-linc boat.
He also devised the ''hog-frame" to
prevent boats sinking i'll the middle
and the other bracing and fastening
effects.
Double Decker Appears.
Captain Shrevc was the first builder
10 produce doublc-dcck steam boat
the WASHINGTON, already mentioned.
He ais" devised the hurricane-dcck
over the boilers. The Texas" on this
deck. tn accommodate the officers and
cabin crew. came after the building of
The Washington. Likewise the mig
ger and st~ase-plank. The feathering
of the wheels WAS a very important
Improvement. Methods of lighting
NAY" Kept pace with the advance in
boat design and machinery. From
Kerosene cabin lamps to gas lighting
from cumbersome gas machines: and
Then to electric illumination from the
steamers own plant. is a long stride
The first steamboat on the great
lakes was the Observation-Disclosures
named after an Indian chief and put
in service on Lake Erie in 1919. The
first trip it made WAS to Mackinaw.
Eight years later the first steamer on
was the expansion of the boat build
no less than three hundred steam
boats in the United States. BY 1850
eight hundred steam vessels piled reg
ulhrlN on the Mississippi and Ohio
rivers. AT Pittsburg alone between
ISL and 1S33 no less than 1876 steam1
boats We're built and from 1858 to
1879. 649 We're built. Last year more
than 10000 craft piled regularly on
tn" mississippi and Ohio and their
tributaries of which more than 1.40O
were steam vessels of five tons and
upward. After the Inauguration of