Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-20
TYPES OF STEAMBOATS,
IN NATIONAL MUSEUM
Collection of Five Hundred Models
Illustrates Progress in Water
Transportation.
Efforts to Establish Utility Of Steam
on Potomac River and
Rock Creek.

oHc oi the interesting historical anu
educational exhibits in the United States
National Museum at Washington is the
collection illustrating water transporta-
tion-comprising about 800 models of
various types from different countries
which fills one principal exhibition hall
IN the old National Museum building. A
press statement from the Smithsonian
Institution makes this comment:
Conspicuous in this collection are the
steamboat models and machinery, espe-
cialiy of the boats invented and built i'll
the United States at an early date. each
of which. at one time or another. has
been claimed as the first steamboat 1t
is now held. however. that there was no
individual first steamboat but there were
several patented at the same time. As
early the latter part of the seven
teeath century various suggestions were
made relative to the propulsion of vessels
BY steam power. and various experiments
were tried. The most important of these
experiments were carried on in this
country.
Credit to Jonathan Hulls.
TO Jonathan Hulls, an Englishman, a
certain amount of credit is due for work
1851 he issued a pamphlet, with drawings,
showing how TO apply steam power in
driving a stern-wheeled towboat Hulls
proposed to use the engine which New
comen improved from the experiments of
Papin ana Slavery. but it was not until
somewhat later, after Watt had further
improved ii, that Fitch. Rumsey, Stevens
Fulton, Livingston, Millar, Symngton and
others conducted the experiments which
formed the basis for an actual steam
boat.
During the years 1IS3 to 1871 John
itcn undertook several experiments near
Philadelphia, the first of which was a
scheme for driving Il boat by means of
a series of vertical paddles arranged
along Its sides and operated by cranks
ana longitudinal arms. Following this
arrangement the series of paddles was
made continuous by the use of a side
wheel. which proved an important ad-
vance. Fltch's first commercial success
was the establishment of a steamboat
iine IN LIDO between Philadelphia and
burlington. Bristol Bordentown and
trenton. which was the first line of this
sort IN America The report or rather
advertisement. of the sailing of this line
- To DC seen in copy of the Federal
Gazette and Philadelphia Advertiser dat
Ell July - 1870, which is preserved in
ihe museum Together with Nathan
Read, James Rumsey and John Stevens,
tltch received one of the first steam
boat patents from the United States The
patent office issued simultaneous patents
10 each OF these men August ii. 1911
Experiments in 1857.
In lis7 experimental work was done
IN planning boats. propelIers. etc. by
James Rumsey, who attempted to design
a boat to be propelled through shallow
water BY means of poles operated me-
nan IN lie
fashion employed by boatmen. Next he
Planned steam engine TO pump water
from the river and force il out at the
stern below the water line thus propel-
ling the boat ahead. Some of his experi-
Tnents were made on the Potomac river
near Shepherdstown, w Va. where a
monument has been erected to his MEM
ory Dy ms enthusiastic friends. He never
pursued his experiments further and il
cannot De said that he invented or built
a steamboat. The museum collection in
Guides model of his water-ejection boat
During the revolution another expert
ment was tried by man named Nicholas
- Roosevelt. with boat named after
himself. wherein he tested the opera ion
OF vertical paddle wheels driven bv
means of line wound about a drum on
a shaft and unwound by a pole acting
as a spring. This was simply means
Of testing the practicabiity of paddle
wheels and the power derived from them
In 1891 he worked with Livingston and
stevens on an experimental boat: in 1869
ne entered into partnership with Fulton
and in ISL built the New Orleans
In 1iSS Nathan Read conceived the
idea OF utilizing the steam engine for the
propelling of boats and carriages. and
began series of experiments which re-
suited in the invention Gin 1850 of the
vertical multitubular fifebox boiler pat
ented August IS, 1871, and now in gem
eral use.