was the main point. A principle had been established. Therefore the citizens lifted up their voices in exultant hosanna, tossed their hats aloft, embraced one another with enthusiasm and unanimously admitted, once more, that they were indeed a very great people. They thought they were cheering Robert Fulton and his steamboat, whereas they were applauding a progress in popular judgment and the excellence of their own discrimination. This was no madman puttering at Conjurer's Point, but a benefactor of his race. So ran the verdict.

The Clermont steamed to Albany1 on her first trip in thirty-two hours against a head wind that prevented the use of her sails, and came back to New York in thirty hours. She stopped at night, and four and a half days were consumed in making the entire experiment. A description of the appearance of the craft on the water and of the excitement she created along the shores of the river and among other shipping on the stream was later written by one who had, as a boy, beheld the boat.2 The account says:

3

"It was in the early autumn of the year 1807 that a knot of villagers was gathered on a high bluff just opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west bank of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a strange darklooking craft which was slowly making its way up the river. Some imagined it to be a sea-monster, whilst others did not hesitate to express their belief that it was a sign of the approaching judgment. What seemed strange in the vessel was the substitution of lofty and straight smoke-pipes, rising from the deck, instead of the gracefully tapered masts that commonly stood on the vessels navigating the stream, and, in place of the spars and rigging, the curious play of the walkingbeam and pistons, and the slow turning and splashing of the huge and naked paddle-wheels, met the astonished gaze. The dense clouds of smoke, as they rose wave upon wave, added still more to the wonderment of the rustics. This strange looking craft was the Clermont on her trial trip to Albany.

1 A distance of about 160 miles.

2 The author of the narrative was H. Freeland. It was published by Reigart, one of the biographers of the "Clermont's" builder, in his "Life of Robert Fulton," Phila., 1856. 3 The "Clermont" left New York at 1 p. m. on August 7, 1807.

"On her return trip the curiosity she excited was scarcely less intense the whole country talked of nothing but the sea-monster, belching forth fire and smoke. The fishermen became terrified, and rowed homewards, and they saw nothing but destruction devastating their fishing grounds, whilst the wreaths of black vapor and rushing noise' of the paddle wheels, foaming with the stirred-up waters, produced great excitement amongst the boatmen, until . the character of that curious boat and the nature of the enterprise which she was pioneering had been ascertained. From that time Robert Fulton, Esq., became known and respected as the author and builder of the first steam packet, from which we plainly see the rapid improvement in commerce and civilization. Who can doubt that Fulton's first packet boat has become the model steamer? Except in finer finish and greater size there is no difference between it and the splendid steamships now crossing the Atlantic. Who can doubt that Fulton saw the meeting of all nations upon his boats, gathering together in unity and harmony, that the 'freedom of the seas would be the happiness of the earth?' 1 Who can doubt that Fulton saw the world circumnavigated by steam, and that his invention was carrying the messages of freedom to every land that no man could tell all its benefits, or describe all its wonders? What a wonderful achievement! What a splendid triumph! Fulton was a man of unparalleled foresight and perseverance. His character and genius rise higher in our estimation, and still more grandly before our minds, the more we contemplate him.

Just as the pack-train drivers of a former time fought the introduction of wagons on the early roads of Pennsylvania, so did the sailing vessels of the Hudson uselessly seek to retard the general introduction of steamboats by working injury to the Clermont. The men who for years had earned their bread on the sloops which until then enjoyed a monopoly of river traffic recognized the significance of the steam craft. In revolt at the new conditions it foretold they sought to disable the boat and to discredit her performances and make her an unpopular vehicle of travel. Several times she was run down and damaged in that manner, but no grave injury resulted. Occasionally she had a paddle wheel knocked off bodily.

2

1 A favorite expression used by Fulton.

2 Thurlow Weed was one who began his career as cabin-boy on a Hudson River sailing packet, and was so engaged when the "Clermont" appeared. But his mind was not of the caliber to resent such an innovation.

2

In commenting on the attacks one of the inventor's biographers1 has said: "It is not important to notice these facts; they illustrate the character of Mr. Fulton. They show what embarrassments are to be expected by those

Built

103.-The Walk-in-the-Water, first steamboat on the Great Lakes. near Buffalo in 1818, under license from the Fulton-Livingston Company. From a drawing made for use on the bills-of-lading printed for the boat, and reproduced in Hurlbut's monograph.

who introduce improvements in the arts which interfere with established interests or prejudices; and they evince the perseverance and resolution which were necessary to surmount the physical and moral difficulties which Mr. Fulton encountered. Sneered at by his own countrymen, called knave, fool and enthusiast, yet he bravely lived all opposition down."

1 Reigart.

The Clermont prospered in spite of all jealousies.1 During the remainder of the year 1807 she continued to be run as a passenger boat, always crowded with enthusiastic voyagers eager to avail themselves of the wonderful new system of conveyance, who paid scant heed to her slow speed and occasional breakdowns. In the winter of 1807-1808 the boat was rebuilt and in the succeeding spring resumed her popular career. Tales of her existence and exploits on the Hudson were published and commented upon in all the newspapers of the country, and the inhabitants of every section where navigable rivers were the chief arteries of travel displayed an anxiety to acquire a similar means of locomotion. Within a short time the recognized necessity of steam as an indispensable motive power in transportation assumed all the quality of an immemorial axiom. A clamor for steamboats arose, and the people could not understand how they had ever got along without them.

Nevertheless there was a delay of more than sixteen years before the use of steam propulsion became widely prevalent, and the underlying reason for that halt on the way toward further progress is to be found, most singularly, in the circumstances leading to the appearance of the Clermont.

Fulton's first boat, however suddenly and unexpectedly it seemed to the public to drop from the realms of unreality into the knowledge and use of men, was not the creation of a day or a year. It was, on the contraryand perhaps to a greater degree than any other similarly epoch-opening device-the product of many minds and of a long series of strange and devious circumstances.

1 After a number of attempts had been made to disable her the paddle-wheels were enclosed and protected by heavy timbers. The hostility shown toward the vessel by river boatmen was proof of the popular endorsement given to the craft, rather than otherwise.

104. The first form of the bicycle, introduced from Europe, was contemporary with Fulton's steamboats in the East. The contrivance merely sustained the weight of the body, and progress was made by pushing the ground with the feet. It was variously called the Velocipede, Accelerator, Draisena, Hobby Horse and Dandy Carriage. Baltimore was the American center for its manufacture, and a specimen, made of wrought iron and hardwood, cost $30. By 1819 the use of the velocipede had spread as far west as Louisville.

At least sixteen steamboats had been built in America before the launching of the Clermont, fifteen of which had previously been operated under their own power by the eight different men who had designed them. Nor were Americans first in the field. A list in chronological order of some of the early experiments follows:

The first known contemporary evidence showing the application of steam power to water craft as a means of propulsion is to be found in connection with Denis Papin, a French scientist and engineer, who invented and built a steamboat while residing in the principality of Hesse, in Germany, in the year 1707. His demonstration of steam navigation having brought abuse upon him, he