. A sketch of the origin and progress of steam navigation from authentic documents. e following extractfrom the Columbian (Philadelphia) Magazine, vol. i. Dec. 1786,in which Fitch describes to the public the plan on which his pro-jected steam boat was to be built. The cylinder is to be horizon- tal, and the steam to work with equal force at each end. The modeby which we obtain what I call a vacuum, is, it is believed, entirelynew, as is also the method of letting the water into it, and throwingit off against the atmosphere without friction. It is expected that the cylinder, which is of twelve
. A sketch of the origin and progress of steam navigation from authentic documents. e following extractfrom the Columbian (Philadelphia) Magazine, vol. i. Dec. 1786,in which Fitch describes to the public the plan on which his pro-jected steam boat was to be built. The cylinder is to be horizon- tal, and the steam to work with equal force at each end. The modeby which we obtain what I call a vacuum, is, it is believed, entirelynew, as is also the method of letting the water into it, and throwingit off against the atmosphere without friction. It is expected that the cylinder, which is of twelve inches dia-meter, will move a clear force of 11 or 12 hundred weight after thefrictions are deducted: this force is to be directed against a wheel ofeighteen inches diameter. The piston is to move about three feet,and each vibration of it gives the axis about 40 evolutions. Eachevolution of the axis moves twelve oars or paddles five and a halffeet: they work perpendicularly, and are represented by the strokesof a paddle of a canoe. As six of the paddles are raised from the * A short Account of Steam Boats, by Dr. Thornton, Director of the Patent OflSce,Washington, United States.—Monthly Magazine, October, 1813. 48 STEAM NAVIGATION. 1789. 6. water six more are entered, and the two sets of paddles make theirstrokes of about eleven feet in each evolution. The crank of theaxis acts upon the paddles about one-third of their length from theirlower ends, on which part of the oar the whole force of the axis isapplied. The engine is placed in the bottom of the boat about one-third from the stern, and both the action and reaction turn the wheelthe same way. Fitch gives a particular account of the progress ofhis operations in steam from the first time that the thought occurredto him of using it to the completion of the boat, so far as to makenumerous experiments on the Delaware of the subsequent alterationsmade in the engine, and of the final abandonment of the scheme b
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