make the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans—about 1,200 miles—in four days, and can make, in still water, more than twenty miles an hour.
In the East, we have a form of engine which is distinctively known as the American steamboat-engine. It is shown in Fig. 62.
Fig. 62.—The American Beam-Engine.
This engine is recognized throughout the engineering world as one of the most complete and thoroughly perfected of known types of steam-engine.
106. This peculiarly effective and easy-working engine, and the equally peculiar vessel (Fig. 63) which is usually impelled by it, are, in all their peculiarities, characteristically American.
The "skeleton-beam," which is one of the prominent features, was first used by Robert L. Stevens on the ferry-boat Hoboken, in 1822.
The valve-gear is usually that known as the "Stevens valve-gear." It was invented by Messrs. Robert L. and Francis B. Stevens, in 1841. The "gallows-frame" took its present form in the hands of
