scientific calculation, he never could carry into practice. Owing to an imperfection in even his mechanical skill, he scarcely ever made one part of a model suit the rest, so that many designs, after a great deal of pains and expense, were successively abandoned. He was, in short, the hero of a thousand blunders and one success." The idea of propelling vessels by means of steam early took possession of his mind. "In 1800 (he writes) I applied to Lord Melville, on purpose to show his lordship and the other members of the Admiralty, the practicability and great utility of applying steam to the propelling of vessels against winds and tides, and every obstruction on rivers and seas, where there was depth of water." Disappointed in this application, he repeated the attempt in 1803, with the same result, notwithstanding the emphatic declaration of the celebrated Lord Nelson, who, addressing their lordships on the occasion, said, "My Lords, if you do not adopt Mr Bell's scheme, other nations will, and in the end vex every vein of this empire. It will succeed (he added), and you should encourage Mr Bell." Having obtained no support in this country, Bell forwarded copies of the prospectus of his scheme to the different nations of Europe, and to the United States of America. "The Americans," he writes, "were the first who put my plan into practice, and were quickly followed by other nations." The various attempts which preceded that of Boll are briefly noticed in the "Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Steam-Boats, June, 1822, Sir Henry Parnell, chairman." Mentioning the following as experimenters, namely, Mr Jonathan Hulls, in 1736; the Duke of Bridgewater, on the Manchester and Runcorn canal; Mr Miller of Dalswinton; tho Marquis de Jouffroy (a French nobleman), in 1781; Lord Stanhope, in 1795; and Mr Symington and Mr Taylor, on the Forth and Clyde canal, in 1801-2; the Report proceeds—"These ingenious men made valuable experiments, and tested well the mighty power of steam. Still no practical uses resulted from any of these attempts. It was not till the year 1807, when the Americans began to use steamboats on their rivers, that their safety and utility were first proved. But the merit of constructing these boats is due to natives of Great Britain. Mr Henry Bell of Glasgow gave the first model of them to the late Mr Fulton of America, and corresponded regularly with Fulton on the subject. Mr Bell continued to turn his talents to the improving of steam apparatus, and its application to various manufactures about Glasgow; and in 1811, constructed the Comet steam-boat."
The launching of the first American steam boat on the Hudson, and the first British steam-boat on the Clyde, was the commencement of the application of Watt's great discovery as a locomotive power. Already the improvement of the steam-engine had given a new impulse to manufacturing industry, which only required a more peaceable era to develope itself in boundless progression. But the improved steam-engine was now also to bo employed in increasing the rapidity and regularity of conveyance by water, and in uniting the most remote parts of the globe in social and commercial relationship. It was destined also, before the lapse of many years, to accelerate the speed of travelling by land to a degree which had not been imagined by the most sanguine; and from the united influence of both was to be evoked that most astonishing discovery of all, which, literally annihilating time and space, makes the lightning itself the medium of communication throughout continents, and across arms of the sea. It is remarkable, as Dr. Lardner has observed, that the introduction of steam navigation is due to the intelligence of men "none of whom shared those privileges of mental culture enjoyed by the favoured sons of wealth; none of whom grew up within the walls of schools or colleges, drawing inspiration from the fountains of ancient learning; " but "sustained by that innate consciousness of power, stimulated by that irrepressible force of will, so eminently characteristic of minds of the first order, they, in their humble
