delivered
before the Mechanics' Institute, Broadway, New York, in December, 1851,
claims for Fulton "the application of a known force _in a new manner,
and to new and before unthought-of purposes_." Now what are the real
facts? James Watt, in 1769, patented the double-acting engine, which
was the first step by which the steam-engine was made capable of being
used to propel a vessel. In 1780, James Pickard patented what is no
other than the present connecting rod and crank, and a fly-wheel, the
second and last great improvement in the steam-engine, which enabled it
to be of service in propelling vessels.[CI] In 1785, William Symington
took out a patent, by which he obtained, with economy of fuel, a more
perfect method of condensation of steam and a more perfect vacuum.

In 1787, Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, a gentleman who had spent a fortune
of nearly 30,000l. in ship-building experiments, was urged by Mr.
Taylor to try and apply the power of steam to vessels. William Symington
was applied to, with the view of knowing if he could apply his engine to
one of Mr. Miller's boats, which he accordingly did, and propelled a
little pleasure vessel on the lake at Dalswinton, at the rate of five
miles an hour, on the 14th November, 1788. In the following year, Mr.
Symington made a double engine for a boat to be tried upon the Forth and
Clyde Canal; and in the month of December, 1789, this trial-vessel was
propelled at the rate of six and a half miles an hour. Lord Dundas, who
was a large proprietor in the Forth and Clyde Canal, employed Symington
to make experiments in 1801. The result of these trials was the
construction of the "Charlotte Dundas," the first practical steam-boat
ever built. The engines of this vessel combined the patents before
mentioned of Watt, Pickard, and Symington, which combinations--made by
the latter patentee--constitute the present system of steam navigation.
The "Charlotte Dundas" made her trial trip in March, 1802, and so
satisfactory was the trial, that the Duke of Bridgewater ordered eight
boats of Symington, for the purpose of running on his canal. The Duke of
Bridgewater died immediately after; and the Forth and Clyde proprietors,
owing to the injury caused to the banks, discontinued the use of the
boat. The foregoing observations prove that if any one individual can
claim the merit of inventing the steam-engine, that man is William
Symington, who, combining previous inventions with his own patent,