He turned to a case and drew out a peg.

He then said, "Gentlemen, this torpedo is all ready to blow up a
vessel.

It contains one hundred and seventy pounds of powder.

The clockwork is now running.

If I should allow it to run fifteen minutes it would blow us all to
atoms."

His audience was much frightened.

They all ran away.

Mr. Fulton put the peg back in its place.

He told them it was then safe.

Not until then did they dare come back.

But now our giant, Steam, became the friend of Mr. Fulton.

Many had tried to put this giant to work.

But at first he seemed rather hard to teach.

Long before, a poet had written these lines, which show how much
people hoped to make the giant do:--

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquered Steam, afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car."

It was a true prophecy.

Mr. Fulton married the daughter of a Mr. Walter Livingston.

This Mr. Livingston had a relative who was a great man, and a rich
man.

He was much interested in all inventions.

He often helped inventors with his money.

He had long believed that boats could be moved by steam.

At one time the state of New York gave him the right of all steam
boats for twenty years.

He was given the right if he would get one steam boat running within
a year.

But the year passed and the boat was not built.

Everybody made fun of his "grand rights."

At this time our government made him our minister to France.

There he met Robert Fulton for the first time.

And in Paris Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton made a steam boat.

When it was finished they invited their friends to come and see it
tried.

Early upon the morning when they hoped to succeed, a messenger came.

He bore sad news.

The new boat had broken in two.

The machinery was too heavy for it.

It had sunk to the bottom of the river Seine.

Mr. Fulton had not had his breakfast.

He hurried to the river.

He worked standing in the cold water.

In twenty-four hours he had saved the machinery, and some other
parts of the boat.

But it made him ill.

He never was so strong again.

Of course he felt greatly discouraged.

They went to work again.

They built another boat.

This was a success.

It was sixty-six feet long, and moved by wheels on the side.

Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton decided to try again in America upon
the Hudson River.

Mr. Livingston was given again the same privileges by the State of
New Y