ce; they, poor things, will have to learn all about what _we_
have been doing, and if the world progresses as rapidly in history and
in science as it is doing now, I pity them. Not only will they have to
go back to Fulton but to him they will probably have to add a score of
other inventors."

Both boys joined in the steamboat man's hearty laugh.

"Well, who was Fulton, anyway, Mr. Ackerman?" Stephen persisted.

"If you want me to tell you that Robert Fulton was the first American to
make a successful steamboat I can give you that information in a
second," was the reply. "But if you wish to hear how he did it that is a
much longer story."

"I like stories," piped Dick from the corner of the couch where he was
sitting.

"So do I," echoed Steve.

"Then I see there is no help for me!" Mr. Ackerman answered, taking off
his spectacles and putting them into the case.

With an anticipatory smile Stephen seated himself on the great leather
divan beside the other boy.

"Before the steamboat came," began Mr. Ackerman, "you must remember that
paddle wheels had long been used, for both the Egyptians and the Romans
had built galleys with oars that moved by a windlass turned by the hands
of slaves or by oxen. Later there were smaller boats whose paddle wheels
were driven by horses. So you see paddle wheels were nothing new; the
world was just waiting for something that would turn them around. After
the Marquis of Worcester had made his steam fountain he suggested that
perhaps this power might be used to propel a boat but unfortunately he
died before any experiments with the idea could be made. Various
scientists, however, in Spain, France, England and Scotland caught up
the plan but after struggling unsuccessfully with it for a time
abandoned it as impractical. In 1802 Lord Dundas, a proprietor in one of
the English canals, made an encouraging start by using a tow-boat with
a paddle wheel at its stern. But alas, this contrivance kicked up such a
fuss in the narrow stream that it threatened to tear the banks along the
edge all to pieces and therefore it was given up and for ten years
afterward there was no more steamboating in England."

The boys on the couch chuckled.

"In the meantime in America thoughtful men were mulling over the problem
of steam navigation. Watt's engine had opened to the minds of inventors
endless possibilities; and the success of the early railroads made many
persons feel that a new era of science, w