al, but it proved too
weak for its machinery, which had to be taken out.

It was in the face of these failures that Fulton applied himself to the
task of designing a successful steamboat. During his residence in Paris
he had made the acquaintance of Mr. Robert R. Livingston, then the
American minister in France, who had previously been connected with some
unsuccessful steamboat experiments at home. Mr. Livingston was delighted
to find a man of Fulton's mechanical genius so well satisfied of the
practicability of steam navigation, and joined heartily with him in his
efforts to prove his theories by experiments. Several small working
models made by Fulton convinced Mr. Livingston that the former had
discovered and had overcome the cause of the failure of the experiments
of other inventors, and it was finally agreed between them to build a
large boat for trial on the Seine. This experimental steamer was
furnished with paddle wheels, and was completed and launched early in
the spring of 1803. On the very morning appointed for the trial, Fulton
was aroused from his sleep by a messenger from the boat, who rushed into
his chamber, pale and breathless, exclaiming, "Oh, sir, the boat has
broken in pieces and gone to the bottom!" Hastily dressing and hurrying
to the spot, he found that the weight of the machinery had broken the
boat in half and carried the whole structure to the bottom of the river.
He at once set to work to raise the machinery, devoting twenty-four
hours, without resting or eating, to the undertaking, and succeeded in
doing so, but inflicted upon his constitution a strain from which he
never entirely recovered. The machinery was very slightly damaged, but
it was necessary to rebuild the boat entirely. This was accomplished by
July of the same year, and the boat was tried in August with triumphant
success, in the presence of the French National Institute and a vast
crowd of the citizens of Paris.

This steamer was very defective, but still so great an improvement upon
all that had preceded it, that Messrs. Fulton and Livingston determined
to build one on a larger scale in the waters of New York, the right of
navigating which by steam vessels had been secured by the latter as far
back as 1798. The law which granted this right had been continued from
time to time through Mr. Livingston's influence, and was finally amended
so as to include Fulton within its provisions. Having resolved to return
home, Fulton set out