rt time, a passage-boat, rowed by a
steam-engine, was established between Borden-town and Philadelphia,
but it was soon laid aside. The best and most powerful steam-engine
which has been employed for this purpose--excepting, perhaps, one
constructed by Dr. Kinsey, with the performance of which I am not
sufficiently acquainted--belonged to a gentleman of New York. It
was made to act, by way of experiment, upon oars, upon paddles, and
upon flutter-wheels. Nothing in the success of any of these
experiments appeared to be sufficient compensation for the expense
and the extreme inconvenience of the steam-engine in the vessel.

There are, indeed, general objections to the use of the
steam-engine for impelling boats, from which no particular mode of
application can be free. These are:

First. The weight of the engine and of the fuel.

Second. The large space it occupies.

Third. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel, and render it
leaky.

Fourth. The expense of maintenance.

Fifth. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion of the water
in the boiler and cistern, and of the fuel-vessel in rough water.

Sixth. The difficulty arising from the liability of the paddles and
oars to break, if light, and from the weight, if made strong.

Nor have I ever heard of an instance, verified by other testimony
than that of the inventor, of a speedy and agreeable voyage having
been performed in a steamboat of any construction.

I am well aware that there are still many very respectable and
ingenious men who consider the application of the steam-engine to
the purpose of navigation as highly important, and as very
practicable, especially on the rapid waters of the Mississippi, and
who would feel themselves almost offended at the expression of an
opposite opinion. And, perhaps, some of the objections against it
may be avoided. That founded on the expense and weight of the fuel
may not, for some years, exist on the Mississippi, where there is a
redundance of wood on the banks; but the cutting and loading will
be almost as great an evil.

Scientific men and amateurs all agreed in pronouncing Fulton's scheme
impracticable; but he went on with his work, his boat attracting no less
attention and exciting no less ridicule than the ark had received from
the sco