Stories of Useful Inventions

The raft was bound to develop into the large boat. The central log was used as a keel and about this was built a boat of the desired shape and size. Stout timbers, called ribs, slanted from the keel, and on the ribs were fastened planks running lengthwise with the vessel. To keep out the water the seams between the planks were filled with pitch or wax. Thus the raft grew into a large spoon-shaped vessel (Fig. 5). The early boat was usually propelled by oars, although a single sail sometimes invoked the assistance of the wind. It had no rudder and no deck, and if there was an anchor it was only a heavy stone.

FIG. 5. – "THUS THE RAFT GREW INTO A LARGE, SPOON-SHAPED VESSEL."

FIG. 6. – THE POSITION OF THE RUDDER IN ANCIENT TIMES.

In the early history of the boat there was no such thing as a rudder. The oarsman had to steer his craft as best he could. With the appearance of larger boats, however, a steersman comes into view. He steers by means of a paddle held over the stern of the boat. Within historic times, probably about the time of Homer (1100 B. C.), the rudder appears as an oar with a broad blade protruding through a hole in the side of the boat well to the stern (Fig. 6). Throughout the whole period of ancient history boats were steered by rudders of this kind.

FIG. 7. – ANCIENT ANCHORS.

The anchor came later than the rudder. Of course even in primitive times there were methods of securing the vessel to the ground under water but they were very crude. Sometimes a sack of sand was used as an anchor, sometimes a log of wood covered with lead was thrown overboard to hold the boat in its place. In Homer's time the anchor was a bent rod with a single fluke. About 600 B. C. Anacharsis, one of the seven wise men of Greece, gave a practical turn to his wisdom and invented an anchor with two flukes (Fig. 7). The invention received the name of "anchor" from the name of the inventor.

FIG. 8. – A ROMAN GALLEY OF ONE TIER OF OARS, INTRODUCING THE RUDDER.

FIG. 9. – A ROMAN GALLEY WITH THREE BANKS OF OARS.

It was in the Mediterranean Sea that the boat had its most rapid development. As early as we can get a glimpse of that wonderful body of water it was alive with boats (called galleys) that had well-laid keels and lofty sides, and rudders, and sails. The greatest of the earlier navigators were the Phœnicians whose boats had traversed 5,000 years ago the whole course of the Mediterranean and had even ventured beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The ancient Greeks also were a great sea-going people, and their merchantmen or trading boats visited every part of the known world. But it was the Romans who at last became masters of the ancient seas. The Roman galley, therefore, may be taken as the representative boat of ancient times. What kind of a boat was the Roman galley? It was propelled chiefly by oars, just as nearly all the boats of antiquity were. Occasionally a sail was hoisted when the wind was favorable but the main reliance was the rower's arm. Men had not yet learned to use the sail to the best advantage. The older galleys had one row of oarsmen (Fig. 8), but as the struggle for the mastery of the sea became keener the boats were made larger and more rowers were necessary. Galleys with two and three, and even four rows of oarsmen were built by the Roman navy. When there was more than one row of oars the rowers sat on benches one above another. The oarsmen were slaves or prisoners captured in war, and their life was most wretched.18 They were chained to the benches on which they sat, and were compelled to row as long as a spark of life was left. Sometimes they dipped their oars to the music of the flute, but more often it was to the crack of the lash. Figure 9 shows us how the Roman galley looked when Rome was at the height of her power (100 A. D.). Here is a vessel about 400 feet long and about 50 feet across its deck, a part of the boat, by the by, which was not to be seen in the earlier galleys. The boat is a trireme, that is, it has openings for three tiers of oars, and it is propelled by several hundred oarsmen. For steering purposes it has four stout paddles, two on each side near the stern. Two masts instead of one carry the sail which, considering the size of the boat, would seem to be insufficient. This galley of the first century of our era represents the full development of the boat in ancient times.

FIG. 10. – THE SHIP IN WHICH WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR CROSSED THE CHANNEL IN 1066.

After the downfall of Rome (476 A. D.) it was a long time before there was any real progress in boat-making. The glimpses we get now and then of vessels in the Middle Ages almost make us feel that boat-building was going backward rather than forward. But such was not the case. The ship in which William of Normandy sailed (Fig. 10) when he crossed over the Channel to give battle to Harold (1066 A. D.) was not so impressive as a Roman galley, yet it was, nevertheless, a better boat. In the first place William's boat was a better sailer; it relied more upon the force of the wind and less upon the oar. In the second place, it could be steered better, for the rudder had found its way to its proper place and was worked by a tiller. Finally, the shape of the Norman boat fitted it for fiercer battles with the waves.

FIG. 11. – A MEDITERRANEAN GALLEY OF THE 14TH CENTURY.

If we should pass from the English Channel to the Adriatic we should find that boat-making had undergone the same changes. A Mediterranean galley of the fourteenth century (Fig. 11) shows fewer oars and more sails. Instead of three rows of oars and two sails as on the Roman galley, there are three sails and one row of oars. This was the tendency of the boat-builder in the Middle Ages; he crowded on the sail and took off the rowers. A war-boat of the sixteenth century (Fig. 12) shows that the last row of oarsmen has disappeared.

FIG. 12. – A WAR-BOAT OF THE 16TH CENTTURY, SHOWING THAT THE LAST ROW OF OARS HAD DISAPPEARED.

FIG. 13. – A CHINESE COMPASS. AS THE CART MOVED THE HUMAN FIGURE IN FRONT ALWAYS POINTED NORTH.

About the middle of the thirteenth century there began to appear on the decks of vessels almost everywhere in Europe, a little instrument that is of the greatest importance in the history of the boat. This was the mariner's compass. The use of the magnetic needle was known in China (Fig. 13) a thousand years before it was known to the Europeans, but in this, as in many other instances, the Chinese did not profit by their knowledge. Sailors have always sailed at night by the North star; but before the use of the compass was understood they could little more than guess their way when the night was dark and the stars could not be seen. With a mariner's needle on board they can tell the direction they are going no matter how dark the night. We can easily understand that sailors prized very highly the discovery of the compass. With the appearance of this faithful guide they became bolder and bolder and were soon venturing out upon the trackless expanse of the ocean. It was the compass that led to the discovery of the new world, for without it no sailor could have held his course due west long enough to reach the American coast.

After men had learned to carry their burdens on the broad back of the ocean, boat-building took on new life. All the great nations of Europe wanted a share in the new world that had just been found; but no nation could hope to profit greatly by the discovery of Columbus if its vessels were not swift and strong. So there arose a grim contest for the mastery of the Atlantic, just as in ancient times there had been a struggle for the mastery of the Mediterranean. Spain, France, Portugal, Holland and England all joined in the battle. When we see the kind of boats she sent out upon the oceans we are not surprised that England won. Compare the heavy, angular galley of the first century with the graceful ship of the sixteenth century and we see at once the progress the boat made in the Middle Ages (Fig. 14).

FIG. 14. – THE GREAT HARRY.

The log, the raft, the galley, the sailing-ship, these were the steps in the development of the boat up to the end of the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century another step was taken. You remember that in that century inventors were everywhere trying to make a steam carriage. They were at the same time trying to make a steam boat. Their efforts to use steam to drive boats were rewarded with success earlier than were their efforts to use it to draw carriages. This was to be expected. Boat-building has always moved along faster than carriage-building. Men were gliding about in well-built canoes before they had even the clumsiest of carts. The Londoners who gazed with admiration upon the Great Harry as it sailed on the Thames, had never seen as much as a lumbering coach. And so with the steamboat; it had crossed the Atlantic before the locomotive could carry passengers from one town to the next.

FIG. 15. – THE MARQUIS OF JOUFFROY'S STEAMBOAT, 1783.

France, England, Germany and America were all eager to have the first steamboat. In this race America won, although France and England came out with their colors flying. As far back as 1663 the Marquis of Worcester, of whom we have heard before (p. 59), described a vessel that could be moved by steam: "It roweth," he said, "it draweth, it driveth (if needs be) to pass London bridge against the stream at low water." It was one thing, however, to describe a steamboat, and quite another thing to make one. Worcester's steam-vessel existed only in the imagination of the inventor. Denys Papin, who did so much for the steam-engine, fitted out a boat with revolving paddles which were turned by horses. This was nothing new. The ancient Roman galley was sometimes propelled by paddle-wheels turned by horses or oxen. It is sometimes claimed that Papin turned the paddle-wheels of his boat by means of steam, but there are no grounds for the claim. If France wants the honor of having made the first steamboat she would do better to turn from Papin and look to Marquis of Jouffroy of Lyons, This nobleman, it is claimed, built a steamboat (Fig. 15) which made a successful trip on the river Soane, in the year 1783, before a multitude of witnesses. This claim may or may not be just. It may be as the French say: the boat after the trial trip may have been taken to pieces, the model may have been lost and the French Revolution may have swallowed up those who witnessed the trip.

About the time the Frenchman is said to have been experimenting with his steamboat on the Soane similar experiments were being tried in many other places. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the idea of a steam-propelled boat seemed to be in the air. An English poet of the time was bold enough to prophesy:

Soon shall thy arm, Unconquered Steam, afarDrag the slow barge and draw the rapid car,Or on wide, waving wings, expanded bearThe flying chariot through the fields of air.

For the most part the prophesy has been fulfilled, although the steam flying-machine is not yet an accomplished fact. Among those who helped to make good the words of the poet was James Rumsey, of Sheppardtown, Virginia. Rumsey in 1786 propelled, by means of steam, a boat on the Potomac River moving at the rate of five miles an hour. It is almost certain that this was the first boat ever drawn by steam. How did Rumsey drive his boat? A piston in a cylinder was worked by a steam-engine. When the piston was raised it brought water in and when it was pushed down it forced the water out behind and the reaction of the jet pushed the boat along. A remarkable revival of a very ancient idea! Just as Hero turned his globe by reaction, just as Newton pushed the first steam carriage along by reaction, so Rumsey pushed the first steamboat along by reaction.

If you will look on a map of the United States and observe the vast network of waterways which come to the different parts of the country you will understand how important a subject steam navigation must have been to the people of America in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Here was a tract of land containing millions upon millions of fertile acres, but it lacked good roads, and without roads it could not be developed. It was, however, traversed by thousands of miles of excellent water-roads and it was plain that if steamboats could be put upon these rivers the gain would be incalculable. The most pressing need of the time, therefore, was a steamboat. No one saw this more clearly than John Fitch. This talented but eccentric man served his country in the Revolution, and after the war was over roamed hither and thither for several years as a soldier of fortune. About 1785 he went to Philadelphia with a plan for a steamboat. He organized a company, and secured enough money to enable him to carry out his plans. His boat was ready by August, 1787, and he made his trial trip in Philadelphia when the Constitutional Convention was in session. Many of the members of that distinguished body went down to the river to see how the new invention worked. It worked fairly well, but did not arouse much enthusiasm. Its speed was only three or four miles an hour and its movement was exceedingly awkward. It was pushed along by two sets of oars, one set entering into the water as the other came out. The steam rowboat of 1787 proved at least to be a failure, and was abandoned as worthless. Fitch afterward built another steamboat, but it also met with accident and came to naught. Heartbroken by his many failures the poor fellow at last ended his life with his own hand. He deserved a better fate, for his experiments taught the world a great deal about the steamboat.

FIG. 16. – THE CHARLOTTE DUNDAS, 1802.

While Rumsey and Fitch were making their boats in America, European inventors were not idle. On the contrary they were so very active that they almost won the honor of making the first successful boat. One of these, William Symington, an Englishman, built a boat that may, with much justice, be called the first practical steamboat that was ever launched. This was the Charlotte Dundas (Fig. 16) which made its trial trip on the Clyde and Firth Canal in 1802. On the Charlotte was a paddle-wheel instead of Fitch's two sets of paddles. The wheel was placed at the rear of the boat and was drawn by means of a crank which was turned by a rod attached to the piston-rod. Watt and his co-workers, a few years before, had shown how the steam-engine could be made to turn a wheel and Symington in the construction of his boat put this principle to good use. The Charlotte did so well that the Duke of Bridgewater ordered eight more boats like her to be built for use on the canal. Symington was elated for he thought he had at last made a successful steamboat, that is, a steamboat that would give to its owner a profit; but he was doomed to disappointment for the owners of the canal refused to allow steamboats to be employed upon it, and worse than this the duke soon died and the inventor's financial support was gone. The Charlotte was taken off the canal and laid in a creek where she fell to pieces. The really successful steamboat had not yet been built.

FIG. 17. – FULTON'S STEAMBOAT, CLERMONT.

It was to be built first where it was needed most, and that was in America. It was built by a man who kept his eyes on Rumsey and Fitch and Symington, and made the best of what he saw. As all the world knows, this was Robert Fulton. In August of 1807 Fulton's steamboat the Clermont (Fig. 17) made a trip on the Hudson River from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles, in thirty-two hours, and returned in thirty hours. Fulton advertised for passengers, and his boat was soon crowded. "The Clermont," says an English writer, "was the steamboat that commenced and continued to run for practical purposes, and for the remuneration of her owners." Here was the boat that was wanted – one that was financially profitable.

FIG. 18. – THE BOAT OF STEVENS.

The paddle-wheels of the Clermont were on the sides of the boat about midship. As the wheel turned, about half of it was in the water and about half was out. There were engineers, even in Fulton's day who did not believe the wheels ought to be on the sides of the boat. Look at waterfowl, they said, look at the graceful swan; its feet do not work at its sides, half under the water and half out. Every animal that swims propels itself from behind, and its propellers are entirely under the water. So, thought these engineers, the paddle-wheel of a boat should be placed behind, and should be entirely covered by the water. John Stevens, an engineer of Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1805 built a steamboat according to this notion (Fig. 18). A close inspection of the wheel of the boat would show that it is spiral- or screw-like in shape. Stevens' boat made a trial trip on the Hudson and worked well; but after Fulton's great success the little steamer with its spiral-shaped wheel in the rear was soon forgotten. The idea of a screw-propeller, however, was not lost. It was taken up by John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer, who, in 1839, built, in an English shipyard for an American captain, the first screw-propeller that crossed the Atlantic – the Robert F. Stockton. This was the last step in the development of the boat. Since 1839 there has been marvelous progress in ship-building, but the progress has consisted in improving upon the invention of Ericsson rather than in making new discoveries. With the screw-propeller in its present form we may close our story of the boat. The homely log propelled by rude paddles has become the magnificent floating palace.

THE ADRIATIC AT SEA.

THE CLOCK

"Tic-tac! tic-tac! go the wheels of time. We cannot stop them; they will not stop themselves." Time passing is life passing and the measurement of time is the measurement of life itself. How important then that our chronometers, or time measures, be accurate and faithful! It is said that a slight error in a general's watch caused the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo and thus changed the history of the world. Because of its great importance the measurement of time has always been a subject of deep human interest and the story of the clock begins with the history of primeval man.

The larger periods of time are measured by the motion of the heavenly bodies. The year and the four seasons are marked off by the motion of the earth in its long journey around the sun; the months and the weeks are told by the changing moon; sunrise and sunset announce the coming and the going of day. The year and the seasons and the day were measured for primeval man by the great clock in the heavens, but how were smaller periods of time to be measured? How was the passing of fractional parts of a day, an hour or a minute or a second to be noted? An egg was to be boiled; how could the cook tell when it had been in the water long enough? A man out hunting wished to get back to his family before dark: how was he to tell when it was time to start homeward?

FIG. 1. – A PRIMITIVE SUN-DIAL.

FIG. 2. – A MODERN SUN-DIAL.

Plainly, the measurement of small portions of time was a very practical problem from the beginning. The first attempt to solve the problem consisted in observing shadows cast by the sun. The changing shadow of the human form was doubtless the first clock. As the shadow grew shorter the observer knew that noon was approaching; when he could reach out one foot and step on the shadow of his head he knew it was time for dinner; when his shadow began to lengthen he knew that evening was coming on. Observations of this kind led to the shadow clock or sun-dial (Fig. 1). You can make one for yourself. On a perfectly level surface exposed all day to the sun, place in an upright position (Fig. 1) a stick about three feet long, and trace on the surface the shadows as they appear at different times of the day. A little study will enable you to use the shadows for telling the time. Sun-dials have been used from the beginning of time and they have not yet passed out of use. They may still be seen in a few public places (Fig. 2), but they are retained rather as curiosities than as real timekeepers. For the sun-dial is not a good timekeeper for three reasons: (1) it will not tell the time at night; (2) it fails in the daytime when the sun is not shining; (3) it can never be used inside of a house.

The sun-dial can hardly be called an invention; it is rather an observation. There were, however, inventions for measuring time in the earliest period of man's history. Among the oldest of these was the fire-clock, which measured time by the burning away of a stick or a candle. The Pacific islanders still use a clock of this kind. "On the midrib of the long palm-leaf they skewer a number of the oily nuts of the candle-nut-tree and light the upper one." As the nuts burn off, one after another, they mark the passage of equal portions of time. Here is a clock that can be used at night as well as in the daytime, in the house as well as out of doors. Mr. Walter Hough tells us that Chinese messengers who have but a short period to sleep place a lighted piece of joss-stick between their toes when they go to bed. The burning stick serves both as a timepiece and as an alarm-clock.

Fire-clocks of one kind or another have been used among primitive people in nearly all parts of the globe, and their use has continued far into civilized times. Alfred the Great (900 A. D.) is said to have measured time in the following way: "He procured as much wax as weighed seventy-two pennyweights, which he commanded to be made into six candles, each twelve inches in length with the divisions of inches distinctly marked upon it. These being lighted one after another, regularly burnt four hours each, at the rate of an inch for every twenty minutes. Thus the six candles lasted twenty-four hours."19

We all remember Irving's account of time-measurement in early New York: "The first settlers did not regulate their time by hours, but pipes, in the same manner as they measure distance in Holland at this very time; an admirably exact measurement, as the pipe in the mouth of a true-born Dutchman is never liable to those accidents and irregularities that are continually putting our clocks out of order." This, of course, is not serious, yet it is an account of a kind of fire-clock that has been widely used. Even to-day the Koreans reckon time by the number of pipes smoked.

FIG. 3. – AN EARLY FORM OF THE WATER-CLOCK.