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 scoffers in the days of Noah.  The steam-engine ordered from Boulton and Watt was received in the latter part of 1806; and in the following spring the boat was launched from the ship-yard of Charles Brown, on the East River.  Fulton named her the “Clermont,” after the country-seat of his friend and partner, Chancellor Livingston.  She was one hundred and sixty tons burthen, one hundred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and seven feet deep.  Her engine was made with a single cylinder, two feet in diameter, and of four feet stroke; and her boiler was