Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1910 — FULTON IN PARIS. [ARTICLE]

FULTON IN PARIS.

Many an old print of Fulton’s first steamboat would make one believe that it was in American waters that It first succeeded In propelling Itself. That was not so, and the late Edward Everett Hale, in “Memories of a Hundred Years,” tells of the earlier experiments. Mr. Hale got his information from Edward Church, who roomed with Fulton in Paris in 1803. Fulton’s model steamer had gone so wall that he had waited on Napoleon’s officials with his plans for steam navigation, and had been courteously received. Napoleon was already considering the expedition against England. It had been planned before . the peace; and this project for boats which would go against wind and tide and could tow other boats full of men from one side of the Channel tq the other was Just what he wanted. Church told me that a committee had been appointed to examine Fulton’s model. Fulton had prepared everything for the examination as well as he could, and had all things ready for a show-trip. The day was appointed—a day which would have been a red-letter day in both their lives and in history. Alas and alas! Before that day dawned, when -both were in bed, a rat-tat-tat at the door awakened them. It was from a messenger who came in hot haste to say that the weight of the engine had caused it to break through the too fragile barge, and that the engine was at the bottom o* the Seine. That particular experiment neves took place. The trial trip was postponed. Observe that the boat had successfully navigated the river already. This is Mr. Church’s account, as I wrote it down—after his death. t jl have since verified the story and can supply details almost to the date. When Fulton told the story, he said that the messenger’s consternation announced that he bore bad news, and that he exclaimed in French accents of despair: “O sir, the boat has broken to . pieces, and has gone to the bottom! 1 ’ This was early in the spring of 1803. Poor Fulton rushed to the place, and personally assisted in raising the boat and engine from the water. He worked on this for twenty-four hours without food, and to his exposure that day he attributed much of his subsequent bad health. The machinery was not much hurt, but they had to reconstruct the boat almost entirely. The new boat was sixty-six feet long, and early in August, after th« accident, it made a successful trip, to which Fulton invited the members of the Institute. He was satisfied with his success. But the first failure, according to Mr. Chnrch, chilled the committee of the Institute, and Fulton found no encouragement from Napoleon.