August 9, 1803, this boat was cast loose, and steamed up the Seine, in presence of an immense concourse of spectators. A committee of the National Academy, consisting of Bougainville, Bossuet, Carnot, and Périer, were present to witness the experiment. The boat moved but slowly, making only between 3 and 4 miles an hour against the current, the speed through the water being about 4-1/2 miles; but this was, all things considered, a great success. The experiment was successful, but it attracted little attention, notwithstanding the fact that its success had been witnessed by the committee of the Academy and by many well-known savants and mechanics, and by officers on Napoleon's staff. The boat remained a long time on the Seine, near the palace. The water-tube boiler of this vessel (Fig. 79) is still preserved at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers at Paris, where it is known as Barlow's boiler. Barlow patented it in France as early as 1793, as a steamboat-boiler, and states that the object of his construction was to obtain the greatest possible extent of heating-surface. Fulton endeavored to secure the pecuniary aid and the countenance of the First Consul, but in vain. Livingston wrote home, describing the trial of this steamboat and its results, and procured the passage of an act by the Legislature of the State of New York, extending a monopoly granted him in 1798 for the term of 20 years from April 5, 1803, the date of the new law, and extending the time allowed for proving the practicability of driving a boat four miles an hour by steam to two years from the same date. A later act further extended the time to April, 1807. [Illustration: FIG. 79.--Barlow's Water-Tube Boiler, 1793.]