PLATE VII. PIKE’S PEAK RAILWAY, ROCKY MOUNTAINS. ] [Illustration: FIG. 58.—_The Great Eastern at Anchor._ ] STEAM NAVIGATION. The first practically successful steamboat was constructed by Symington, and used on the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1802. A few years afterwards Fulton established steam navigation in American waters, where a number of steamboats plied regularly for some years before the invention had received a corresponding development in England, for it was not until 1814 that a steam-packet ran for hire in the Thames. From that time, however, the principle was quickly and extensively applied, and steamers made their appearance on the chief rivers of Great Britain, and soon began also to make regular passages from one sea-port to another, until at length, in 1819, a steamer made the voyage from New York to Liverpool. It does not appear, however, that such ocean steam voyages became at once common, for we read that in 1825 the captain of the first steam-ship which made the voyage to India was rewarded by a large sum of money. It was not until 1838 that regular steam communication with America was commenced by the dispatch of the _Great Western_ from Bristol. Other large steamers were soon built expressly for the passage of the Atlantic, and a new era in steam navigation was reached when, in 1845, the _Great Britain_ made her first voyage to New York in fourteen days. This ship was of immense size, compared with her predecessors, her length being 320 ft., and she was moreover made of iron, while instead of paddles, she was provided with a screw-propeller, both circumstances at that time novelties in passenger ships. Fulton appears to have made trial in America of various forms of mechanism for propelling ships through the water. Among other plans he tried the screw, but finally decided in favour of paddle-wheels, and for a long time these were universally adopted. Many ships of war were built with paddle-wheels, but the advantages of the screw-propeller were at length perceived. The paddle-wheels could easily be disabled by an enemy’s shot, and the large paddle-boxes encumbered the decks and obstructed the operations of naval warfare. Another circumstance perhaps had a greater share in the general adoption of the screw, which had long before been proposed as a means of applying steam power to the propulsion of vessels. This was the introduction of a new method of placing the screw, so that its powers were used to greater advantage. Mr. J. P. Smith obtained a patent in 1836 for placing the propeller in that part of the vessel technically called the _dead-wood_, which is above the keel and immediately in front of the rudder. When the means of propulsion in a ship of war is so placed, this vital part is secure from injury by hostile projectiles, and the decks are clear for training guns and other operations. Thus placed, the screw has been proved to possess many advantages over