“Well, I made a number of models before I was satisfied; but when I was convinced the idea would work, I made a contract with John Wood & Co., of Port-Glasgow, and they built me this boat, which I fitted up with engine and paddles, as you see. John Robertson actually set up the engine. We will go aboard presently, and you shall see her.” [Illustration: BELL’S “COMET.”] They did so, and this is something of what they saw. They found a small vessel, forty feet long and ten and a-half wide, and only about twenty-five tons burthen. The furnace was bricked round, and the boiler, instead of being in the centre, was seated on one side of the ship, with the engine beside it. But the funnel was bent and rose aloft in the middle, and it answered the purpose of a mast—to carry sail. “But look at the machinery,” we can imagine Bell saying to his friend. “We have one single cylinder, you see. The piston is attached to a crank on an axle. This axle carries a big cog wheel, which, working two more placed on the paddle axles, causes them to revolve.” “And the paddles?” “Well, you see, we have now two sets on each side, and each paddle is shaped something like a malt shovel; but I think I shall alter them, and have paddle wheels soon.” Bell carried out his improvement, and in a short time he did adopt the better form of paddle wheel. The improved _Comet_, with a new engine, attained six or seven miles an hour. But before this, Mr. Hutchison, a brewer, built another boat, bigger than the _Comet_, and her engine was of ten horse-power, while the _Comet’s_ was but three. She travelled at an average of nine miles an hour, and her fares were but a-third of those charged by coach. The news of the steamers on the Clyde became noised abroad, and steamboats began to appear on other British rivers. The success of the new venture became assured. But how had it been brought about? Bell had referred to the labours of others, and, indeed, his was not the first steamboat, though, doubtless, it was the first in Britain to ply for passengers. The truth is, that as with the locomotive, several minds were working towards the same object. And among those early steamboat seekers Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, and William Symington, of Wanlockhead Mines, are entitled to high place. Indeed, Symington is said to have built the “first practically successful steamboat” in the world. She was called the _Charlotte Dundas_, and, in 1802, she tugged two barges, together of about 140 tons, nineteen and a-half miles, in six hours, with a strong wind against her.