These crude notions, however, do not deserve to be considered as inventions, though they probably assisted in suggesting the idea of the plan proposed by Mr. Jonathan Hulls, who in 1736 took out a patent for a steam-boat, and in the following year published a description of his invention, illustrated by a drawing, entitled, "A description and draught of a new-invented machine for carrying vessels or ships out of or into any harbour, port, or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm." The greater part of this publication is occupied with answers to objections that he supposed might be raised to the scheme, and in the preface he makes the following observations on the treatment inventors were exposed to in his day, which we fear will apply equally at the present time. "There is," he says, "one great hardship lies too commonly on those who purpose to advance some new though useful scheme for the public benefit. The world abounding more in rash censure than in candid and unprejudiced estimation of things, if a person does not answer their expectations in every point, instead of friendly treatment for his good intentions, he too often meets with ridicule and contempt." [Illustration] At the time of Mr. Hulls' invention, Watt had not made his improvements in the steam engine, and the kind of engine Hulls employed was similar to Newcomen's, in which the steam was condensed in the cylinder, and the piston, after being forced down by the direct pressure of the atmosphere, was drawn upwards again by a weight. The paddle, or "vanes," as he called them, were placed at the stern, between two wheels, which were turned by ropes passing over their peripheries. The alternate motion of the piston was ingeniously converted into a continuous rotary movement, by connection with other ropes attached to the piston and to the weight, the backward movement being prevented by a catch or click. The woodcut which lays before you is a reduced copy of Hulls' "draught" of his steam-boat, as given in his book, a copy of which is preserved in the British Museum. The utmost application of steam power to navigation contemplated by Hulls was to tow large vessels into or out of harbour, in calm weather, by means of a separate steam tug-boat, as he considered the cumbersome mechanism would be found objectionable on board the ships to be thus propelled. It does not appear that this plan was effectually tried, nor was the arrangement of the mechanism, nor the imperfect condition of the steam engine at that period, calculated to make the effort successful.