days for her “gigantic proportions” as was the _Great Eastern_ thirty years later. In 1825 there were 168 steam vessels in Britain; in 1835 there were 538; in 1855 there were 2,310, including war vessels afloat and building; in 1895 the number of steam vessels built in the United Kingdom was 638, of which number 90 per cent. were built of steel. In 1897 the number of steamers over 100 tons in the United Kingdom, including the colonies, was computed to be 8,500, with a net tonnage of 6,500,000 tons. THE “CLERMONT.” Three years before Bell’s achievement on the Clyde, a clever American, profiting by the experiments of Symington, applied his inventive genius to perfecting the application of steam as a motive power for vessels, and gained for himself the honour of being the first to make it available for practical use on a paying basis. This was Robert Fulton, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1765, who commenced business as a portrait painter and followed that profession for some years in France and England. He invented a number of “notions,” among the rest a submarine torpedo-boat, in which he claimed that he could remain under water for an hour and a half at a time; but failing to receive the patronage of any naval authorities, he returned to New York, and, with the assistance of Mr. John Livingstone, had a steamboat built and fitted with an English engine by Boulton & Watt, of Birmingham. The _Clermont_ (after being lengthened) was 133 feet long, 18 feet beam, and 7½ feet deep. Her wheels were uncovered, 15 feet in diameter, with eight buckets, 4 feet long, to each wheel, and dipping 2 feet. The cylinder was 24 inches in diameter, with 4 feet stroke of piston. The boiler was of copper, 20 feet long, 7 feet wide and 8 feet high. [Illustration: FULTON’S “CLERMONT” ON THE HUDSON, 1807.] The _Clermont_ made her first voyage from New York to Albany, August 7th, 1807. Her speed was about five miles an hour. During the winter of 1807-8 she was enlarged, her name being then changed to _North River_. She continued to ply successfully on the Hudson as a passenger boat for a number of years, her owners having acquired the exclusive right to navigate the waters of the State of New York by steam. The _Car of Neptune_ and the _Paragon_, of 300 and 350 tons, respectively, were soon added to the Fulton & Livingstone Line. Both of these vessels were fitted with English engines. The _Paragon_ continued to ply on the Hudson for about ten years, earning a good deal of money for the owners. About 1820, while ascending the river, she ran upon a rock and became a total wreck. Other steamboats were built for other waters, and very soon there were steamers plying on all the navigable rivers of the United States available for commerce. Mr. Fulton married a daughter of Mr. Livingstone. He died in New York in 1815, at the height of his fame and prosperity. [Illustration: MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT “J. M. WHITE,” 1878.] [Illustration: OHIO STEAMBOAT “IRON QUEEN,” 1882.]