Practically no part of the _Clermont_ was an invention of Fulton: it was the manner of employing these parts scientifically that brought him his success. He was able, too, to distribute his weights so well that not only was the wooden hull able to sustain them, but the vessel floated on an even keel and was not inflicted with a list either one side or the other. To have done this in those early days of steamship building was rather more important an achievement than the average reader may imagine, but any naval architect and shipbuilder will readily grant it. The _Clermont’s_ boiler was set in masonry, while her condenser stood in a large cold-water cistern. Fulton threw the whole of his enthusiasm into his work, and when, in the early part of the year 1807, he was invited by the President of the United States to examine the ground and report on the possibility of making a canal to join the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain, the inventor, writing on the 20th of March, had to decline the invitation for, says he, “I have now Ship Builders, Blacksmiths and Carpenters occupied at New York in building and executing the machinery of my Steam Boat.” [Illustration: THE RECONSTRUCTED “CLERMONT” AT THE HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATIONS, 1909.] [Illustration: _Photographs: Topical._ PADDLE-WHEEL OF THE RECONSTRUCTED “CLERMONT.”] In May, 1909, four folios containing Fulton’s original drawings for his first _Clermont_--she was afterwards much altered--were discovered, and a well-known American naval architect was able to draw out the plans from which the replica of the _Clermont_ was built for the Hudson-Fulton commemoration, which took place from September 25 to October 3, 1909. On August 9, 1807, exactly four years to the day since that memorable sight was witnessed on the Seine, the _Clermont_ was first tried, and Fulton found that his ship was able to “beat all the sloops that were endeavouring to stem tide with the slight breeze which they had.” Eight days later she began her memorable voyage on the Hudson, one of the most historic incidents in the history of the steamship. At first the _Clermont_ went ahead for a short distance and then stopped, but as soon as Fulton had been below and examined the machinery, and put right some slight maladjustment, she went ahead slowly. The illustration facing page 46 is from a contemporary drawing in the South Kensington Museum, and should be compared with that here facing, which is from a photograph taken in the autumn of 1909 of the reconstructed _Clermont_, built for the Hudson-Fulton celebrations. If we have the last-mentioned picture in our minds we can easily imagine that memorable day when, with about forty guests on board, she set forth. The realistic photograph here given shows about fifty or sixty people aboard, so that we can gain some idea as to what amount of deck space was available with so many persons crowding on her. But few