hem may be mentioned here, in addition to those
to which allusion has been made already. It will be seen that even those
which failed of commercial success generally contained the germs of
future mechanical progress, and bore witness to the extraordinary vigor
and versatility of his genius.

When the Erie Canal was approaching completion it occurred to Mr. Cooper
that canal boats might be propelled by the power of water drawn from a
higher level and moving a series of endless chains along the canal.
After some preliminary experiments he built a flat-bottomed scow,
arranged a water wheel to utilize the tidal current in the East River,
and actually achieved a trial trip of two miles and return, in which
Governor Clinton and other invited guests took part. The governor was so
well pleased that he paid Mr. Cooper eight hundred dollars for the first
chance to purchase the right of applying the method on the new canal.
But the scheme failed for the reason (as Mr. Cooper explained half a
century later) that the right of way for the Erie Canal had been secured
from the farmers of the State by representing to them the profit which
they would realize from selling forage, etc., for the use of canal
boats, which were to be drawn by horses or mules. The introduction of
mechanical power would destroy these inducements, and the plan was
abandoned,--though Mr. Cooper had demonstrated its feasibility by
running his endless chain on the East River for ten days and carrying
hundreds of passengers over the trial route. It is not likely that such
a use of water power on the Erie Canal would have proved practicable on
a large scale; but the endless chain, which Mr. Cooper apparently
considered as a minor feature only, has been adopted since, and lies at
the basis of the famous Belgian system of river and canal
transportation.

In 1824 the wave of enthusiastic sympathy for the Greeks which swept
over the country upon receipt of the tidings of their revolt against
Turkish tyranny stimulated Mr. Cooper to invent a torpedo boat, to be
steered from the shore by "two steel wires, like the reins of a horse."
But on the trial trip of the boat a ship crossed and broke the wires
when about six of their total length of ten miles had been let out. The
delay made the invention too late for use by the Greeks, and it was not
further pursued.

About 1835 the subject of aerial navigation had in the United States one
of its periodical revivals. Mr. Cooper,