"Jonathan Hull,
With his paper skull,
Tried hard to make a machine
That should go against wind and tide;
But he, like an ass,
Couldn't bring it to pass,
So at last was ashamed to be seen."

Nothing of importance was done in the direction of a steam-engine able
to drive paddles, until the invention by James Watt, in 1769, of his
double-acting engine--the first step by which steam was rendered
capable of being successfully used to impel a vessel. But Watt was
indifferent to taking up the subject of steam navigation, as well as of
steam locomotion. He refused many invitations to make steam-engines
for the propulsion of ships, preferring to confine himself to his
"regular established trade and manufacture," that of making condensing
steam-engines, which had become of great importance towards the close
of his life.

Two records exist of paddle-wheel steamboats having been early tried in
France--one by the Comte d'Auxiron and M. Perrier in 1774, the other by
the Comte de Jouffroy in 1783--but the notices of their experiments are
very vague, and rest on somewhat doubtful authority.

The idea, however, had been born, and was not allowed to die. When Mr.
Miller of Dalswinton had revived the notion of propelling vessels by
means of paddle-wheels, worked, as Savery had before worked them, by
means of a capstan placed in the centre of the vessel, and when he
complained to Symington of the fatigue caused to the men by working the
capstan, and Symington had suggested the use of steam, Mr. Miller was
impressed by the idea, and proceeded to order a steam-engine for the
purpose of trying the experiment. The boat was built at Edinburgh, and
removed to Dalswinton Lake. It was there fitted with Symington's
steam-engine, and first tried with success on the 14th of October,
1788, as has been related at length in Mr. Nasmyth's 'Autobiography.'
The experiment was repeated with even greater success in the charlotte
Dundas in 1801, which was used to tow vessels along the Forth and Clyde
Canal, and to bring ships up the Firth of Forth to the canal entrance
at Grangemouth.

The progress of steam navigation was nevertheless very slow.
Symington's experiments were not renewed. The Charlotte Dundas was
withdrawn from use, because of the supposed injury to the banks of the
Canal, caused by the swell from the wheel. The steamboat was laid up
in a creek at Bainsford, where it went to ruin, and the inventor
himself died in