the
current of the river, was covered in thirty-two hours, and there could
no longer be any question of Fulton's success. A regular schedule
between Albany and New York was established, and the "Clermont" began
that great river traffic now carried on by the most palatial river
steamers in the world.

After that, it was merely a question of development. More boats were
built, improvements were made, and every year witnessed an increase of
speed and efficiency. In 1814, in the midst of the second war with
England, Fulton built the first steam ship-of-war the world had ever
seen, designed for the defense of New York harbor. This ancestor of the
modern "Dreadnought" was named "Fulton the First" in honor of her
designer. She indirectly caused his death, for, exposing himself for
several hours of a bitter winter day, in supervising some changes on
her, he developed pneumonia and died a few days later. Could he re-visit
the world to-day and see the wonderful and mighty ships which have grown
out of his idea, he would no doubt be as astonished as were the people
along the Hudson on that fall day in 1807 when they saw the "Clermont"
making her way up the stream against wind and tide.

The same year that Robert Fulton was born, another inventive genius
first saw the light in the little town of Westborough, Massachusetts.
His name was Eli Whitney, and the work he was to do revolutionized the
industrial development of the South, paid off its debts, and trebled the
value of its lands. It did something else, too, which was to fasten upon
the South the system of negro slavery, resulting in the Civil War. But
though he added hundreds of millions of dollars to the wealth of his
country, his own reward was neglect, indifference, countless lawsuits
and endless vexation of body and spirit.

Whitney's father ran a little wood-working shop where he made wheels and
chairs, and there the boy spent every possible hour. At the age of
twelve, he made himself a violin, and his progress was so steady, that
by the time he was sixteen, he had greatly enlarged the business and had
gained the reputation of being the best mechanic in all the country
round. He soon discovered the value of education, and managed to prepare
himself for Yale College, which he entered in 1789, at the age of
twenty-four--an age at which most men had long since graduated and
settled in life. But Whitney persevered, graduating in 1792, and almost
immediately securing a posit