="The Clermont,"= named after the ancestral home of the Livingstons,
was built for "Livingston and Fulton," by Charles Brownne in New York.
The machinery came from the works of Watt and Bolton, England. She
left the wharf of Corlear's Hook and the newspapers published with
pride that she made in speed from four to five miles an hour. She was
100 feet in length and boasted of "three elegant cabins, one for the
ladies and two for the gentlemen, with kitchen, library, and every
convenience." She averaged 100 passengers up or down the river. Every
passenger paid $7, for which he had dinner, tea and bed, breakfast and
dinner, with the liberty to carry 200 pounds of baggage.
* * *
The stars are on the running stream,
And fling, as its ripples gently flow,
A burnished length of wavy-beam
In an eel-like, spiral line below.
_Joseph Rodman Drake._
* * *
An original letter from Robert Fulton to the minister of Bavaria at
the court of France, written in 1809, upon the question of putting
steamboats on the Danube, is of interest at the present day: "The
distance from New York to Albany is 160 miles; the tide rises as far
as Albany; its velocity is on an average 11/2 miles an hour.
Pages:
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277