American Leaders and Heroes Part 24

THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY.

THE OUT-DOOR LIFE OF YOUNG THOMAS JEFFERSON.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE LIFE.

JEFFERSON'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE.

"THE PEN OF THE REVOLUTION."

JEFFERSON'S HAPPY HOME LIFE.

A WEALTHY PLANTER AT MONTICELLO.

JEFFERSON WRITES THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

HIS "REPUBLICAN SIMPLICITY."

NAPOLEON SELLS US LOUISIANA; ITS VAST EXTENT.

THE "SAGE OF MONTICELLO."

TO THE PUPIL

1. Tell about Jefferson's youthful friendship for Patrick Henry.

2. How did Jefferson look when he was in college?

3. Describe Jefferson's happy home life. How did he show his interest in the people? How did his slaves regard him?

4. What is meant by his "republican simplicity"?

5. When and why did Jefferson purchase Louisiana?

6. Draw a map of Louisiana.

7. What do you admire in Jefferson's character?

CHAPTER XX

Robert Fulton and the Steamboat

[1765-1815]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Robert Fulton.]

After the purchase of Louisiana thousands of settlers joined the ever-swelling tide of westward migration which had been set in motion by the early pioneers. These frontiersmen had made their way across the mountains either by the forest trail, leading with them their pack-horses or, a little later, by the rough road cut through the forest, their household goods packed in a strong wagon drawn by oxen or horses.

Already this difficult method had given place to the flat boat, which, though safer and more convenient, was still unsatisfactory except when it floated down stream. In the early years of this century, therefore, the increasing demands of migration and traffic turned many inventive minds to the problem of applying steam-power to river navigation, in the hope of accomplishing a speedier means of travel and transportation.

The first to achieve success in inventing and bringing into practical use a steam-driven boat was Robert Fulton.

Robert Fulton was born of poor parents in 1765, in Little Britain, Pa.

His father having died when the boy was only three years old, his mother took charge of his education. She taught him herself until he was eight and then sent him to school. But he had no liking for books, and made slow progress. Drawing and mechanical devices absorbed his interest, and nothing gave him greater delight than to visit the shops of mechanics and there with his own hands to work out his new ideas.

It is said that Robert came into school late one morning, and upon being reproved by his teacher explained that he had been at a shop beating a piece of lead into a pencil. At the same time he exhibited the pencil and remarked: "It is the best that I have ever used." Upon examining it the school-master was so well pleased that he praised Robert's effort, and in a short time nearly all the pupils were using the same sort of pencil.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Pack Horse.]

His ingenious ideas found expression in other ways. For example, it was the custom of his town to celebrate the Fourth of July by an illumination with candles; but one year candles being scarce, the citizens were requested to omit the usual display. Robert was at this time only thirteen years old, and like other boys of his age, full of Fourth of July patriotism which had to be expressed in some extraordinary way. So he set his busy brain to work, and having bought gunpowder and pasteboard, produced some home-made sky-rockets which greatly astonished the community by their mid-air explosions. Such fireworks were at that time entirely new to the people of the town.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Flat Boat.]

Another ill.u.s.tration of his inventive gift belongs to his boyhood days.

He and one of his playmates used to go out fishing in a flat boat which they propelled by the use of long poles. Getting tired of this method of navigation, Robert made two crude paddle-wheels, one for each side of the boat, connecting them by a sort of double crank, which the boys united in turning. They could then easily propel the boat in their fishing trips to various parts of the lake, and keenly enjoyed this novel and easy way of going a-fishing.

While still young Robert won the warm regard of a great painter, Benjamin West, whose father was an intimate friend of Robert's father.

Very likely this friendship turned Robert's mind strongly toward painting. At all events, the desire to become an artist took so strong a hold upon him that at the age of seventeen he went to Philadelphia and devoted his time to drawing and painting. Here he remained three years and painted with such skill that he not only supported himself, but sent money to his old home, and saved $400, with which he bought a little home for his mother.

In time his interest in art led him to go to London, where he studied under Benjamin West. But very soon he became interested in trying to improve ca.n.a.l navigation and in working out various mechanical appliances.

This love for invention finally diverted his attention very largely from painting, and led him to the work which made him famous. When about thirty years old he went to Paris to experiment with a diving-boat, an invention of his own, intended to carry cases of gunpowder under water.

This machine was not successful, but by the spring of 1801, a little more than three years after his first effort, he had constructed another diving-boat, and went with it to Brest where he gave it a successful trial. With three companions he descended twenty-five feet below the surface of the water and remained for one hour. In 1805 he tested it again in England where, with a torpedo of 170 pounds, he blew up a vessel of 200 tons.

For the invention of the torpedo-boat, the world is indebted to Fulton, but for the first successful steamboat it owes him a debt of deeper grat.i.tude. Before leaving Paris, Fulton became acquainted with Robert R. Livingston, who was at that time the American minister to France. Mr.

Livingston had long felt an interest in steamboat navigation, and was willing to supply Fulton the necessary money. A steamboat, constructed at Paris, was finished by the spring of 1803, and the day for its trial trip was at hand, when, early one morning the boat broke in two parts and sunk to the bottom of the river. The frame had been too weak to support the weight of the heavy machinery. On receiving the news, Fulton hastened to the scene of his misfortune and began at once the work of raising the boat. For twenty-four hours, without food or rest, and standing up to his waist in the cold water, he labored with his men until he succeeded in raising the machinery and in placing it in another boat. But the exposure to which he submitted himself brought on a lung trouble from which he never fully recovered.

Having discovered the defects of the machinery Fulton returned in 1806 to America, where, with money furnished by his friend Livingston, he began to construct another steamboat which he called the Clermont, after the name of Livingston's home on the Hudson. This boat was 130 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a mast and a sail, and on each side a wheel 15 feet in diameter, fully exposed to view.

One morning in August, 1807, a throng of expectant people gathered on the banks of the North River at New York, to see the trial of the Clermont. Everybody was looking for failure. People had all along spoken of Fulton as a crack-brained dreamer, and had called the Clermont "Fulton's Folly." "Of course the thing would not move." "That any man with common-sense might know," they said. So while Fulton was waiting to give the signal to start, these wiseacres were getting ready to jest at his failure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Clermont.]

Finally, at the signal, the Clermont moved slowly, and then stood perfectly still. "Just what I have been saying," said one onlooker with emphasis. "I knew the boat would not go," said another. "Such a thing is impossible," said a third. But they spoke too soon, for after a little adjustment of the machinery, the Clermont steamed proudly up the Hudson.

As she continued her journey, all along the river, people who had come from far and near stood watching the strange sight. When the boatmen and sailors on the Hudson, heard the clanking machinery and saw the great sparks of fire and the volumes of dense, black smoke rising out of the funnel, they thought the Clermont was a sea-monster. In their superst.i.tious dread, some of them went ash.o.r.e, some jumped into the river, and some fell on their knees in fear, believing the day of judgment to be at hand. One old Dutchman told his wife that he had seen the devil coming up the river on a raft.

The trip of 150 miles from New York to Albany was made in thirty-two hours. Success had at last rewarded this man of strong common-sense, quiet modesty, and iron will. The Clermont was the first steamboat of practical use ever invented. From that time men saw the immeasurable advantage to trade of steam navigation on lakes and rivers.

This was Fulton's last work of great public interest. He died in 1815, having rendered an untold service to the industrial welfare of his country and the world.

REVIEW OUTLINE

THE PACK-HORSE, THE FLAT BOAT, AND THE NEW PROBLEM.

ROBERT FULTON AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL.

HIS FOURTH OF JULY SKY ROCKETS.

A NEW METHOD OF NAVIGATION.

FULTON'S FONDNESS FOR DRAWING AND PAINTING.

HE INVENTS THE DIVING-BOAT.

FULTON AND LIVINGSTON.

A SERIOUS ACCIDENT.

"FULTON'S FOLLY" AND HER TRIP UP THE HUDSON.