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THE
Ontario.
uis n. y
ANNALS OF ALBANY.'
BY. J. MUNSELL.
VOL. VI.
1633
SEEN BY PRESERVATION SERVICES
Ontario.
DATE
· ALBANY : J. MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET. 1855.
1
1 . BRARY
SEP ـلـ
1 89 OC OF TORIL ETC UNIVERSITY
,
CONTENTS.
Steam Navigation on the Hudson, - -
7
Lutheran Church, 46
Episcopal Church, -
- 50
Dutch Reformed Church,
- 67
Great Comet of 1680,
95
Church of Kinderhook, -
97
Notes from the Newspapers,
100
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Inscriptions in the Ref. Prot. Dutch Burial Ground, 131
First White Woman in Albany,
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200
Eulogy on the Life and Character of Jesse Buel,
201
Journal of the Rev. John Taylor, -
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219
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History of the Third Presbyterian Church, -
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223
The City Records, 1710 to 1713, - - -
242
Form of Judgment Record, 1698, - 292
Aunt Schuyler House, - 295. - - -
Albany Plums, .302 -
John C. Spencer, - 307
Old State Hall, 316
Annals of the Year 1854, 319
Criminal Statistics 1854, -
349
Index,
-
- 353
ILLUSTRATIONS.
- -
Map of New Netherland, -
1
Æolopile, - - -
- 7
Fitch's Steam Boat, 1788,
- 10
First American Locomotive, -
- 12
Clermont Steam Boat, -
34
South America Steam Boat, - - 42
Schoharie Creek and Church, 61 -
Monument to Jesse Buel, 139
Portrait of Jesse Buel, -
- 201
Third Presbyterian Church, -
- 223
ANNALS OF ALBANY.
STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE HUDSON.
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF STEAM AS A MOTIVE POWER.
All the inventions and improvements of modern times, if measured by their effects upon the condition of society, sink into insignificance, when compared with the extra- ordinary results which have followed the employment of steam as a mechanical agent. We may therefore be al- lowed to dwell a little upon its early history.
The force of steam, although it appears to have been known before the Christian era, was nearly altogether overlooked until within the last two centu- ries. The most important application of it which appears to have been made by the ancients, was in the construction of the in- strument which they called Æolopile, that is, the ball of ÆEolus. By this contrivance a ball was forced out of a cup and suspend- ed in the air, the extent of its elevation de- pending on the force of the steam. Simi- a lar philosophic toys were constructed by Hero, a Greek residing at Alexandria. That so ingenious a people as the Greeks Æolopile. should not have been led to a practical application of the agent which was so exquisitely moulded by Hero into a mechanical power, [ Annals, vi.] 2
8
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
may, in all probability, be ascribed to the operation of the same causes as those which have thrown a veil of deep and impenetrable obscurity on so many of the arts of antiquity.
For many centuries the experiments that continued to be made with steam resulted in no useful purpose. Some vague speculations are ascribed to the Marquis of Worcester about 1660, and, in 1680, Papin, a Frenchman, is supposed to have invented the safety valve. He is the first who speaks of the probability of propelling vessels against the wind by means of steam. About 1710 a steam machine was used in draining a mine in England, and a few years later we learn that steam engines were sent from England to Russia; but as yet they were used merely to form a vacuum, and are denominated at- mospheric engines. During the next twenty years se- veral Englishmen made experiments for the propulsion of boats by steam. But it was reserved for James Watt · to conceive that steam might be admitted to depress the piston into a vacuum, instead of the atmosphere. Mi- nor improvements followed in quick succession, and his engines soon acquired a precedence over all others. French artisans were also busy with the same idea. In 1774 the Count d' Auxiron made an experiment with a boat on the Seine, but the model was defective in the construction of the wheels as well as the perfection of the engine, and the boat moved so slowly and irregularly, that the company at whose expense the trial had been made, considered that the result offered no inducement to persevere.
In 1775. John Fitch, an obscure and unlettered Ameri- can mechanic, conceived the project of a steam boat. A similar thought had also occurred to a Mr. Henry, of Lan- caster, Pa .; and in 1778 the well known Thomas Paine had mentioned a similar project to Andrew Elicott, famous for his ingenuity. Some of these, and particular- ly Fitch, were entirely ignorant that any thing of the kind had ever been thought of by any one else. In 1788 Fitch applied for and obtained a patent for the application of steam to navigation. He had previously made a model
9
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
of his contrivance and showed it to Gen. Washington, who then recollected that a Mr. Rumsey of Virginia had men- tioned the same subject to him in conversation in the win- ter of 1784. But Fitch alleges that the model then ex- hibited by Rumsey, was a boat to stem the current of rapid rivers, by means of wheels. cranks and poles; a contrivance which Fitch says had been tried many years before either his or Rumsey's had been thought of, on the Schuylkill, by a farmer near Reading, and failed. Fitch claims to have made an experiment in 1783, on the Dela- ware, and succeeded in moving a boat by paddles which derived their motion from a steam engine. Both Fitch and Rumsey were supported by associations of wealthy persons who advanced money to make partial experiments and to assist in taking out patents in England. It appears that in 1786, Rumsey, having procured a patent in Mary- land made a trial with his boat, and succeeded in propel- ling by steam alone, against the current of the Potomac, at the rate of four or five miles an hour! His boat was about fifty feet in length, and was propelled by a pump, worked by steam, which lifted a quantity of water up through the keel, and forced it out at the stern, through a horizontal trunk in the bottom. The reaction of the effluent water carried her at the above rate. when loaded with three tons, in addition to the weight of her engine, about a third of a ton. The boiler held no more than five gallons, and needed only a pint of water at a time, and the whole machinery did not occupy. a space greater than that required for four barrels of flour. The fuel con- sumed was about equal to four or six bushels in twelve hours. Rumsey had another project, which was to apply the power to long poles, and by that means push a boat against a rapid current.
It was not till 1788 that Fitch got ready to make his experiment. In that year his boat was launched in the Delaware. The annexed engraving will give some idea of it. It was moved by twelve paddles, six of which ope- rated at a time. The boat performed her trip to Burling- ton, a distance of twenty miles : but unfortunately bursted her boiler in rounding to the wharf. He procured another
10
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
Fitch's Steam Boat, 1788.
boiler, and performed another trip from Trenton to-Bur- lington and back in the same day. She moved at the rate of eight miles an hour, but some parts of the ma- chinery were continually breaking, and the unhappy projector only conquered one difficulty to encounter another. Perhaps this was not owing to any defect in his plans, but to the low state of the arts at that time, and the difficulty of getting such complex machinery made with proper exactness. Both these Americans, and in- deed most of the European experimenters, labored under the disadvantage of imperfect models to make their ex- periments with; their machines being the productions of inexperienced workmen, laboring with improper and in- efficient instruments. Little else than failure could be anticipated of the best conceived engines under such cir- cumstances.
A host of ingenious men in England with Watt at their head, were now lending their energies to perfect the steam engine, with a view to applying it to manufacturing pur- poses. The great improvements introduced by Ark- wright and Cartwright in spinning and weaving cotton, gave employment to a great number of engines and their demand for various purposes was increasing. The Ame- rican experimenters were engaged in applying it to the pro- pulsion of boats and land carriages. Among the latter were Fitch, Rumsey, Evans, Stevens, Livingston and Fulton.
The project of Genevois, to impel boats by an oar, after the model of those exhibited by nature, was revived
11
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
by the Earl of Stanhope, in England, in 1795; the paddles, made to open and shut like the feet of a duck, were placed under the quarters of the vessel; the engine which gave them motion was of great power, and acted on machinery that produced a horizontal stroke; but notwithstanding the diminution of surface which was produced by the con- formation of the oars, the reaction of their being drawn backwards was so great, that the flat bottomed vessel with which the experiment was made, did not move with a velocity exceeding three miles an hour.
In the year 1797 Chancellor Livingston made some ex- periments in building a steam boat on the Hudson, with the assistance of a person of the name of Nisbet, who came from England for the purpose. Livingston applied to the legislature of the state of New York, for a privi- lege to navigate boats by fire or steam, in order to idem- nify him for the great outlay, in case he should be suc- cessful. It produced much merriment at the time and was considered the humbug of the day. The idea of navigat- ing the Hudson by steam was treated as a legitimate sub- ject for ridicule, and when the members were in a humor- ous mood they would call up the steam boat bill, that they might divert themselves at the expense of the pro- ject and its advocates. A bill was passed, however, granting him the privileges he asked, on condition that he produced a vessel within a year whose progress should not be less than four miles an hour. The experi- mental boat of thirty tons burden, propelled by a steam engine, being on trial found incompetent to fulfill the con- dition of the grant, it became obsolete, and Livingston gave up the project.
In the mean time the ingenious Oliver Evans, whom un- toward circumstances prevented from carrying his plan into effect until 1804, produced a practicable steam boat. While an apprentice he had conceived the idea of pro- ducing power from steam, being entirely ignorant that any experiments had ever been made on the subject. . After laboring some time without success to apply the power, he met with a work describing the old atmospheric en- gine, and was astonished to observe that they had so far
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First American Locomotive- Evans's Oruktor Amphibolos, 1804.
13
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
erred as to use the steam only to form a vacuum; to ap- ply the mere pressure of the atmosphere, instead of ap- plying the elastic power of the steam for original motion ; a power which he supposed was irresistible. In 1786, he had so far satisfied himself of the feasibility of his plans, as to be induced to apply to the legislature of Pennsyl- vania for the exclusive right to use his improvements in flour mills and steam wagons in that state. The com- mittee, he says, heard him very patiently while he de- scribed the mill improvements, but his representations concerning steam wagons made them think him insane. They protected the mill improvements, but took no notice of the steam wagons. He endeavored during several years to find some one to furnish capital to build a steam wagon, showing his models and drawings, and explain- ing his views of steam; but could find no one who would risk the experiment; indeed very few could understand his principles. At length, in 1804, the board of health of Philadelphia ordered him to build a machine for clean- ing docks. This presented him an opportunity to show that his engine could propel both land and water car- riages. When the work was done, it consisted of a large scow, with an engine of five horse power on board, to work the machinery to raise the mud into lighters. Wheels were put under this with wooden axles; and though the weight was equal to two hundred barrels of flour, and the whole prepared for this temporary purpose, and attended with great friction, the burden was trans- ported to the Schuylkill, one mile and a half, with ease. Here a paddle wheel was fixed at the stern, and it was taken down the river to the Delaware, and up that river to the city. Evans, who was a clever man with a plain name, considering that a sounding cognomen would do no harm to a simple machine, christened his mud scraper the Oruktor Amphibolos. She was thirty feet long and twelve broad, with a chain of buckets to bring up the mud, and drew nineteen inches of water. The ex- hibition was sufficient to show that it was practicable to navigate the river by steam, but the time for it had not yet come, His engine was on the high pressure
14
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
principle, of a construction different from any other at that time known.
A Mr. Samuel Jackson who lived on the Mississippi, met with Evans about the year 1785, and in a subse- quent correspondence declared that at that time Evans had described to him the principles of the steam engine, and also explained to him his plan for propelling boats with paddle wheels, describing the very kind of wheels now used for this purpose; and that he then declared his in- tention of applying his engine to this particular object, as soon as his pecuniary circumstances would permit! Un- fortunately, Evans never found a capitalist to assist his experiments, as was the case with Watt and Fulton.
Evans too had rivals to dispute even his secondary claims to invention. A Mr. John Stevens of Hoboken had been some time occupied in making experiments to apply steam of a high temperature, by generating it in a boiler formed of copper tubes, each about one inch in diameter, and two feet long, inserted at each end into a brass plate; these plates were closed at each end of the pipes by a strong cap of cast iron or brass, leaving the space of an inch or two between the plates. The ne- cessary supply of water was ejected by means of a for- cing pump at one end: one of these boilers, six feet long. two feet deep and four feet wide, exposed four hundred feet of surface in the most advantageous manner to the fire. Stevens said his object was to form a machine adapted more immediately to the propelling of a boat, He procured one of Watt's engines, and in May 1804 made an experiment with a boat twenty-five feet long and five wide. It had the velocity of four miles an hour; and after repeated trials, his son undertook to cross in her from Hoboken to New York; but unfortunately when the boat had nearly reached the warf, the steam pipe gave way, having been put on with soft solder. This boiler being damaged the next one was constructed with tub s placed vertically. The engine was kept agoing a few weeks, making excursions of two or three miles up and down the river; for a short distance he could sail it at the rate of about seven miles an hour,
15
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
Stevens went no further with his experiment, and Evans also stopped with this exhibition. In discussing their claims, Evans declared, that he had spent two thousand dollars on his project; Stevens lamented that he had been " twenty years of his life on his, and spent twenty thousand dollars, without deriving a shilling bene- fit." Stevens thought some of Evans's projects absurd : Evans retorted, " that the colonel's setting himself up as an obstacle to his improvements, had done more to perpetuate his (the colonel's) memory than his twenty years' hard work, and the loss of his twenty thousand dollars." Be that as it may, although in their lives their schemes were opposed, our respect to their memories shall not be divided, and they shall together enjoy all the immortality which our brief notice can confer upon them.
SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT ON THE HUDSON.
The next attempt to construct a steam boat was successfully made by Fulton. In the course of his long residence abroad he had turned his attention to this sub- ject, and gathered drawings and descriptions of all the contrivances of his predecessors. At Paris he met with Mr. Robert Livingston, who has been before mentioned, and it was agreed between them to embark in the enter- prise. Fulton accordingly began a course of experiments on a small stream, with a set of models he had construct- ed for the purpose; the results of which gave him strong assurance of success. During the time Fulton was en- gaged in these experiments, a Mons. des Blanes, who had made experiments with a boat on the Soane, deposited a model of his apparatus in the Repository of Machines at Paris. In this he used a horizontal cylinder, by which endless chains, with resisting boards on them, were to be worked from stem to stern along side of the vessel. Being satisfied with the results of his experiments. he re- solved to try them on a large scale, and commenced building a boat for the purpose on the Seine. During the construction of this vessel Des Blanes called the public
16
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
attention to Fulton's operations as an invasion of his patent, and addressed a remonstrance to Fulton himself on the subject. In reply Fulton explained that his boat was to be propelled by wheels, not by chains. Fulton's boat was completed early in the spring of 1803, and in August the experiment was made before a great con- course of spectators; and its success was such as to in- duce him to order an engine of Watt & Bolton to be sent to New York, to which place he prepared to return in order to introduce his invention on the American waters. During the building of the engine he visited Scotland and inspected Symington's steam boat on the Forth and Clyde canal.
Mr. Livingston,* who was engaged with Fulton in these experiments at Paris, wrote immediately after this expe- riment to his friends in this country, and through their interference, an act was passed by the legislature of the state of New-York, on the fifth of April, eighteen hund- red and three, by which the rights and exclusive privi- leges of navigating all the waters of this state, by vessels propelled by fire or steam, granted to Mr. Livingston by the act of seventeen hundred and ninety-eight, were ex- tended to Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton for the term of twenty years from the date of the new act. By this law, the time for producing proof of the practicability of pro- pelling by steam a boat of twenty tons capacity, at the rate of four miles an hour, with and against the ordinary current of the Hudson. was extended two years. And by a subsequent law, the time was enlarged to April, eighteen hundred and seven.
Very soon after Mr. Fulton's arrival in this city, he commenced building his first American boat: while she was constructing, he found that her expenses would greatly exceed his calculation. He endeavored to lessen the pressure on his own finances, by offering one-third of the exclusive right which was secured to him and Mr. . Livingston by the laws of New York, and of his patent rights, for a proportionate contribution to the expense.
* Colden's Life of Fulton, p. 165, et seq.
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Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
He made this offer to several gentlemen, and it was very generally known that he had made such propositions; but no one was then willing to afford this aid to his en- terprise; although, afterwards, so many eagerly grasped at his profits, and, with little principle and little con- science, endeavored to rob his children of the only patrimony he had left them.
In the spring of eighteen hundred and seven, the first Fulton boat, built in this country, was launched from the ship yards of Charles Brown, on the East river. The engine from England was put on board of her; in August she was completed, and was moved by her ma- chinery from her berthplace to the Jersey shore.
Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton had invited their friends to witness the trial. Nothing could exceed the sur- prise and admiration of all who witnessed the experi- ment. The minds of the most incredulous were changed in a few minutes. Before the boat had made the pro- gress of a quarter of a mile, the greatest unbeliever must have been converted. The man who, while he looked on the expensive machine, thanked his stars that he had more wisdom than to waste his money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of his features as the boat. moved from the wharf and gained her speed; his complacent smile gradually stiffened into an expression of wonder. The jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling enough to suppress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced for a moment by a vulgar astonishment, which deprived them of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius extorted from the incredulous multitude which crowded the shores, shouts and acclamations of congratulation and applause.
The boat had not been long under way, when Fulton ordered her engine to be stopped. Though her perform- ance so far exceeded the expectations of every other per- son, and no one but himself thought she could be im- proved, he immediately perceived that there was an error in the construction of her water-wheels. He had their diameter lessened, so that the buckets took less hold of the water, and when they were again put in motion, it
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Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
was manifest that the alteration had increased the speed of the boat. It may well be said, that the man of genius and knowledge has a sense beyond those which are com- mon to others, or that he sees with different eyes. How many would have gazed on these ill-proportioned wheels, without perceiving that they were imperfect.
This boat, which was called the Clermont, soon after sailed from a dock near the state prison, for Albany. It is announced in the newspapers of that date, that the boat built by Messrs. Livingston and Fulton, with a view to the navigation of the Mississippi river, from New Orleans upwards, would depart for Albany in the after- noon. Indeed, this was according to the general im- pression at the time. For though the performance of this boat had been witnessed in the harbor, yet it was not conceived that steam boats could be employed as - packet boats between New York and Albany. It is proba- ble that the present success of this mode of navigation, exceeds what was the expectation of Mr. Fulton himself. For though, from the calculations made by him in Paris, he concluded that a steam boat might be made to run with a speed exceeding what had yet been attained, yet the experiment in France, and the velocity of the Cler- mont, fell so far short of his estimates, that it is very probable he may have had doubts, after she was put in operation, as to the entire accuracy of his calculations. But every successive experiment showed him, that there were faults in the fabrication of his machinery, and not in his calculations.
From the time the first boat was put in motion till the death of Mr. Fulton, the art of navigating by steam was fast advancing to that perfection of which he believed it capable : for some time the boat performed each succes- sive passage with increased speed, and every year im- provements were made. The last boat built by him was invariably the best, the most convenient, and the swift- est.
The Clermont on her first voyage arrived at her desti- nation without any accident. She excited the astonish- ment of the inhabitants of the shores of the Hudson
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19
Steam Navigation on the Hudson.
many of whom had not heard even of an engine. much less of a steam boat. There were many descriptions of the effects of her first appearance upon the people of the banks of the river: some of these were ridiculous, but some of them were of such a character, as nothing but an object of real grandeur could have excited. She was described by some who had indistinctly seen her passing in the night, to those who had not had a view of her, as a monster moving on the waters, defying the winds and tide, and breathing flames and smoke.
She had the most terrific appearance, from other ves- sels which were navigating the river, when she was making her passage. The first steam boats, as others yet do, used dry pine wood for fuel, which sends forth a column of ignited vapor many feet above the flue, and, whenever the fire is stirred, a galaxy of sparks fly off, and in the night have a very brilliant and beautiful ap- pearance. This uncommon light first attracted the at- tention of the crews of other vessels. Notwithstanding the wind and tide were adverse to its approach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly coming to- wards them; and when it came so near as that the noise of the machinery and paddles were heard, the crews ( if what was said in the newspapers of the time be true) in some instances shrunk beneath their decks from the terrific sight, and left their vessels to go on shore, while others prostrated themselves, and besought Providence- to protect them from the approaches of the horrible monster, which was marching on the tides and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited.
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