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press by power, and succeeded in making the machine described in his patents of 1830 and 1836." The success realized by Mr. Adams in these experiments was largely in advance of his predecessors.

But to Richard M. Hoe, of New York, the world is indebted for complete success. In 1847, he made "a perfect machine, on the cylinder of which the types are held by friction between bevelled column-rules." Thus at length was produced a complete revolution in the art of printing. "The ten-cylinder presses, such as are used in New York and London by the leading journals, strike off fifteen thousand impressions per hour. They are only employed for newspapers of large circulation."

Setting types by machines, stereotyping, electrotyping, the use of power-presses, and the statistics of the periodical and book trade, sufficiently prove that the Americans are a reading people.

STEAM-NAVIGATION.

When Watt brought his great invention of the steamengine to practical perfection, men were by no means aware of the revolution it would produce in the navigation and locomotion of the world.

Before its power could be appreciated or applied, numerous unsuccessful efforts would, of course, be made. Experimenters in England and France up to 1730, Jonathan Hull in 1736, the Count d'Auxiron, the Périers, the Marquis de Jouffry, and M. des Blancs, from 1774 to 1796, made praiseworthy efforts, but with no practical results. John Fitch of Pennsylvania, in 1786, succeeded in propelling a small skiff by steam, and in subsequent attempts, in 1790, on the Delaware, obtained so much success as to justly entitle him to the credit of establishing the practicability of steam-navigation; but his efforts fell short of the complete triumph which seemed to be just before him. Rumsey of Virginia, on the Potomac in 1787, and in England in 1793, made progress in

this direction. Enough had been done prior to the experiments of Miller and Symington in Scotland, in 1788, to secure to America the claim of priority in this great discovery, so clearly as never to have been successfully controverted. Chancellor R. R. Livingstone of New York, Oliver Evans of Philadelphia, and John Stevens of Hoboken, N.J., made experiments which rendered still clearer the practicability of future success, but did not quite reach it.

Well, therefore, was it remarked by the committee of the first Universal Exhibition in 1851, that "many persons in various countries claim the honor of having first invented small boats propelled by steam; but it is to the undaunted perseverance and exertions of the American Fulton that is due the everlasting honor of having produced this revolution both in naval architecture and navigation." In "The Clermont" of "a hundred and sixty tons burden, a hundred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and seven feet deep, on the morning of Aug. 7, 1807, Fulton, with a few friends and mechanics and six passengers, started from New York for Albany, leaving on the shore an incredulous and jeering crowd." This was the first steamboat excursion in the world. It was successful, and commenced a new era in navigation and commerce, rendering the name of Robert Fulton immortal, and conferring imperishable honor upon the country which gave him birth.

Stevens came very near anticipating his great countrymen in the credit of their success. His competing steamer, forced to avoid the New-York waters by the monopoly granted by the legislature to Livingstone and Fulton, pushed out boldly into the Atlantic, and reached Philadelphia in safety; thus becoming the pioneer in ocean steam-navigation. "In 1818, 'The Savannah,' a New-York-built ship, with side-wheels, and propelled by steam and sails, crossed the Atlantic to St. Petersburg, via Liverpool; reaching the latter place, direct from New York, in twenty-six days, and returning in safety." Thus to American genius and daring belongs the first honor

of the great revolution in ocean-navigation, as well as that on internal waters.

In fifty years from the first trip of "The Clermont" on the Hudson, the number and influence of steamboats and steamships had exceeded computation. The world is alive with the quickened activity which has resulted to mind and commerce. Time, beyond computation, is saved in the transaction of business. The style of convenience in moving over the waters, and the nearer approach of nations, contribute to general improvement in civilization and the realized brotherhood of man. In all this we cannot fail to see the distinct manifestation of God. His were the waters and caloric; his the timber, the metals, and the fuel; his the mind and the muscle. He made them all, and controlled the time and the place of their mysterious combinations; thus revealing clearly his purpose, in the colonization and government of this country, to advance the race boldly beyond all former standards and methods of civilization.

RAILROADS.

To England fairly belongs the first honor of this great invention and the use of steam-locomotives. The beginnings, of course, were very small and rude; but they demonstrated the fact that steam-power could be rendered available for impelling carriages and removing freight on land. The development of this power has been very rapid both in Europe and America. It began in this country in 1829; and the decade immediately under review marks a splendid advance in this great method of civilization and progress. Previous to 1850, our railroads "sustained only an unimportant relation to the internal commerce of the country. Nearly all the lines then in operation were local or isolated works, and neither in extent nor design had begun to be formed into that vast and connected system, which, like a web, now covers every portion of our wide domain, enabling

each work to contribute to the traffic and value of all, and supplying means of locomotion and a market, almost at his own door, for nearly every citizen of the United States."

Only one line of road, the various links of the New-York Central, connected the tide-waters of the East with the great internal basins of the country; and this was encumbered with such tolls in the interest of the Erie Canal, as to amount to an embargo on freight.

The next line, extending from Boston to Ogdensburg, was completed within the year 1850. The New-York and Erie was next; and this was opened April 22, 1851. The next was the Pennsylvania, which completed its "mountain division in 1854." The Baltimore and Ohio, fifth in time, was opened in 1853. "The Tennessee River, a tributary of the Mississippi, was reached in 1850 by the Western and Atlantic Railroad of Georgia; and the Mississippi itself, by the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, in 1859. In the extreme North, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence, now known as the Grank Trunk, was completed early in 1853. In 1858, the Virginia system was extended to a connection with the Memphis and Charleston and with the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroads."

"The eight great works named, connecting the interior with the seaboard, are the trunks or base lines upon which is erected the vast system that now overspreads the whole country. They seem as outlets to the interior for its products, which would have little or no commercial value without improved highways, the cost of transportation over which does not equal one-tenth of that of our ordinary roads."

The following will exhibit the number of miles of railroads constructed in ten years, from 1850 to 1860: –

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Let the reader observe that we began this ten years with 8,588.79 miles of railroad in operation in the whole United States, costing $296,260,128; during the progress of the decade, we increased 21,186.63 miles, at a cost of $838,192,781; making 29,775.42 miles of road, costing $1,134,452,909. This progress is so great, that we cannot extend our conceptions or reason so as fully to grasp and comprehend it. In the decades to come, additions will be still more incomprehensible.

These roads, it was estimated by Mr. Kennedy, "transported in the aggregate at least eight hundred and fifty tons of merchandise per annum to the mile of road in operation. Such a rate would give twenty-six million tons as the total

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