When thus laden, a speed of about four miles an hour could
be attained. The boiler held only five gallons of water, and needed but
a pint at a time. Rumsey went to England to exhibit his plan on the
Thames, and died there in 1793.
About the same time the Marquis de Joffrey launched a steamer one
hundred feet long on the Loire, at Lyons, using paddles revolving on an
endless chain, but only to find his experiment a failure.
In December, 1786, John Fitch published the following account of a
steamer with which he had made several experiments on the Delaware, at
Philadelphia, and which came nearer to success than any thing that had
at that time been invented:
"The cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal
force at each end. The mode by which we obtain what I term a vacuum is,
it is believed, entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water
into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any
friction. It is expected that the cylinder, which is of twelve inches
diameter, will move a clear force of eleven or twelve cwt. after the
frictions are deducted: this force is to be directed against a wheel of
eighteen inches diameter.
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