This was published, the author at the same time ol:)taining patents on a double inclined plane designed to take the place of locks in small canals. This work, done by Fulton while sojourning in England, found its way across the ocean and attracted the attention of Albert Gallatin and others, who were the means of introducing the inventor and his ideas to the notice of Congress, which led to a fuller exposition of his views, prepared at the request of that body. Later

Fulton and the Hudson River Steamboat 119

we find him advocatini^, if he did not suggest, the Erie Canal scheme, upon which he re])orted, as one of the commissioners. Among his various inventions were a mill for sawing marble, a machine for flax-spinning, a dredging machine, several types of canal-boats, a submarine torpedo, and a boat designed to act in conjunction w^ith it. The plans for the last invention were carried out in France. Fulton actually submerged his craft at a depth of twenty feet, and stayed under water in her for four hours and a half. He carried a supply of air compressed in a copper globe, and propelled the boat by means of a hand-engine. , We have seen that Bushnell, in 1776, invented a torpedo and submarine boat to act in conjunction with it, -- contrivances in which Israel Putnam seems to have placed great confidence, -- but he never succeeded in making them practicable. Fulton, on the contrary, did blow up a vessel provided for the purpose, and demonstrated the destructi\'e value of his work. Fulton never claimed to be the first to propose steam navigation. Experiments in the same direction seem to have been made in 1690, or even earlier. The names of Blasco de Gary (Spanish), Papin, Jonathan Hulls, William Henry, Count d'Auxiron, M.