338
��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��Watt had invented the steam engine. Captain Money was fully persuaded that the power of steam could be ap- plied to propelling boats, and set him- self to the task of inventing a boat to be thus propelled. He made the boat, built the steam engine, put in the necessary machinery, and entirely alone made his first trip, with com- plete success, running several miles from Orford, New Hampshire up the Connecticut river, to Fairlee, Vt., and returning to Orford. •' This was at least fourteen years before Fulton's trial trip in the Clermont up the Hudson, and nine years before his first trial boat constructed in France. Captain Morey, encouraged by Prof. Silliman, of New Haven, went to New York with the model of his boat, and had frequent interviews with Fulton and Livingstone, before they had invented and put in operation the Clermont. He was cordially received by them, and treated with great re- spect and attention. They suggested some improvements in the construc- tion of his boat, and it is even stated that they offered him $100,000 for his invention, if he would go home and make the alterations suggested so as to operate favorably. These he made with entire success, and again repaired to New York ; but his metropolitan friends (?) treated him with such cold- ness and indifference as clearly to in- dicate that they had fully acquired the secret of his invention and de- sired no further intercourse with him. The proof is positive that he made frequent trips in his little boat, but he
��was without money and far from lead- ing scientific men and the best me- chanical skill ; the result was that Ful;on, aided by friends and money, built a large boat on the exact princi- ple of Morey's, with paddle wheels, anil received the credit, while Morey had taken three patents for the appli- cation of steam before Fulton had taken any, nor did he take one until he had seen both of Morey's models, and had visited him at Orford.
A clergyman of New Hampshire saw Morey's boat in operation. He says : " The astonishing sight of this man, ascending the Connecticut river, between Orford and Fairlee, in a little boat just large enough to contain him- self and the rude machinery connect- ed with the steam boiler, and a hand- ful of wood for a fire, was witnessed by the writer in his boyhood, and by others who yet survive. This was be- fore Fulton's name had ever been mentioned in connection with steam navigation."
He was so laughed at by his towns- men when he announced his inten- tion of riding on the river in a steam- boat that he made his trial trip on Sunday, when the people were at church. He always felt that Fulton had meanly superseded him in ob- taining a patent for his invention, and during his last years bitterly criminat- ed the man who had stolen his sa- cred rights. Some of his enemies sunk the boat in Fairlee pond, by filling it with stones, but his name should be remembered. He, too, was a martyr.
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