1773 - French Belief in Steamboats

Claude d’Auxiron, ex-officer and polymath, a rightly renowned economist, 41, and Charles Monnin de Follenay, ex-officer, 38, formed last year a joint-venture company to promote steam navigation on river.

They achieved to convince the Secretary-of-State Henri Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin, aged 53, of the feasibility of a steamboat and of its economical interest. Since 1763 Bertin has been leading a ministry including agriculture, mines, river navigation and canals. He has granted their company a conditional 15-year privilege for steamboats if they could demonstrate concept validity.

Auxiron, who has been working on a project of pumping water to supply Paris, converted to this navigation project by Monnin, changes is goal from moving water to moving on water.

To meet privilege terms, Auxiron built a small steamboat which sunk before any genuine trial because the counterpoise falls on the hold and punctured it.

Charles-Louis Ducrest, acquainted with Auxiron for common projects in hydraulics, observed the preliminary tests. He has witnessed that the boat did not succeed to move, for which he incriminated engine weakness. The engine was of the old Newcomen type which weighs about one ton for each horsepower output - an unbearable burden.

__________

IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

NOTE A - On the aftermath of the initial failure.

Claude Jouffroy d’Abbans, ex-officer aged 23, rallies the company in 1774. He will further achieve to steam in two steps, in 1776 then in 1783.

Jacques-Constantin Périer, a mastermind of innovative industry, has also been appealed by the projects of the highly commendable Auxiron, which he has taken over, both for water adduction and for steamboat, just after Auxiron’s failure and apparent resignation. In 1775, Périer, aged 33, tries to follow on Auxiron’s experiment by his own one. No detail is known, except the base in the Swan island on the Seine in Paris, but it is certain that he fails to move his boat.

With his brother, he will now focus on water adduction and on propagation of Watt’s steam machines over French industry. He founds the Compagnie des Eaux de Paris in 1778 and successfully sets the first ‘pompe à feu’ in 1781.

He will, much later, turn again to navigation with Robert Fulton in 1802-03.

NOTE B - On the Newcomen engine and its nautical fate.

Moving a boat through steam power is an old dream. Yet the Newcomen engine, extremely heavy, is not fit for the purpose. In 1753, the Académie Royale des Sciences organized a context on the 'moyens de suppléer à l'action des vents pour la marche des vaisseaux'. Daniel Bernoulli, 53 years old, famed for his Hydrodynamica (1738), worked out that the largest engine of those days, a 25-hp one, could only move a 74-gun ship at two knots. He suggested to employ horses instead.

Despite the expert's opinion, the dream of moving a boat through a Newcomen engine has continued. In America, it was attempted by William Henry in 1763, in France, after Auxiron, we will see Périer and Jouffroy d'Abbans.

it is worth noting that Henry's boat sunk, as Auxiron's one, and later the first Fulton's one. Too heavy the engine, too thin the hull.

__________

SUGGESTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Under the direction of Maurice Daumas - Histoire Générale des Techniques, tome III, L'Expansion du Machinisme - Paris, 1968

__________

CREDIT

Alexandre Roslin - Portrait of Henri Léonard Bertin - oil on canvas, circa 1780 - © Château de Montréal, Issac