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CHAPTER IV
LONGSTREET.'S EXPERIMENTS WITH THE STEAMBOAT—TWENTY YEARS IN
ADVANCE OF FULTON.HE WAS SUCCESSFULLY APPLYING STEAM TO
NAVIGATION ON THE SAVANNAH RIVER—PATENT GRANTED TO BRIGGS
AND LONGSTKEET IN 1787——AN IMPORTANT HISTORICAL DOCUMENT——
STILL PRESERVED IN THE ARCHIVES OF GEORGIA—THE ONLY PATENT
EVER ISSUED BY THE STATE FOR AN INVENTION—GRANTED' BEFORE THE
ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION—DESCRIPTION OF LONG-
STREET'S STEAMBOAT—How PBOPELLED—STRUGGLES AND MISFOR
TUNES—LONGSTREET'S GRAVE IN OLD ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD OVER
LOOKING THE SCENE OF His EXPERIMENTS ON THE SAVANNAH RIVER.
At least twenty years before Robert Fulton became known to the
scientific world as the inventor of the steamboat, "William Longstreet
was making crude experiments with a steam propeller on the Savannah
River, near Augusta. It was fully as early as the year 1787 when he
first conceived the idea of applying steam as a motive power to naviga
tion ; and, after tinkering all day, he would sometimes lie awake all night
thinking of the wonderful engine which he felt sure would in time revo
lutionize the commerce of the globe. The inspired prophets of the olden
time could not read the future more distinctly than did William Long-
street. He could see the ocean greyhounds plowing through the high
seas. He could almost hear the screech of the steam whistle.
On February 1, 1788, an act was passed by the General Assembly
at Augusta conferring upon two inventors, Isaac Briggs and William
Longstreet, exclusive patent rights for a term of fourteen years, to a
steam engine, constructed by them for the purposes of navigation. There
are certain things, in regard to this legislative act, which give it a
peculiar interest to students of American history. In the first place, it
constitutes the only patent ever issued by the State of Georgia. At this
time, the Articles of Confederation were still in vogue, but within a few
months a new central government was organized, under the Federal
Constitution of 1787, after which the right to issue patents became a
special prerogative of the United States.
We must furthermore observe that the date of this patent is anterior,
by nearly two full decades, to the successful experiments made by Robert
Fulton on the Hudson River, in 1807. It was also the first patent for a
steamboat ever granted. Just what part Isaac Briggs took in the con
struction of this pioneer steamboat is unknown; but tradition credits
William Longstreet with a series of experiments on the Savannah River,
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