As Mr.Stephenson observed at the engineer's meeting: "Mr.Smith had worked from a platform which might have been raised by others, as Watt had done, and as other great men had done; but he had made a stride in advance which was almost tantamount to a new invention.

It was impossible to overrate the advantages which this and other countries had derived from his untiring and devoted patience in prosecuting the invention to a successful issue." Baron Charles Dupin compared the farmer Smith with the barber Arkwright: "He had the same perseverance and the same indomitable courage.

These two moral qualities enabled him to triumph over every obstacle." This was the merit of "Screw" Smith--that he was determined to realize what his predecessors had dreamt of achieving; and he eventually accomplished his great purpose.
Footnotes for Chapter II.
[1] In the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects for 1860, it was pointed out that the general dimensions and form of bottom of this ship were very similar to the most famous line-of-battle ships built down to the end of last century, some of which were then in existence.
[2] According to the calculation of Mr.Chatfield, of Her Majesty's dockyard at Plymouth, in a paper read before the British Association in 1841 on shipbuilding.
[3] The phrase "wooden walls" is derived from the Greek.

When the city of Athens was once in danger of being attacked and destroyed, the oracle of Delphi was consulted.

The inhabitants were told that there was no safety for them but in their "wooden walls,"-- that is their shipping.