BELL, Henry, an ingenious mechanic, well known for his successful application of steam-power to the propulsion
of ships, was born at Torphichen in Linlithgowshire, in 1767. Having received the ordinary education of a parish school, he was apprenticed to his uncle, a mill-wright; and, after qualifying himself as a ship-modeller at Borrowstowness, went to London, where he found employment under Rennie, the celebrated engineer. Returning to Scotland in 1790, he first settled as a carpenter at Glasgow, and afterwards removed to Helensburgh, on the Firth of Clyde, where his wife superintended a large inn, together with the public baths, while he pursued his mechanical projects, and also found occasional employment as an engineer. It was not until January 1812 that he gave a practical solution of the difficulties which had beset all previous experimenters, by producing a steamboat of about twenty-five tons, propelled by an engine of three-horse power, at a speed of seven miles an hour. A particular account of this vessel, which he named the "Comet," as well as of the experiments of his predecessors in the same line, will be found under the head STEAM NAVIGATION. It will there be seen that, although the honour of priority, by about four years, is admitted to belong to Robert Fulton, an American engineer, it appears to admit of no doubt that Fulton had received very material assistance in the construction of his vessel from Bell and others in this country. The latter days of this ingenious man were rendered comfortable by a handsome sum subscribed for him among the citizens of Glasgow; and he also received from the trustees of the river Clyde a pension of £100 a-year. He died at Helensburgh, November 14. 1830.