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In 1785 he assisted his brother George in building a steam engine to James Watt’s design at the neighbouring village of Wanlockhead, Dumfriesshire He had the idea of a steam powered carriage and built a working model with a ratchet and chain drive, then during the following year was sent by the lead mine manager to the University of Edinburgh as a science student. William Symington found a way to improve Watt's engine using ideas from the Newcomen engine, and in 1787 patented the Improved Atmospheric Engine.

The banker Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, just north of Dumfries, had experimented with double hulled pleasure boats propelled by cranked paddlewheels placed between the hulls, and on seeing the steam-carriage model (or on the suggestion of Symington's friend James Taylor), he got Symington to build the patent steam engine with its drive into a boat which was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch near Miller's house on the 14th October, 1788. The next year a larger engine was fitted to a 60 ft (18 m) long twin hull paddle boat and tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal. After initial problems on 2nd December of paddle wheels breaking up, on 26th and 27th December 1789Events January 7 First nationwide United States election January 21 The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth is printed in Boston, Massachusetts January 23 Georgetown College becomes the first Catholic coll the vessel travelled some distance along the canal at a "motion of nearly seven miles an hour". Miller had been complaining about the cost of the venture, and he then abandoned the project. Symington then had a successful career building steam pumping engines and mill engines. In 1793Events January 2 Russia and Prussia partition Poland January 9 Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States. January 21 After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, "Citizen Capet" ie. Louis XVI of Fran he developed a drive using a pivoted crosshead beam above the vertical cylinder to transmit power to a crank.

A boat was built to Symington's design with a vertical cylinder engine and crosshead drive to the paddlewheels, and was tried out successfully on the river Carron in June 1801Events January 1 Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. January 1 Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first (and largest) asteroid Ceres. January 20 J. According to one source this boat was named the "Charlotte Dundas" in honour of his lordship's daughter, and the trials included towing sloopImportant notice ''This article is about the modern civilian boat type. For the warships of the 1800s to World War II, see Sloop-of-war. In sailing, a sloop is a vessel with a single mast on which is hoisted a fore-and-aft mainsail and a single jib, pluss from the river ForthThe River Forth 47 km (29 miles) long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland. The Forth rises in Loch Ard in The Trossachs, a mountain range some 30 km (19 miles) west of Stirling. It flows roughly eastward, through up the Carron and thence along the Forth and Clyde Canal. There was concern about wave damage to the canal banks, and possibly the boat was found to be underpowered on the canal, so the canal company refused further trials.

Symington then designed a new hull around his design of a more powerful horizontal engine directly linked to a crank (which he patented in 1801Events January 1 Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. January 1 Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the first (and largest) asteroid Ceres. January 20 J) driving a large paddle wheel in a central upstand in the hull, designed with the aim of avoiding damage to the canal banks. A model of the boat was made and shown to Lord Dundas, and this boat was named Charlotte Dundas after his Lordship's daughter. Symington apparently also showed the model to Lord Bridgewater in London, and obtained an order for eight similar boats. The first sailing of the (new) Charlotte Dundas was on the canal in Glasgow on 4th January 1803, with Lord Dundas and a few of his relatives and friends on board. After Symington made some improvements, in March 1803 the Charlotte Dundas towed two 70 ton barges 30 km (almost 20 miles) along the Forth and Clyde Canal to Glasgow. This was the first towing boat, and demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships.

Plans to introduce boats on the Forth and Clyde canal were thwarted, largely by fears of erosion of the banks. Symington was not paid all he had invested in construction of the Charlotte Dundas and was left disappointed, but the development of steamboats was continued by others including Fulton in the USA and Henry Bell in Britain.