Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Transport, Invention, Steamships

    Discusses the impact of a 'new contrivance', announced in the New York Express, allowing 'a man to float' in a river 'as long as he chooses, only using his finger to propel himself'. Argues that this will ruin the steamboat service and describes the many possible benefits of the invention, including the fact that 'a mother will be able to take her family by water to Margate, stopping on their way at Erith for dinner, and land on the pier at the same time as the steamer, without having paid sixpence for the fare'.