 "I have no pretensions," said Fulton, "to be the first inventor of the steamboat.Hundreds of others have tried it and failed.Neither do I pretend to the right to navigate steamboats, except in New York... That to which I claim an exclusive right is the so proportioning the boat to the power of the engine and the velocity with which the wheels of the boat, or both, move with the maximum velocity attainable by the power, and the construction of the whole machine."