History Of Steamboat Essay, Research Paper

In the 1700’s people began producing products in a brand new way. This was thanks to the amazing inventions that people made. During this period, growth in the cities begane to grow. The factories

sprouted up everywhere. People used to work on the farms , but it became hard to compete with big farms, so some people moved to the cities to work in the factories. This great time is known as the Industrial Revolution. Steamboat, steam-driven vessel, in common use during the 19th and early 20th centuries to carry passengers and goods across bodies of water (see Boats and Boatbuilding). Steamboats are also called paddle-wheel boats. The term steamship usually refers to larger, ocean-going, propeller-driven vessels, such as the cruise ships of the mid-20th century (see Ships and Shipbuilding). In the early 1700s French and inventor Denis Papin experimented with ideas for steam-driven boats. However, it was not until after engineer James Watt made a number of improvements to the steam during the last third of the 18th century that the first functional steamboats appeared. Early models of steamboats include the steam-driven paddle-wheel boat built by French nobleman Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans and tested on the Satne River in 1783. American inventor John Fitch built and tested the working steamboat in the United States in 1786. In 1790 launched the first regular and freight service, from Philadelphia to New Jersey. His venture failed and passed before the public fully supported steamboat transport. About 1800 Scottish inventor Symington built the Charlotte Dundas, which worked as a tug. American and inventor Robert Fulton designed the first successful steamboat in the United States, the Clermont. In 1807 traveled in it from New York City to Albany, a distance of 150 miles, in a running time of 30 hours (he made stops along the way). This was a major improvement over the tow barges and sailing vessels that had been the means of upstream transport until then. In 1809 American inventor and engineer John Stevens took a steamboat of his design, the Phoenix, down the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to Philadelphia, the first time a steamboat was used in the ocean. Stevens subsequently launched a steam-powered ferry service. Soon steamers were sailing regularly on rivers and along coasts. Early steamboats had relatively low power and thus proved most useful on calmer bodies of water such as lakes wide, slow-moving rivers. Such vessels were important for transporting people and goods, especially on the southern portions of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Romanticized in the works of American writer author Mark Twain and others, some steamboats were rough and uncomfortable, while others were luxurious and had elaborate woodwork and

decorations. Steamboats became less important for transportation when faster forms of transport appeared (see Public Transportation). Rail and road transport took as the primary means of people and goods to from cities, even those with river access. Restored steamboats and motorboats built to resemble steamboats still travel many bodies of water as ferries and tourist attractions.

First steamboat to attempt to ply the Mississippi, the S.S. New Orleans was launched September 11, 1811. The fledgling ship, however, was unable to trundle upstream. Five years later, the steamboat Washington embarked on its maiden voyage. The 148-foot, 400-ton Washington was fitted with sidewheels, a rear paddlewheel, two decks that rose high above the water and two tall chimneys. Its design inspired spectators to call her a “floating wedding cake”. The contemporary and elegant Washington would set a new standard for thousands of US riverboats. Progress notwithstanding, the large river-going ships traveled at a lumbering pace. The slow engine, powered by wood until the mid 1800s, and subsequently by coal, caused the paddlewheel to straggle in the waters.

Ultimately, old boilers gave way to new high-pressure boilers… and a new set of problems. Constructed with poor quality materials, the boilers were prone to explosions. The breakthrough came at the end of the 19th Century, when steel was first used to fashion a more pressure-resistant boiler. The train, however, had in the meantime emerged as the transportation mode of choice throughout the continent, relegating such celebrated steamboats as the Natchez, the Robert E. Lee and the 37-meter (122 feet) long and 8-meter (26 feet) wide Chaperon to the annals of history.

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