U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 4: Transportation Revolution

Steamboats

The steamboat was one of the first NEW transportation technologies in America, producing many improvements that would change the nation both economically and politically. Technologically speaking, the steamboat is very complicated. Major components that needed to be developed included a boiler to supply the steam, a propelling device for the boat, and a design for the hull. Due to the numerous complicated items, there are four different men who can contend that they are responsible for the development of steamboats. These men are John Fitch, John Rumsey, John Stevens, and Robert Fulton.

In the 1780’s both Fitch and Rumsey became inspired to try to connect a steam engine to a propulsion source, and both men applied for patents for their different steamboat designs. Stevens also worked on a design for the steamboat. In 1801 Fulton, a French civil engineer, signed a contract to build a trial steamship. He would build this steamboat in France and if it were successful bring it to the United States.

The trials in France were successful, and within four years, in the spring of 1807, the first steamboat sailed up the Hudson River. Its destination was Albany; it sailed at the rate of five miles an hour. Within the next few years steamboats were cruising along not just the Hudson River, but the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware River, and before long the Mississippi River as well as in the Great Lakes.

In their day, there was no faster way to travel than in a steamboat. Even at the speed of five miles an hour, a steamboat was faster than the typical horse and buggy, and much faster than a flatboat. For example, the river trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans on a flatboat would take a month to six weeks and up to four months for the trip up the river back to Pittsburgh. However, on a steamboat, the same round trip took a mere 25 days.

Consider reading Cowan’s section on Steamboats that runs from pages 105 to 112. She discusses more than just the invention of the steamboat and the use of it; she discusses the changes it brought about and the legal and political problems it brought with it.

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