ROBERT FULTON, THE INVENTOR OF THE STEAMBOAT
How boats were driven
128. The Invention of the Steamboat. Once there were no steam engines to drive boats. On sea and river they were driven by wind, and on canals they were pulled along by horses.
Inventors before Fulton
James Rumsey on the Potomac, John Fitch on the Delaware, and William Longstreet on the Savannah had each invented and tried some kind of steamboat, before Robert Fulton.
Fulton was born of Irish parents, in New Britain, Pennsylvania, in 1765. At the age of three he lost his father. Young Fulton had a great taste for drawing, painting, and inventing.
ROBERT FULTON
After the painting by Benjamin West
He went to Philadelphia, then the largest city in the Union, when he was twenty, and engaged in painting and drawing. His first savings were given to his widowed mother to make her comfortable.
Studied under Benjamin West
Fulton finally decided to be an artist, and went to England to make his home with Benjamin West, a great painter who once lived at Philadelphia.
Influenced to become an engineer
There he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, who influenced him to become a civil engineer. Fulton now met James Watt, who had greatly improved the steam engine. At one time the young man aided Watt in building an engine.
Meets Livingston in France
Fulton next went to France, where he became interested in plans for inventing diving boats, torpedoes, and steamboats. Here he met Robert R. Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, then United States Minister to France. Livingston took a deep interest in his experiments in driving boats by steam, and furnished him the means to make them.
Fulton's trial boats
Fulton made a "model" boat, which he left in France. Shortly afterward, he built a boat twenty-six feet long and eight feet wide. In this vessel he put a steam engine. The trial trips proved beyond a doubt that steamboats could be made.
Twenty years' rights
Livingston believed in Fulton and his steamboat. When he returned to New York, Livingston obtained from the legislature the right to navigate the waters of the state by steam for twenty years. The one condition was that the boat should go against the current of the Hudson at the rate of four miles an hour.
Gets engine in England
The "Clermont"
Fulton got his engine from the inventors, Watt and Boulton, in England—the only place where suitable engines could be found. The engine came in 1806. A boat called the Clermont was built to carry it. She was one hundred thirty feet long and eighteen feet wide. She had a mast with a sail. At both ends she was decked over, and in the middle the engine was placed. Two large side-wheels dipped two feet into the water.
SCENE ON A CANAL
129. The "Clermont" Moves. At one o'clock in the afternoon of August 7, 1807, a great crowd gathered to see the first voyage of the Clermont. Many people did not expect to see the vessel go. They believed Fulton and Livingston had spent their money for nothing. Fulton gave his signal from the deck of the Clermont. The people looked on in astonishment as the boat moved steadily up the pathway of the Hudson.
A great victory for Fulton and Livingston
The Clermont kept on going till out of sight, and the crowds of wondering people went home hardly believing the evidence of their eyes. Up the river, against the current of the mighty Hudson, she made her way till Albany was reached. She had gone one hundred fifty miles in thirty-two hours, and won a great victory for Fulton and Livingston.
Name of boat changed to "North River"
When winter came the Clermont was taken out of the water and rebuilt. They covered her from stem to stern with a deck. Under the deck they built two cabins, with a double row of berths. Everything was done to make her attractive in the eyes of the people. They changed her name to the North River. In the spring she made her trips regularly up and down the Hudson.
THE "CLERMONT"
Steamboats appear on different rivers
130. Steamboats on All the Rivers. In 1809 a steamboat was built on Lake Champlain, another on the Raritan, and a third on the Delaware. From this time forward, steamboats, carrying passengers and freight from place to place, began to appear on all the great rivers in the settled portions of the United States.
WATCHING THE "CLERMONT" ON ITS FIRST VOYAGE UP THE HUDSON
People along the Ohio frightened
In 1811 a steamboat was built on the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. It started on its trip down the beautiful Ohio. People gathered on the banks of the river to see it go by. The steamboat, at first, made a frightful noise. Hence when it came to places where news traveled slowly, the people were sometimes frightened, and the negroes, terror stricken, ran crying into the woods.
A steamboat helped Jackson
In 1814 a steamboat carried supplies to General Jackson at New Orleans, and helped him to win the great battle fought there.
Seven steamboats were running on the Ohio and the Mississippi at the close of the War of 1812. Before another year went by, a steamboat had made its way from New Orleans against the currents of the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers to Louisville, laden with goods from Europe.
The steamboat had now won a place on the American rivers. It aided in the rapid settlement of the country. It made travel quick and easy, and it carried the goods of settlers up and down the rivers.
Robert Fulton dies, 1815
Robert Fulton died in 1815, deeply mourned by all his countrymen, and was buried in Trinity churchyard, New York City.
Steamboats carry goods up the Mississippi
Erie Canal across New York
131. The Erie Canal. Before Fulton invented the steamboat, supplies had been carried to the western settlers over the mountains from the East. Now, however, steamboats puffed up the Mississippi from New Orleans loaded down with goods that had been brought all the way from Europe. The settlers could get all the supplies they wanted and at a much lower cost. For this reason the merchants of New York and the East were in danger of losing all their trade with the settlers. They saw that they must have some connection with the West by water, and so they planned the Erie Canal. It took seven years to dig. When it was finished it was three hundred sixty-three miles long, forty feet wide, and four feet deep. The depth was later increased to seven feet. It stretched straight across the state of New York from Lake Erie to the Hudson River.
In the autumn of 1825, when the canal was finished, there was a great celebration. A "fleet" of canal boats carried Governor Clinton of New York and a number of other distinguished men across the state.
New York recovered her trade
The merchants of the East were no longer afraid of the Mississippi route, for they had a route of their own. The canal became the great highway of commerce from the East to the West and from the West to the East. New York recovered her trade, and flourishing cities grew up along the canal.
But there were cities in the East that could not use the canal. Farther south they could not dig a canal across the mountains. All their goods had to be carried over the Cumberland Gap on the backs of horses. But a new means of travel and transportation had been invented, which was to far surpass the steamboat and which was to help every city no matter where located.
The first railroad
132. Railroad Building. The first railroad in America was a very rude affair. There were no "palace cars" or steel rails, nor did the trains run at a speed of sixty miles an hour. Instead, cars that looked like huge wagons ran on wooden rails and were dragged along by horses.
Stephenson's "Puffing Billy"
But George Stephenson had thought out a plan for a machine that would pull the cars along by steam. He called his engine "Puffing Billy." He kept at work always improving it. In 1825, after eleven years of hard work, he made an engine that could pull both passengers and freight.
The first long railroad
In 1828 the first long railroad in America was started. A great ceremony took place. It was a very solemn occasion. Charles Carroll, the only living signer of the Declaration of Independence, drove the first spade into the ground where the first rail was to be laid. As he did so he said, "I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the Declaration of Independence." This railroad was the famous Baltimore & Ohio.
Inventors continued to improve the locomotive. In 1831 an American company built one which ran at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. At that time that was considered a very rapid rate.
By rail from Boston to Buffalo
Since then railroad building and transportation have improved wonderfully. By 1842 one could travel by rail from Boston to Buffalo. But it was not until ten years later that Chicago was connected by rail with the East.
To the Pacific coast
Gradually the railroads spread a network over the country. In 1857 St. Louis and Chicago were connected. A railroad to the Pacific coast was much needed, and Congress voted an appropriation of $50,000,000 for the work. By 1869 the great work was completed. Other lines to the coast were started, and to-day many railroads cross the mountains, connecting the Pacific with the North, South, and Atlantic regions.