Ill 



STEAMBOAT DEVELOPMENT IN AMERICA 



THE next date on our " tree " is 1807, 

 and to see what Fulton's experiment 

 really was we must cross, in imagination, 

 the " herring pond ". 



The vast territory of the United States 

 was being opened up at a rapid rate from 

 the year of Independence. There were 

 many magnificent rivers, which proved a 

 far easier means of communication than 

 by crossing the trackless prairie. There- 

 fore we are not the least surprised to 

 find our American cousins turning seri- 

 ously to steam navigation. 



As far back as 1791 the United States 

 Legislature granted no fewer than four 

 patents for the use of different forms of 

 steam propulsion for river craft. Two 



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