VI. ON THE STEAM BOATS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



BY JAMES RENWICK, LL.D. 



PROFESSOR OF NATURAL EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND CHEMISTRY IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 



NEW YORK. 



THE application of the steam engine to the purposes of navigation attracted the attention of 

 many persons in the United States at an early period. No sooner had Watt's improvements 

 become known, than the circumstances of the population of that country, and its very geo- 

 graphical character, pointed out the propulsion of vessels, as the most important of the 

 many uses to which that powerful agent may be made subservient. The Atlantic coast, 

 with the exception of the extreme north eastern part, is either intersected by deep bays, or 

 covered by islands. By these means a navigation parallel to the coast might, at small ex- 

 pense, be extended from New York to the southern limit of Georgia; and in the opposite 

 direction, the Hudson River and Lake Champlain pointed out the means of extending the 

 water communication to the frontiers of Canada. These natural advantages have been im- 

 proved by artificial means, and at the present moment, an internal navigation exists from the 

 boundary of the British possessions to the sounds which line the coast of North Carolina. 



The parts of this navigation which have required no artificial improvement, are large and 

 deep rivers, lakes, sounds, and arms of the sea. In these, although transportation was secure 

 from the storms and waves which affect the open sea, yet this very security was gained at the 

 expense of time, so long as the currents of the atmosphere were the only power which could 

 be applied. 



The accession of the vast territory known under the collective name of Louisiana, but now 

 divided among many states and territories, opened a still wider field for navigation by steam. 

 The Mississipi and its innumerable branches comprise navigable waters of many thousands of 

 miles in extent, but which, from the rapidity of their currents, are almost inaccessible from 

 the Gulf of Mexico, either by sails or oars. The population of the territories traversed by 

 these streams is sparse and scattered, almost wholly devoted to agricultural pursuits, and yet 

 feeling the wants, and desiring the luxuries of the highest civilization. To supply these wants, 

 and furnish these luxuries, rapid methods of transportation, as well as great foreign importa- 

 tions, are demanded ; and there are no means yet discovered by which these purposes could 

 have been effected, except by the steam boat. 



Influenced by such considerations, attempts to apply steam to the purposes of navigation 

 were made in the United States, even before Watt had succeeded in giving a double action to 

 his engine. The earliest enterprises of this sort were those of Fitch and Rumsey, which both 

 bear the date of 1783. Both were founded upon the original form of Watt's engine, and both 



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