SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



first steamboat on the Clyde and Forth was 

 launched by Symington, in 1802. And finally 

 Fulton steamed up the Hudson, in 1807, and 

 succeeded where Fitch had failed. The first 

 locomotive was placed into practical commission 

 in 1804, and the discovery that smooth wheels 

 were better for railroads than toothed wheels 

 was made in 1813. Then came the first suc- 

 cessful trip of a train drawn by a locomotive, 

 made by Stephenson, in 1829. Improvements in 

 railroading were accompanied by the invention of 

 the telegraph and telephone, the credit for which 

 is due to Wheatstone, Oersted, Henry, Morse, 

 Edison and Bell. Steam navigation across the 

 Atlantic ocean was inaugurated in 1838, and the 

 first trans-Atlantic cable between Europe and 

 North America was completed in 1866. The 

 postal and telegraph systems came rapidly into 

 use, with cheap postage and mailing facilities. 

 Capitalism penetrated into the remotest hamlets, 

 created a world after its own image wherever it 

 went, and at the same time abolished the element 

 of distance in human intercourse. 



From now on, scientific exploration trips to 



every quarter of the globe became a permanent 



feature of human life, and a network of scientific 



stations was spread over the surface of the earth 



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