300 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



not bronglit into practical use until 1801. He constructed his locomotive 

 in 1804. 



The history of these two grand Motors, Water power and High Pressure 

 steam, in their numerous applications for the development of every branch 

 of manufactures in this country, are daily and nightly performing work 

 which would require the manual power of millions of men, cannot now be 

 given. J^eithor will any description be attempted of the many mechanical 

 devices which, originating lierc, have attained world-wide celebrity. 



STEAM-VESSELS. 



The plans of Evans for locomotion upon land made no impression on the 

 public, after its attention had been arrested by the brilliant achievements 

 of Fulton upon water.' After a long series of attempts to propel vessels 

 by steam power, first made by John Fitch in 1784, and continued by vari- 

 ous inventors for twenty years, Robert Fulton launched his successful 

 steamboat, the "Clermont," in 1807, and the problem was solved. Frovi 

 thai time and for fine years, the Hudson River loas the only river in the world 

 on which steamboats were used. In 1811, Fulton built at Pittsburgh the 

 first steamboat which floated on the waters of the Ohio. In 1860 the ton- 

 nage of the steamboats on the waters flowing in the valley of the ^Missis- 

 eippi was 250,000 tons. It is needless to add more than the fact, that the 

 number of steamboats navigating the rivers of the United Slates far 

 exceeds those found within all Europe. 



The successful voyage of the first steamship, the " Savannah," across 

 the Atlantic, in 1819, directed attention to the feasibility of navigating the 

 ocean by steam. Some 3'ears afterwards, it was demonstrated that a 

 steamer could carry coal sufficient to cross the Atlantic, v^'ithout the use 

 of sails; and from that time Commerce was greatly facilitated by the expe- 

 dition, regularity, and safety of steamships. It would be interesting to 

 trace the action of individual enterprise in this countr^^ from the opening 

 of the Panama Route, up to the time when the investments of a single 

 American, Cornelius Vanderbilt, in ocean steamers vastly exceeded those 

 of any other man in either hemisphere. 



CANALS. 



The subject of inland navigation very early occupied the attention of Gen. 

 Washington. Jnst after the close of the War for Independence, in 1784, 

 he presided at a commission which met for the purpose of taking into con- 

 sideration the best means of improving the navigation of the Potomac 

 River. This was the preliminary step which resulted in the construction 

 of a canal from the Potomac to the Ohio at Pittsburgh. The Western 

 Navigation Company, chartered by the State of New York in 1796, con- 

 structed a series of locks and short canals, uniting the headwaters of the 

 Mohawk with Oneida Lake, Oswego and Seneca rivers, also with Cayuga j 

 and Seneca lakes; thus allowing boats to pass from Schenectady 250 miles 

 westward, into the interior of the State. The success of this project, and 

 the peculiar formation of the land bordering on Lake Ontario, induced the 

 Legislature of this State to pass an Act for the construction of a canal 

 from the navigable headwaters of the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The 

 excavation was commenced in 1819, and the canal was completed in 1825. 



