Show INVENTION OF STEAMBOAT robert fulton given credit because ho he first made such travel a possibility science follows the custom of crediting as the inventor of anything the man who was first really successful in his invention and first made the invention a practical thing robert fulton was the tha first man to make steam navigation an everyday possibility and commercial success and he Is therefore looked upon ns as the father of steam navigation regarding symington fulton and the invention ol of the steamboat the encyclopedia britannica states the tha first practical steamboat was the tug charlotte dundas built by william symington and tried in the tha forth and clyde canal in 1802 the trial was successful but steam towing was abandoned for fear of injuring the banks of t the e canal ten years later henry bell built the comet with side paddle wheels which ran as a passenger steamer on the clyde but an earlier invention to follow up success was the america robert fulton who cafter after unsuccessful attempts on the seine fit ted a steamer on the hudson in 1807 with engines made of his design by boulton watt and brought steam navigation for the first time to commercial success if we trace the invention ven tion of the steamboat back however to the man who first drove a boat with a steam engine of his own invention we come to dents denis papin who in 1707 drove a model boat with a steam engine which he had invented and who had in 1690 proposed to use the piston rod of which he wa was s the inventor to drive the paddle wheels of boats |