Show W h anve le a ra A 4 it kli 44 A za av 41 HO invented the S s steamboat te a mboag B ask sli ten americano American 8 views th tant s t q u 0 n and the W ell conces ances are that nine jf I 1 out of the ten kemem r bering a few N ing ng names in their school histories will answer robert nobert fulton thereby brov ing once e more what a strange jumble of fact and fiction Is the average americans conception ot 01 the history of hla his country for the question ot of who deserves credit for inventing the a steamboat team boat has recently started another of those controversies over historical matters which sometimes re suits in clearing up certain disputed points in the annals of our nation more often it does not principally be celluse the partisans never seem able to agree upon a strict definition of terms without which it Is virtually impossible to settle such disputes conclusively clu in this paril particular cular case the word inventor Is the crux of the situation while popular opinion accords that distinction to robert fulton and in 1000 1900 he was elect elected 1 I to the hall of fame at new york u university Iver sity as the inventor of the steamboat being the fir first S t inventor lind and the ninth american chosen b osen to membership among americas ic aa immortals his right to that title haa bis been challenged on behalf of no le less s than eight other americans outstanding among these claims Is that in b behalf of john fitch who it ll Is asserted ted made a successful trip on the delaware river in a steamboat which lie be had designed more than 20 years before F Ful tons historic voyage up the hudson in the clermont fitcha right to the title of inventor Is supported by his descendants w who lie ore are members of the fitch family association they have bomin nominated at ed hla his name ame for inclusion in the hall of fame at t new york university with the demand that either the name and bust of pulton fulton be removed or that those of F pitch itch be added they are planning plan ning a nationwide nation wide celebration la in I 1 1035 to mark th the e one hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of t the he invention of the steamboat team boat by fitch in 1785 and they ask ABU th that t this celebration be glyen given recognition tion by the government and that public agencies and national patriotic societies operate cooperate co in it as they did in the hudson fulton celebration of 1807 1907 they base their contention that fitch rather than fulton was the in of the steamboat upon certain official acts of the government the chief one being that both houses of con congress greis by a unanimous u a vote approved on february 12 1020 1026 an appropriation of for a suitable monument to fitch as the first in the worlds history to successfully apply steam propulsion of vessels through water this memorial was unveiled may alay 27 1827 in the public square in bardstown Bards town ky where pitch fitch died july 2 1798 in poverty and despair of proving to an unbelieving world the practical value of a steamboat they point out too that the abe labels on the models of at steamboats in the smithsonian institution bears out their contention that he was the inventor these labels read as follows JOHN STEAMBOAT designed by john fitch built in phil adelphia in 1780 and first tested on the delaware river july 27 of that year when a successful public trial was made equipped with a steam engine ngone which connected by geard ma cz P to N chinery sprocket wheel and chain operated six oars placed vertically in a frame on en each side of the boat boal in 1788 fitch completed his first commercial boat for carrying gera and nd it was driven in a similar manner this boat was CO feet long and 8 feet wide she made a trip from philadelphia lit to burlington about 20 miles mile s in july 1788 the longest ever made by any steamboat up to that date october 12 1788 the boat took 80 passengers from philadelphia to burlington in 3 hours and 10 minutes a speed of over six miles an hour in 1700 fitch built another boat which attained a speed of eight miles an hour and continued to run on the delaware river carrying passengers and freight tor for three or four months STEAMBOAT propelled by jets of water forced out through the stern tested on the potomac river at shepherdstown Shepherds town va 1787 STEAMBOAT CLE NT 1807 designed b by y robert nobert pulton fulton built in the tha city of new bew york and made its ita first trip from that city to albany in august 1807 11 of these labels the one on fitcha model Is the only one which uses words successful public trial if then a successful public trial Is proof of Invent invention lon it would seem that there Is no doubt as to the right of fitch to be given tile the of inventor of the steamboat steam boaL however there are those whose definition of In enlon s a vastly different one and they assert that no one person can claim the credit for the invention of the steamboat of the other inventors ot at the steamboats steamboat the volume the ala march ach 0 of f commerce by malcom keir belr in I 1 the h e yale university press pageant of america has this to say samuel morey of new hampshire who began experimenting with a steamboat in 1700 1790 built a paille wheel steamer mer which tn in 1794 ran from hartford to new york at a of about 15 miles allea an hour this boal had the paddle wheel at the stern A later boat of moneys Mo reys built at bordentown Bordeo Borden town on the delaware was operated with two side paddle wheels others alio were seized with the steam mania mania 1 na as it was derisively called at the time were william longn Long longstreet treet of new jersey whose boat made five miles an hour against the current of the sa vannah river in 1700 1790 and elijah ormsbee of connecticut who made paddles to imitate ducks feet and operated them by steam la in a boat that ile he nav legated from cranston to providence providenc and pawtucket and return oliver evans who invented the high pressure steam engine and tubular boiler applied it to moving boats as well as highway wagons and mills steam dredges adges built by bi him su buch ch as the operated in 1801 through the water under their own power robert it K livingston afterward associated with fulton built a steamboat and ran it on the hudson john evans of hoboken N J experimented with a half dozen different steamboats after 1701 and eventually hit upon the idea of the screw propeller in place of the more usual setting poles paddles oars or paddle wheels stevens himself however soon discarded the screw propeller in favor of paddle wheels and it was not until years later in 1839 th atthe screw propeller received further attention benjamin franklin who had a finger in nearly every pie that was cook ing during his lifetime was a wern mem her of an association head headed edby by james jame rumsey a native of maryland that hat proposed to try franklins idea of propelling a boat by sucking in water at the bow ond and ejecting it at the ate abern A boat was built and run on this pr principle by ramsey humsey in 1787 a steam pump being the means of ejecting the water rumsey had bad in 1784 exhibited a steamboat before general washington at bath va in this earlier boat the power had been steam applied by cranks ran k to a series of setting poles fitch who had applied tor for state m monopolies 0 no over steamboats bontea contea contested te d ramseys Rum Ram invention so rumsey Ilu rosey took his ideas to london but died there in 1792 1702 before they became practical in n mentioning the men who contributed to the success of the steamboat there Is one name which cannot justly be omitted fitch fulton and the others othera had built steamboats which would operate on genty gently flowing bodies of water la in the east but it remained for another man to tame the swift waters of the tha west fulton and livingston tr tried I 1 ed it and tailed failed but henry shreve whose name Is perpetuated in the city of shreveport la succeeded shreve called his boat the washington and in it he made two round trips between louisville ky and new orleans making the return trip in n the then unbelievably fast time of 25 days or less leas than a fourth of the it tool took the bargemen bargeman bar gemen and keelboat pole men to make the same distance fro from that time on steamboats went everywhere no matter how swift t the cut cur rent they had bad to buck W by newspaper New paper Un union lott I 1 |