Now of course Fulton wasn’t the inventor of the first steamboat, google North River Steamboat and you’ll often find it described as the “first vessel to demonstrate the viability of using steam propulsion for commercial water transportation.” Engineers and tinkerers had been trying to create practical steam-propelled boats for some time, experimenting with engine designs and different systems to use that energy to move the boat, such as oars and jet propulsion. The two men who are perhaps most famous for their roles in the early development of steam boating in this country are John Fitch and James Rumsey.
In addition to the actual challenges of exploring ways of making the new technology work, everyone striving to perfect the steamboat needed to secure and to keep financial backing and to protect what we call today their intellectual property. The task was made extremely difficult when the federal government of our very-new country was still hammering out its stance on patents and how to grant them—and on one day in August of 1791, the government awarded patents not just to both Fitch and Rumsey, but also to two other competing inventors, of similar systems, with so much overlap that some have described the patents as “effectively worthless.” Rumsey continued to pursue his work in Europe but died in 1792 without managing to develop a working steamboat with his latest ideas; Fitch lost his financial backing and died in Kentucky six years later.
Not only did the North River Steamboat complete a round-trip from New York City to Albany without incident, but Fulton and his associate, Chancellor Livingston, had secured a state-issued monopoly on the North River route if they could operate a ship reliably. The Livingston-Fulton partnership ran a packet service on the river, adding to the fleet as business expanded. Their monopoly was dissolved in 1824 after their deaths, opening the river for robust competition. By being the first to carry passengers under steam in 1807, Fulton’s steamboat earned her place in the history books.
Extra Credit
“Steam Navigation on the Hudson River”
Robert Fulton and the Clermont
Sea History Today is written by Shelley Reid, NMHS senior staff writer. Past issues can be read online by clicking here.
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