Steam

The Untold Story of America's First Great Invention

Andrea Sutcliffe

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781466892620
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

In 1807, Robert Fulton, using an English mail-order steam engine, chugged four miles an hour up the Hudson River, passing into popular folklore as the inventor of the steamboat. However, the true first passenger steamboat in America, and the world, was built from scratch, and plied the Delaware River in 1790, almost two decades earlier. Its inventor, John Fitch, never attained Fulton's riches, and was rewarded with ridicule and poverty. Considering there was not a single working steam engine in America in the early 1780s, Fitch's steamboat's development was nothing short of remarkable. But he faced competition from the start, and he and several other inventors fought a string of bitter battles, legal and otherwise. Steam tells the dramatic story of Fitch and his adversaries, weaving their lives into a fascinating tale including the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the story behind America's first important venture in technology, the persevering and colorful men that made it happen, and the great invention that moved a new nation westward.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Notice
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Stream-boats and Steamboats
• 2. A Ridiculous Idea
• 3. Brother Saintmakers
• 4. The War of the Pamphlets
• 5. The Columbian Maid
• 6. Lord High Admirals of the Delaware
• 7. The First and True Inventor
• 8. “All Further Progress Is in Vain”
• 9. Leeches and Sharks
• 10. Mother Clay
• 11. The French Connection
• 12. Steamboat Collisions
• 13. John Fitch’s Ghost
• Epilogue
• Chronology
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright