The Maiden Voyage of Steam (Robert Fulton's "SS North River" aka "Clermont")

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  • Опубликовано: 1 дек 2024

Комментарии • 216

  • @bo7341
    @bo7341 3 года назад +251

    "I mean friends, girls, things like that" "Do you like boats?"
    I don't think it was meant to be funny, but that line had me rolling.

  • @Lemonidas75
    @Lemonidas75 2 года назад +17

    How proud people must have felt right there at that moment. :) A ship sailing against the wind, by itself, without rowing... Must have felt like a real victory over nature itself.

  • @bananacat4945
    @bananacat4945 3 года назад +66

    "Do you like boats?"-Robert Fulton, 1940

    • @geigertec5921
      @geigertec5921 3 года назад +16

      WWII in full swing. Robert Fulton gets a private meeting with President Roosevelt where he outlines the schematics for the world's first steam ship. Roosevelt is convinced and the super weapon is funded and brought into existance. The Germans are stunned when in 1942 a ship powered by steam paddle wheels - instead of sails - arrives in Berlin via the Rhine river. The German Kriegsmarine, comprised mostly of hand-screw-driven one-man turtle submarines and a few dozen two masted sloops is no match for the world's first functional steam warship. Cannon fire rings out and within a month Berlin has fallen, Emperor Hitler shoots himself with a musket, and the continent is saved from despotism.

    • @canuckprogressive.3435
      @canuckprogressive.3435 3 года назад +3

      @@geigertec5921 Nice little piece of creative writing!

    • @JK360noscope
      @JK360noscope Год назад

      Lmao he wasn't thinkin bout boats no more

    • @Jessa-RM
      @Jessa-RM Год назад

      ​@@geigertec5921brilliant

    • @jacobcreel3483
      @jacobcreel3483 11 месяцев назад +2

      I wish I could find a clip of just that exchange of words.

  • @kellyblack4897
    @kellyblack4897 2 года назад +20

    “Looked like someone strapped a sawmill to a barge, and then let it on fire” ….man they went hard back then!

  • @simonolsen9995
    @simonolsen9995 2 года назад +24

    Damn that was good. As a non-US amateur student of US history and culture, I really appreciate this channel. Great content, great style. Gentle, informative, reverent and good humored. Greetings from Australia. Thanks.

  • @lucakrokrowinkel9576
    @lucakrokrowinkel9576 2 года назад +22

    This is a pretty heart warming story.
    And how it all came together at the time with the weight brothers doing a fly by, truly highlights the greatness of man.

  • @HoldOffHunger
    @HoldOffHunger 3 года назад +32

    "...the ancients maintained, that in order to reach the gift of prophecy, a certain divine fury or madness was requisite..." ~ David Hume

  • @submergedstories
    @submergedstories 3 года назад +22

    Another great video! I love that you are doing so much Hudson River history now. Another legacy of Fulton's: is a modern day Fulton Street in both Manhattan and Brooklyn that marks either end of his ferry service connecting the two boroughs. You can think of it as one long cross-borough street connected by a ferry in b between!

    • @tedlitschauer9061
      @tedlitschauer9061 7 месяцев назад

      As a proud distant relative. We've been to both streets and his grave

  • @Corgis175
    @Corgis175 Год назад +2

    Finding all these stories of ships so fascinating.

  • @ebenezer1690
    @ebenezer1690 2 года назад +1

    You’ve scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had. Thank you thank you very much.

  • @Chord_
    @Chord_ 3 года назад +6

    Another fascinating video!
    I do honestly love the side-wheel steamers. I think they're absolutely gorgeous, and they lay on the precise intersection between 'quaintly antiquated' and 'shockingly modern.' I could genuinely listen to the stories of some of them for hours, they've utterly enraptured me.

    • @RexStewartoriginals
      @RexStewartoriginals 3 года назад +1

      That's great, because they are "absolutely gorgeous" as you so stated. So much so that I've been building them for collectors both here in the States and around the world for nearly 40 years. People think that the sternwheelers were the absolutes of steamboating, but the truth is the sidewheeler was 'front and center' in design. My documented models prove this.

  • @felixcat9318
    @felixcat9318 3 года назад +7

    This is a marvellous channel, historic, informative, interesting and entertaining, all delivered in a calm an genle manner.

  • @bigkujo6636
    @bigkujo6636 2 года назад +1

    I'm an old sailor and I just want to say how much I am enjoying your videos since I discovered the channel. Thank you!

  • @connorredshaw7994
    @connorredshaw7994 3 года назад +17

    I'm really enjoying these recent videos that you've done could watch them all day and not get bored great job keep it up👍

  • @GasoliniASMR
    @GasoliniASMR 2 года назад +6

    As a steam engine fan this was brilliant. Keep up the great work!

  • @Electriceye1984bySam
    @Electriceye1984bySam Год назад +1

    Very informative and pro production, thank you again for another great video❤

  • @skyllalafey
    @skyllalafey 2 года назад +8

    I'm not particularly into ships, still not entirely sure how I got recommended this channel* and yet have watched dozens of your videos recently. Excellent content!
    *I can only guess that it because I watch Tasting History and he did some Titanic episodes a few month ago

  • @jeffreyoldham55
    @jeffreyoldham55 3 года назад +2

    Well done, Tom & Emma!

  • @tedlitschauer9061
    @tedlitschauer9061 2 года назад +3

    Hey thank you for doing this video of my Great (x5) Uncle. Our family is real proud of him.

    • @statuselectricity3384
      @statuselectricity3384 7 месяцев назад

      Bro your last name isn't even fulton 💀 who told you that you were related too him

    • @tedlitschauer9061
      @tedlitschauer9061 7 месяцев назад

      @@statuselectricity3384 my middle name is Fulton. Tyvm. My grandmother's maiden name is Fulton. That would make Robert my (x5) great Uncle. Its literally on our official recorded family tree. My father was named after my his mother's maiden name and his cousins first name and my father passed his name down to me. Try to keep up on how names and relatives work.

    • @statuselectricity3384
      @statuselectricity3384 7 месяцев назад

      @@tedlitschauer9061 so you switched your last name too your middle name?

    • @tedlitschauer9061
      @tedlitschauer9061 7 месяцев назад

      @@statuselectricity3384 before my grandmother( on my dad's side - his mother ) got married to my grandfather (the Litschauer part) her last name name was Fulton ...and I'm obviously related to my grandparents. My father and I have the same full name Theodore "Fulton" Litschauer Sr & Jr.

  • @diamondstuddedpunchingbag4718
    @diamondstuddedpunchingbag4718 Год назад +1

    Wow....an old sailing ship, next to a replica of the first steam boat, next to the peak of sailing at the time, flown over by the first men in the air....WOW...what a time to be alive!!

  • @geigertec5921
    @geigertec5921 3 года назад +1

    One of the best, and underrated youtube creators. Lets spread the word of this amazing channel to everyone we can! Lets get him the 1,000,000 subscribers he deserves!

  • @johndavies1090
    @johndavies1090 2 года назад +12

    Absolutely fascinating; using that old silent film as background was a touch of genius. One of the early plastic kit companies, back about 1960 produced a model of the 'North River' - I saw one in a shop in North Wales, aged roughly 8 - and the German firm of Schrieberbogen offer a card kit of her.
    Ahem - two small points. The Charlotte Dundas, a Scottish built paddle tug on the Clyde Canal preceded Fulton's boat by four years, and another French ship was trialled before that. Charlotte Dundas, alas, was too successful for her own good, her paddle washing the banks away. And Mr Fulton's railroad idea was predated by a number of steam worked colliery railways in the north-east of England, connecting inland mines with drops on the River Tyne, twelve years or so before Stephenson's Stockton & Darlington railway, which was the world's first public (as opposed to private) steam worked railway.
    That aside, a brilliant, and very imaginative way of bringing a very important piece of history back to life. Several early (and great) American railroads began life as inclines or portage railways, connecting canals when hills got in the way - the Delaware & Hudson being one. How about your making a film about them, and the links between the two transport systems? (Or Commodore Vanderbilt, who sold his steamboats and bought into railroads.)

  • @jamesanderson3160
    @jamesanderson3160 3 года назад +2

    Thanks again for an amazing video Tom! Nothing else with this production quality and subject matter on the app. Always looking forward to your next upload!

  • @maxnikolenko2302
    @maxnikolenko2302 3 года назад +1

    Very glad that I found your chanel. Always educational, entertaining, never over the top or loud. I never sense any Attention seeking dramatization or words like WOW...AMAZING...COOL... UNREAL....UNBELIEVABLE.... WHAAAAAT??? ....SERIOUSLY???....or phrases such as " ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" .... "LMAOB" (laughing my ass off bro) ...."COME ON"...."LETS GO".... or my personal favorite....."STRAP IN YOUR SPIRITUAL SEATBELTS FOR A RIDE OF YOUR LIFE AS WE TRANSPORT OURSELVES INTO THE DISTANT PAST THROUGH THE IMAGINARY PORTAL OF TIME TO ENCOUNTER THE LAST MOMENTS OF....
    Thank you for not beeing that type of RUclips channel.

  • @AndyHappyGuy
    @AndyHappyGuy 3 года назад +1

    This is truly an amazing ship! Nice video as always Tom!

  • @secondraidcycling
    @secondraidcycling 2 года назад

    Really enjoyed this, thanks. Think its the first video I've seen of yours that doesn't have a hint of melancholy or tragedy, just triumph.

  • @awaitingthetrumpetcall4529
    @awaitingthetrumpetcall4529 2 года назад

    Absolutely enjoyed this documentary. Thank you for the history lesson.

  • @richardstrachmesserschmiti4979
    @richardstrachmesserschmiti4979 2 года назад

    EXCELLENT!!! Good job Fulton & Livingston

  • @Moejoedajoejoe
    @Moejoedajoejoe 2 года назад

    I appreciate the well-researched historical account. It fascinates the history nerd in me. The film nerd wants to watch the films to see what the methods were like back then and what they chose to tell, omit, and embellish as only Hollywood can. Cheers!

  • @SeriosProductions
    @SeriosProductions 3 года назад +24

    Very good production once again! Perhaps a look into the beginning of steam railroading in the US? I know this is mainly a maritime-centric channel but figured I'd ask.

    • @AlejandroFlores-Ibarra
      @AlejandroFlores-Ibarra 3 года назад +5

      Check out Anthony Dawson’s channel. He does videos on and has also written books about the first 50 or so years of the steam locomotive.

    • @SeriosProductions
      @SeriosProductions 3 года назад +3

      @@AlejandroFlores-Ibarra I shall! Thank you!

    • @pilotbug6100
      @pilotbug6100 2 года назад

      I quite am a railfan and would like that

  • @SQUAREHEADSAM1912
    @SQUAREHEADSAM1912 3 года назад +8

    If you ever get a chance you should look up the lake George paddle-wheelers of the 1800s. It’s very interesting.

    • @RexStewartoriginals
      @RexStewartoriginals 3 года назад +5

      Yes... Lake George had some interesting steamers, but nothing like the Hudson River. From New York to Albany and Troy, we hosted some of the most beautiful steamboats (walking beam types) and the most interesting walking beam towboats. However, i raise my glass to Lake George TICONDEROGA, MINNE HA-HA, and HORICON...as well as the two post modern steamers that followed them.

  • @ljpadilla564
    @ljpadilla564 3 года назад +1

    This is great thanks Tom!

  • @AndyHappyGuy
    @AndyHappyGuy 3 года назад

    I like these new videos on the Hudson!

  • @filipdemski8303
    @filipdemski8303 2 года назад

    Thank you Tom for this video! Good luck!

  • @tamasmarcuis4455
    @tamasmarcuis4455 3 года назад +5

    The Charlotte Dundas was before this in 1803 in Scotland. It was the SECOND successful steam boat and the FIRST to demonstrate the successful use of steam at sea therefore for ships.

    • @furripupau
      @furripupau 2 года назад +1

      John Fitch was running a steamboat for paying passengers in 1790. Fulton's well connected patron, Livingston, did some political wrangling to get Fitch's patent ignored (after Fitch's death) so Fulton could receive a patent and a monopoly. It was a major scandal in its own time, and still a contentious subject for historians and history buffs today. Fitch was not an engineer, and so hired a number of well known mechanics and prominent tradesmen to bring his idea to life, so it was not at all a secret that Fulton had been preceeded by Fitch by a number of years in his effort to build a working steamboat.

  • @roadweary5252
    @roadweary5252 3 года назад

    Another great video about a ship I’ve never heard about! Well done, sir

  • @theironlukeve5544
    @theironlukeve5544 2 года назад +11

    Fascinating that not only was Oil first discovered in Pennsylvanian, but in a sense, it can be said so was steam power. Truely the Keystone State (Commonwealth) lives up to its name.

  • @bobbilynncalderon6464
    @bobbilynncalderon6464 3 года назад

    Great job Tom love the history on the boats😎

  • @jackprier7727
    @jackprier7727 9 месяцев назад

    Good story--well-explained the totality of the short "facts" told in grade school.

  • @DeepTexas
    @DeepTexas Год назад

    i’ve never been interested in any of this, but your videos are great!

  • @rancidschannel3206
    @rancidschannel3206 Год назад

    Another comprehensive video

  • @leighsayers2628
    @leighsayers2628 Год назад

    Fabulous history ..great video .

  • @markbowles2382
    @markbowles2382 3 года назад

    Man I like your work brother, good luck and gods blessings.

  • @lawrencedewan9838
    @lawrencedewan9838 2 года назад

    Excellent work!
    Ship Shape!!
    History supersedes science-fiction...

  • @lsswappedcessna
    @lsswappedcessna 2 года назад +5

    man this makes me want to go down a steampunk rabbit hole and probably end up dying in a boiler explosion because I didn't use enough rivets.

  • @frglee
    @frglee 2 года назад +1

    In Britain, William Symington built a small double hulled steam powered centre paddle boat in 1785 demonstrating it successfully out on the lake at Dalswinton House, near Dumfries in Scotland and at Lochmaben lake.
    In 1794, the Earl of Stanhope built an experimental but unsuccessful steam-powered vessel called the 'Kent'.
    The 'Charlotte Dundas' steamship ran trials on the Forth and Clyde Canal near Glasgow, Scotland in 1801.
    Britain's first truly commercial steamboat, the 'Comet', was built on the River Clyde in 1811-12. Comet was so successful that by 1816 steamboats were running on most of the major rivers in Britain.

  • @CuttingEdge49
    @CuttingEdge49 2 года назад

    I thought something was up. I zoomed into the ships bell and noticed what looked like commemorative writing.
    Usually it would only have name and date.
    Nice work.

  • @silvertbird1
    @silvertbird1 Год назад

    An excellent reminder of how significantly people like Fulton and his supporters changed the world, and brought about the modern age. One can argue for better or worse, but they deserve recognition all the same. Was the 1909 replica to scale? It appeared quite a bit smaller than I would’ve expected given the dimensions described in the video.

  • @lmyrski8385
    @lmyrski8385 3 года назад

    Good video! I'm fairly familiar with this topic, but still learned a few things and enjoyed it!

  • @ajaxengineco
    @ajaxengineco 2 года назад

    A minor correction - 14:09 - the Stockton & Darlington was the first *public* railway to operate a steam-hauled passenger train. They only did it once, and from thereon passenger trains were worked by horse by the stagecoach proprietors.
    Prior to this various private railways (Killingworth, Wylam, Middleton and so forth) had been using steam engines regularly for internal coal movement and it's likely workers would cling to the waggons as impromptu passengers, although not an official public passenger service by any means.
    Trevithick of Camborne, Cornwall had built at least one engine for the Tredegar Ironworks by 1804, (possibly one in 1802 but this is contested) and another in London in 1808, which hauled passengers as a kind of fairground-esque attraction.
    If, in 1809, Fulton had run a public railway, carrying passengers by steam on a timetable, then he would have beat the Liverpool & Manchester, which filled all those criteria, by 21 years, which would have been incredibly impressive.

  • @doctorwhofan6340
    @doctorwhofan6340 3 года назад +1

    Awesome video dude I love the resant videos I love learning about steam ships and these river boats are awesome would have been cool to ride on one.

    • @zacharygregory4925
      @zacharygregory4925 2 года назад +1

      You still can. Come down South to Louisiana or Missouri and you can usually find a steamboat to ride.

    • @doctorwhofan6340
      @doctorwhofan6340 2 года назад

      @@zacharygregory4925 nice nice. And k just remembered we might have one here in Georgia at stone mountain.

  • @benwilson6145
    @benwilson6145 2 года назад +2

    The Charlotte Dundas was the first practical steamboat. built in 1803. It was a successful tug, Fulton watched the trials.

  • @jamescole7197
    @jamescole7197 2 года назад

    Bravo Mr Fulton. We like boats too.

  • @richardmcavoy6413
    @richardmcavoy6413 3 года назад

    Excellent presentation. Just discovered you and subscribed.

  • @OceanChannelProductions
    @OceanChannelProductions 3 года назад

    keep up the amazing work!

  • @sharonroberts3397
    @sharonroberts3397 Год назад

    ENJOYED VIDEO. COULD YOU PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON THE FIRST STEAM ENGINE TRAIN ? I LOVE TRAINS AND THEIR HISTORY.

  • @anthonypirozzi837
    @anthonypirozzi837 3 года назад

    Excellent video

  • @forreelzfishing
    @forreelzfishing 3 года назад

    great vid, very interesting 👍

  • @DerpyPossum
    @DerpyPossum 3 года назад +2

    that clip from “Little Old New York”, tho.
    #Relatable

  • @Travelingthru
    @Travelingthru Год назад

    Great video

  • @paulnicholson1906
    @paulnicholson1906 Год назад

    John Fitch had a successful steamboat back in 1787. I always thought it was only a prototype but it was 60 feet long and sailed between Bordentown an Philadelphia for 3 months at the same time as the constitutional convention. It was a weird design but worked. He actually made two boats one 40’ one 60. He tried to get a patent on the design but it wasn’t allowed and he couldn’t get investment money so it died.

  • @sidibill
    @sidibill 3 года назад +1

    I have always been aware of the story of the first steam ship, but I had always pictured a much smaller boat. I had no idea that it was that big. I pictured something more akin to a row dingy with a steam engine.

  • @mikearmstrong8483
    @mikearmstrong8483 Год назад

    1800
    The Nautilus, designed by Fulton, was launched. A hand powered submarine that could also raise a sail to take some of the effort off the crew while surfaced. It succeeded in maneuvering at a depth of 25' for an hour, and made a submerged attack that blew up a small sailing ship during a test.
    1803
    The "Fulton", designed by him, was launched in France. It was a small experimental steamship financed by the US ambassador to France.
    1887
    The French 825 ton gunboat "Fulton" was launched. Rapid advances in naval technology quickly made it obsolete, and it was scrapped only 13 years later.
    1919
    The French submarine "Fulton" was launched. Laid down before WWI, it was not completed until 1920.
    1940
    The US submarine tender "Fulton" was launched, sponsored by Robert Fulton's great granddaughter. It served through WWII, Vietnam, and into the 90s.

  • @animalntelligence3170
    @animalntelligence3170 2 года назад

    Very nice. I would guess the Hudson today looks very similar to the River in Fulton's time.

  • @AnthonyDawsonHistory
    @AnthonyDawsonHistory Год назад

    The first practical steam boat was built in France by Marquis Jouffroy d'Abbans and demonstrated in 1783 on the Saone River. In fact a steam boat was demonstrated on the Seine River in 1775 built by J. C. Perier. Another is known to have been built and demonstrated in 1774. The first trial took place on 15 July 1783 before several thousand spectators. Several other succesful voyages were made, with the Saone River having notoriously strong current and it was able to steam against the current. Sadly for the Marquis, the Academie des Sciences in Paris wished to see the boat, and demanded d'Abbans bring it all the way to Paris! Furthermore, given that d'Abbans was not a member of the Academie they were openly hostile to him. He continued his trials in Paris on the Seine, the Academy demanded he build a new boat - which he couldn't afford. So it's France, rather than the United States, which is home to both the Steam Boat as well as the Steam Locomotive i.e. a self propelled steam vehicle, the latter being the invention of Nicholas Cugnot in 1769! 🙂

  • @davy1458
    @davy1458 Год назад

    We also have the Howard steam boat museum here in jeffersoville/Port fulton.....if ever in the louisville ky/jeffersonville indiana area you should check out the howard steam boat museum.....i think you would find it fascinating.

  • @johnkuzma7066
    @johnkuzma7066 3 года назад +5

    I think saying he "invited" the steamboat is a bit incorrect, John Fitch buit the first boat in 1791, it was perhaps unsuccessful but it was first. Folton merely improved and made the steamboat economical.

    • @sherk3286
      @sherk3286 3 года назад +1

      As you said it was unsuccesful. If i built a handglider and used it to try to fly does that mean i invented airplanes?

    • @johnkuzma7066
      @johnkuzma7066 3 года назад +3

      @@sherk3286 powered flight no, but the fich boat did work it was just not a success in terms of it being economical. It served as a river ferry for years. This is sort of a similar situation with the Limen Gilmore Aeroplane, it flew 6 months before the Wright Brothers but due to lack of publicity the kitty hock flight was instead heralded as the first powered flight.

    • @tadfitch3294
      @tadfitch3294 3 года назад +5

      John Fitch's steamboat Perseverance had a successful trial in 1787. It was a vastly different design than Fulton's later design, being powered by an engine that paddled with oars. Fitch operated the first commercial steam service in America in 1790. However, he wasn't commercially successful, failing to secure exclusive patents. So what John said is partially true. Fitch invented a successfully operating steam boat, and operated it commercially. The unsuccessful part that he is referring to was commercial, not operational.

    • @johnkuzma7066
      @johnkuzma7066 3 года назад +1

      @@tadfitch3294 thanks! It's a real shame too, the Fich boat was such a great machine and it certainly looks the part of first steamboat too lol.

    • @chamberlane2899
      @chamberlane2899 2 года назад

      @@johnkuzma7066 there isn’t any concrete evidence that Gilmores plane was capable of powered flight, and good evidence it couldn’t. The biggest problem (for me at least) is if the guy had managed to build a fully controllable aircraft in 1902, why couldn’t he replicate his success in the years following? Why were his public demonstrations of his 1912 aircraft so unsuccessful? Did he forget how he did it?
      Im not saying it’s impossible he did, but I do find it a bit odd how he managed to forget about how planes worked while everybody else seems to have had no trouble at least copying their original design

  • @waynejones8481
    @waynejones8481 Год назад

    You have to do a video on the NS Savannah, soon before she is sunk or scraped.

  • @scotthetland6381
    @scotthetland6381 3 года назад

    GOOD JOB

  • @firstbaptistchurchelmawa9038
    @firstbaptistchurchelmawa9038 2 года назад +1

    I am realated to robert Fulton

  • @Bureaucromancer
    @Bureaucromancer 3 года назад +1

    Any chance you'll a video (or series) on the Collins line ships?

    • @PartTimeExplorer
      @PartTimeExplorer  3 года назад

      I'd love to and have gathered some material on them, but it'll need to wait a bit until after I finish some current projects.

  • @mattkaustickomments
    @mattkaustickomments 2 года назад

    What happened to the replica steamers? The Hendrick Hudson looks very cool but also very dangerous. Can’t wait to check out the video.

  • @raycarl7933
    @raycarl7933 3 года назад

    Interesting , Thank You

  • @velezdragon3574
    @velezdragon3574 3 года назад

    Is the replica still around would be cool to see today!

  • @loganrodriguez5383
    @loganrodriguez5383 2 года назад +2

    My history teacher called this ship the clermot and I had to correct him

  • @Allan_aka_RocKITEman
    @Allan_aka_RocKITEman Год назад

    I never knew Fulton wanted to create a steam-powered railroad as well.

  • @runninggirl2765
    @runninggirl2765 2 года назад

    Too bad this video wasn't around (as were NO videos) when I was in fifth grade! Great history.

  • @johnclayden1670
    @johnclayden1670 3 года назад

    Most interesting: thanks.

  • @TiberiusMaximus
    @TiberiusMaximus 2 года назад

    I live in Fall River Ma., can you do a video about the Fall River line which ran ships from here to NYC IN LATE 1800'S? I'm sure you've heard of it.

  • @Travelingthru
    @Travelingthru Год назад

    We just stayed at Fulton Steamboat inn

  • @tulsatrash
    @tulsatrash 2 года назад

    Facinating.
    I had no idea the first practical steamboat was American or that it was financed by a founding father of the United States of America.

  • @rob5944
    @rob5944 2 года назад

    Thank you very much for posting. I thought (assumed) that the first steamboat would of been invented here in the UK. It seems I was wrong, however a very enjoyable story all the same 👍

    • @mtanyctrainatlantamartatra7164
      @mtanyctrainatlantamartatra7164 Год назад

      No. 1084:
      THE FIRST STEAMBOAT
      by John H. Lienhard
      Click here for audio of Episode 1084.
      Today, let's go looking for the first steamboat. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
      We tell our schoolchildren that Robert Fulton invented the first steamboat. What Fulton did do was locate an efficient new Watt engine in a warehouse. And in 1807 he installed it in a well-designed boat. We had a huge network of inland rivers we badly needed to navigate. Fulton enjoyed immediate commercial success.
      He had access to a lot of new technology by 1807, and he put his boat together with an ease that would've been impossible just a few years before. His patent makes no pretense about inventing the steamboat. It acknowledges 30 years of early steamboat development.
      The story of one of those boats began in France. Two French artillery officers passed time in camp talking about how they might use steam to power boats. One officer, the Count d'Auxiron, left the army in 1770 to work full time on a boat. By 1772 he'd talked the French government into promising they'd give the first successful builder exclusive license to run the boat for fifteen years.
      D'Auxiron installed a huge old Newcomen steam engine in a boat. The engine was so heavy that the boat sank. After three years of lawsuits, d'Auxiron died of apoplexy.
      That would've ended it, but, while d'Auxiron was at work, another young aristocrat, the Marquis de Jouffroy, got involved in a duel. He landed in a military prison on the isle of Ste Marguerite. That's the same prison where the famous Man in the Iron Mask was held. During years of enforced contemplation he watched the boats below, and he thought about d'Auxiron.
      When he got out in 1775, Jouffroy went to d'Auxiron and his supporters. He decided they were on the wrong track, and he left Paris for Lyon. There he built his own Newcomen-style engine and, in 1783, made a trial run with a 150-foot boat on the Saone river.
      For fifteen minutes, the boat chuffed past cheering crowds. Then it started breaking up under the pounding of the engine. Jouffroy managed to ease the boat to shore before anyone spotted the failure. He bowed to the cheering crowd. Then he sent affidavits to Paris, testifying to his success. After a long debate, the French Academy of Sciences decided the town of Lyon never could've succeeded where Paris had failed. They denied him a license.
      Finally, the French Revolution drove Jouffroy out of France. He died poor and embittered. Still, he hadn't failed. For, after Jouffroy, Fulton could only be an aftermath. Fulton is really just America's thin claim to an invention that'd been proven feasible in Europe -- long, long before.
      I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds

    • @mtanyctrainatlantamartatra7164
      @mtanyctrainatlantamartatra7164 Год назад

      In the country of France was first, not successful though, Fulton successfully built the first steamboat, but wasn't actually the first one to build one.

  • @simonf8902
    @simonf8902 3 года назад +2

    What about the Charlotte Dundas steam boat in Scotland ?

    • @theenigmaticst7572
      @theenigmaticst7572 3 года назад +1

      It's also probably worth pointing out that the 1825 Stockton and Darlington was not the first steam railway in the UK. There's a case to be made for the Penydarren ironworks line of 1803, and also the Killingworth/Tyneside/County Durham lines of the early 1810s were locomotive hauled.

  • @jackdundon2261
    @jackdundon2261 2 года назад

    Amazing, Birth of steam to flying machines... 100 Years.

  • @nordisk1874
    @nordisk1874 3 года назад

    You do know that the North River is the Hudson River from Ambrose Channel to the GWB. If you want to get technical the Hudson isn’t a river until Troy, NY at the federal lock. Just like the East River, the North and Hudson rivers are a tidal plain.

  • @luca-pk5ff
    @luca-pk5ff 3 года назад

    Thanks

  • @tomgorney8868
    @tomgorney8868 2 года назад

    Fantastic

  • @davy1458
    @davy1458 Год назад

    I live in a place in indiana on the bank of the ohio river that used to be named "port fulton" after Mr fulton....it was inevitably forgotten after being annexed by the city of jeffersonville indiana.

  • @neogeo1670
    @neogeo1670 2 года назад

    I love learning about this topic, have you looked Norwegian steamer DS skiblander? Oldest running paddle steamer in the world if I'm not mistaken..

  • @flynelson2908
    @flynelson2908 2 года назад

    Congrats

  • @john-carlosynostroza
    @john-carlosynostroza 2 года назад +2

    The movie clip shown at about 1 minute is totally me with my girlfriend... probably a lot of us with our partners LOL

  • @datfloof2732
    @datfloof2732 Год назад

    Im curious what happened to the replica itself?

  • @jamiepeterson1981
    @jamiepeterson1981 Год назад

    "Do you like boats?" lmao but also that's me.

  • @thechristiangamer7311
    @thechristiangamer7311 3 года назад

    Thanks!

    • @thechristiangamer7311
      @thechristiangamer7311 3 года назад

      Good job keep up the good work and I am happy to support you.
      Also me being a Christian I appreciate the clean language, clear, concise, accurate, and I feel unbiased info as well.
      Keep up the good work like that and you will keep getting my support one way or another I feel.
      Regardless once more wish you all the best and have a great day and life! GOD bless

    • @PartTimeExplorer
      @PartTimeExplorer  3 года назад

      Thank you so much, my friend!

    • @thechristiangamer7311
      @thechristiangamer7311 3 года назад

      @@PartTimeExplorer Your very welcome my pleasure!
      Once again keep up the good work and wish you all the best and have a great blessed day and life! GOD bless

  • @dawheel5791
    @dawheel5791 2 года назад

    Fulton was said to have spied on James Rumsey and his steam powered boat which went up the Potomac River against the current in 1787. It used a flume under the keel. Fulton it was claimed was run out of Shepherdstown Virginia on a rail after being tarred and feathered. Just sayin'...love your work.

    • @furripupau
      @furripupau 2 года назад

      If you look deeper into it, Fulton's backer Livingston had either been involved with, or witnessed the building of several steamboats prior to Fulton's arrival on the scene. Livingston was aware of Fitch, of Rumsey, of Stevens, and others.

  • @Urlocallordandsavior
    @Urlocallordandsavior 2 года назад

    Commented for the algorithm.

  • @danielthoman7324
    @danielthoman7324 2 года назад +1

    I'm surprised it didn't blow up on its maiden voyage. boilers were extremely dangerous then. they still are today. 😲

  • @mrsaturngamingandstories
    @mrsaturngamingandstories 3 года назад +2

    The legendary SS North River is an old ship an old steamboat that no longer exist

  • @exb.r.buckeyeman845
    @exb.r.buckeyeman845 2 года назад

    The Half Moon looks very similar to The Golden Hind from England.

  • @gsx69bun
    @gsx69bun Год назад

    Quack? 16.40 lol! The Great Eastern is an interesting story too.