Steamboat
Steamboats were an important part in travel in the 18th century. Helping people almost every day. Without The boat, traveling and shipping would have been much harder to do. People could never go up a river but with this invention, people could move up stream. It had effects on trading and transporting goods north and south.
Robert Fulton was the first to patent and successfully build the first steamboat in 1803. He tested his new invention in France on the river Seine. After having a successful trial, he went to America hoping his new invention would appeal to people. He left in 1807 and built the Northern River Steam Boat or Clermont. This steamboat would let people go from New York City all the way to Albany New York. All around this trip took 32 hours and the 2 cities were 150 miles apart.
The invention of the steamboat really changed the lives of Americans. Before steamboats, the only way to travel was by horse or foot. Sailors tried to bring ships. It did work but only one direction because of wind and currents. The steamboat really opened up the land. In less than 4 years Louisiana’s population went from 3,000 to 77,000. It moved people from one place to the other in a fraction of the time it took traditionally.
The steamboat was a great thing for the new economy. It not only added more jobs for operating, fixing, loading and unloading docks. Fixing the boat was almost a sense of job security because they were used so much they broke very quickly. Sending goods and selling them reduced the cost of the goods and shipping. One item that weighed 100 pounds cost $5 to send. With the invention of the steamboat it went down extremely, all the way to 25 cents.
Without the steamboat America wouldn’t have really expanded west. People would have had a harder time trading. This specific boat helped America greatly especially with upstream shipping. Robert Fulton personally I think created the easiest way to trade. Enjoy!
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