These pioneers, if they went westward by land, had to load their goods on
pack-horses and follow the Indian trail. Later the trail was widened into
a roadway, and wagons could be used. But travel by land was slow and, hard
under any conditions.
Going by water, while cheaper, was inconvenient, for the travellers must
use the flatboat, which was clumsy and slow and, worst of all, of little
use except when going down stream.
The great need both for travel and for trade, then, was a boat which would
not be dependent upon wind or current, but could be propelled by steam.
Many men had tried to work out such an invention. Among them was John
Rumsey, of Maryland, who built a steamboat in 1774, and John Fitch, of
Connecticut, who completed his first model of a steamboat in 1785.
In the next four years Fitch built three steamboats, the last of which
made regular trips on the Delaware River, between Philadelphia and
Burlington, during the summer of 1786. It was used as a passenger boat,
and it made a speed of eight miles an hour; but Fitch was not able to
secure enough aid from men of capital and influence to make his boats
permanently successful.
The first man to construct a steamboat which continued to give successful
service was Robert Fulton.
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