Steam: The Untold Story of America's First Great Invention [Hardcover]

Andrea Sutcliffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 2004

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although schoolchildren are taught that Robert Fulton invented the steamboat in 1807, the reality is far more complex. Sutcliff (editor of Mighty Rough Times I Tell You) demonstrates that Fulton was a latecomer to the effort to build a commercially viable steamship. A full two decades before the Clermont carried passengers between New York City and Albany, the largely forgotten Virginian James Rumsey and Connecticut-born John Fitch battled each other to be the first to launch a steam-powered boat and for potentially lucrative waterway monopolies. Fitch was partially successful, running a steamboat commuter service between Philadelphia and Trenton during the summer of 1790, but couldn't compete with stagecoaches. Sutcliff illuminates the importance of the steamboat to the developing United States, explaining how boats that could bring goods upriver would unite the western portion of the country with the east, increasing trade dramatically and permitting greater development of the frontier. Sutcliff's story is one of political intrigue, involving virtually all of the nation's founding fathers, mixed with scientific acumen and a sense of business ethics so low that even in today's climate many of the principals' actions would sound an alarm. Sutcliff offers intriguing material in an extremely readable volume, though she doesn't provide any new insight into the personalities of the protagonists. 16 pages of b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"An absorbing and enlightening tale of 'Yankee ingenuity' at the very dawn of the steam age."
--John Steele Gordon, author of A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable

"What a ride! It's all there: duplicity, steamy intrigue and scandal, with cameo roles played by Napoleon, Jefferson, Washington, Thomas Paine, and James Watt. My personal hero, the tormented American steamboat inventor, John Fitch, rises above this glorious fray like cream upon milk. His is a story whose incompleteness has dogged us over the years. Indeed, we are, at last, shown the full tapestry of the steamboat invention in one fast-moving book. Hard history and good fun. You'll love it."
--John H. Lienhard, author of The Engines of Our Ingenuity and Inventing Modern

 

" . . . a book with a great story to tell." --Sean Patrick Adams, author of Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (July 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403962618
• ISBN-13: 978-1403962614
• Product Dimensions: 13.9 x 8.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Achievement, August 26, 2004

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steam: The Untold Story of America's First Great Invention (Hardcover)

Sutcliffe really does tell a compelling story about "America's first great invention" which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been adequately told until now. Most of us learned early in life that Robert Fulton invented the first steam-powered boat, just as we were also told in school that Thomas Edison invented almost everything else, including the light bulb. In fact, James Rumsey and John Fitch competed strenuously to be the first to launch a steam-powered boat. During the summer of 1790, Fitch launched a steamboat commuter service between Philadelphia and Trenton but was unable to make it profitable in competition with stagecoaches. It was not until almost 20 years later (1807) that Fulton's Clermont carried passengers between New York City and Albany.

The need for water transportation was obvious, hence the importance of barges but they could not proceed against the current and had to be towed back or returned over land for their next voyage. What if the power of steam could be used to solve that problem? Of course, those whose economic self-interests would be threatened by (in effect) a steam-powered barge -- notably owners and employees of stagecoach and barge companies -- did all they could to oppose efforts by Rumsey and Fitch. They delayed but could not ultimately deny what proved to be the inevitable commercial success of steam-powered boats, "America's first great invention."

Sutcliffe's writing skills are such that her presentation of historical material reads like a novel worthy of Charles Dickens in his prime. Her narrative has everything: passionate and determined antagonists, a plot filled with crisis and conflict, conspiracies, use and abuse of political influence as well as all manner of anecdotes which help to reveal the stresses, tensions, and (yes) opportunities which developed during the years immediately following the American Revolution.

Great stuff!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Robert Fulton Had Help, He just Didn't Admit It, July 26, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steam: The Untold Story of America's First Great Invention (Paperback)

When Isaac Newton was being congratulated for his schentific achievements he said, "If I have accomplished anything it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants who went before me."

When Robert Fulton produced a steam boat he took all the credit and got away with it. His achievements were great, but only because a bunch of inventors went before him. He too stood on the shoulders of giants, he just didn't admit it.

Andrea Sutcliffe has done a good job here of pulling together the history of the development of steam powered vessels in the United States.

She mentions that Henry Miller Shreve (after whom Shreveport, Louisiana was named) built some steam boats. I tend to say that the thing Robert Fulton built was really a steam ship, that is a deep draft vessel, suitable for use in deep rivers like you find in the Northeast. Shreve invented (along with some help of course) the typical Mississippi River Steamboat.

This is probably not important, but when we think of the early boats, we tend to think of riverboats on the Mississippi not the early boats on the Hudson.

Recommended book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Here we are told "the rest of the story ...", January 10, 2005

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Steam: The Untold Story of America's First Great Invention (Hardcover)

In school, we learned to say "Robert Fulton" whenever we were asked to name the inventor of the steamship. Alas, not only is that answer wrong; but a correct one cannot be summed up by just one name, one year, or one event. Andrea Sutcliffe unravels the tangled web of men, machines, failures, successes, financial backers, patents and politics involved in getting steamships chugging on American rivers during the time period of 1784 to 1811. Here we learn about people like John Fitch and James Rumsey. We discover how George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were involved in the process. We read about boiler explosions, innumerable tinkerings and improvements, and proving "who had what idea when." The newly-formed Patent Office plays a huge role in this drama. Robert Fulton doesn't even make an appearance until the last third of the book. Throughout it all, one has to wonder about the tenacity and sanity of the men who not only had to deal with the temperament of machines, but also with the skepticism of state and federal authorities. Imagine attempting to take a prototype steamboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers during the New Madrid earthquake of 1811! Why didn't we ever hear about these stories in school? As for Robert Fulton: "As Fulton freely admitted, he never really invented the steamboat. Rather, he built the first steamboat that really worked." (p. 180) And he comes off as a dandy and an opportunist in this book.

You might scoff and ask, "How interesting can the history of the steamboat be?" Read this book and find out. The miracle is that this invention ever came to fruition.