Now they turned their attention to their native land, America,
because it was there that the real need for such a means of
transportation existed. This was the America after the Revolution - a
land of restless people, people who saw millions of acres of virgin
soil to the west - separated from markets only by poor
transportation. All they had were narrow mountain trails and
rivers which could be navigated only down-stream by rowboats and
barges. Fulton and Livingston could visualize hundreds of
steamboats transporting thousands of people and tons of goods and
produce up as well as down those waterways. Livingston would supply the
finances - Fulton the ingenuity - an excellent, and very necessary
combination.Fulton did not invent the Clermont as a flash of genius. In fact, the steamboat, like the automobile, was not a single invention but a combination of many. These ideas did not occur all at once - they were the result of experience and evolution. Many men made essential contributions. One group, including Newcomen and Watt, had evolved the steam engine. Another group made up of Symington, Rumsey, Fitch, Stevens and Robert Fulton contributed the ideas for harnessing the steam engine to the boat. Fulton had a combination that those who preceded him did not possess. He had excellent mechanical ability and, being an artist, he was able to clearly draw all the structural details. He also had the financial backing of Livingston and then there was the crying need of the times for just such a means of transportation. In addition to all this, Fulton possessed the ability to coordinate all of these factors in such a practical way that people could easily see their great value and willingly supplied means for their development. |
