The first steamboat in history that could be used in shipping was invented by Irish mechanical engineer Robert Fulton, a self-taught genius born into a family of poor peasants. Fulton tested his first, imperfect steamboat in 1803 on the Seine River in Paris. It could be said that the experiment was a success, the ship stayed afloat for 1.5 hours, the speed that the ship developed reached 5 km/h.
The next paddle steamer, the Claremont, was built by Fulton in 1807. He installed Watt's steam engine on it. The steamer was 43 meters long, the engine power reached 20 horsepower, and the carrying capacity was 15 tons. The Claremont managed to make its first voyage in 1807 along the Hudson. The ship completed the entire journey, 150 miles (270 km) long, from New York to Albany, with a headwind and against the current, in 32 hours. It was thanks to “Clermont” that the beginning of the steam shipping company was laid.
The construction of steamships, after this, began in other countries. Next, attempts are made to technically improve all types of maritime transport. This is how the Savannah steamship began its journey on the transatlantic line in 1819 between America and Europe. He carried cotton to England. The Savannah was on its way for 26 days. In 1819, this ship also visited the port of St. Petersburg. This was the first foreign ship to visit Russia.
In 1825, the journey from London to Calcutta was completed in 113 days by the English steamship Enterprise. The ship "Curaso" from Holland covered the distance from Holland to the West Indies in 32 days. But in the 40s of the 19th century, naval shipbuilding developed rather slowly. It was not possible to immediately eliminate design flaws that were identified during operation, and this hampered the construction of steamships.
The stimulus for the rapid development of marine shipbuilding was radical changes in the designs of steamships and engines. The use of new building materials to create ships also played an important role. The transition to the construction of hulls from iron and steel was of the greatest importance in shipbuilding.
The first propeller-driven steamship in history was invented and built in 1838 by the English engineer-inventor Smith. He named his brainchild “Archimedes”. Further improvements in screw steamships led to the fact that by the end of the 40s, the propeller quickly began to replace paddle wheels.
The appearance of the first steamships, on which it became possible to make regular ocean voyages, should be dated back to the early thirties of the 19th century. And at the end of the 30s, ships began to regularly operate flights from Europe to America and back. A little later, it was possible to get to other continents by boat. The first trip around the world by ship was made in 1842. Like railways, steamship lines were able to ensure speed and regularity of movement, as well as reduce the cost of transporting goods.
Inventor: Robert Fulton
A country: USA
Time of invention: 1807
With Watt's invention, experiments began on using the new machine in shipping. The most successful attempt can be considered a steamship built by the French inventor Geoffroy. In 1781, his steam boat, using a steam engine, could sail against the current for an hour.
The first ship suitable for navigation was invented by Irish engineer and mechanic Robert Fulton. He was born into a poor peasant family and was a self-taught genius.
Fulton built and tested his first, still imperfect, steamboat on the Seine in Paris. In 1803, the experiment was a success; the ship sailed along the Seine for 1.5 hours, developing a speed of 5 km per hour.
In 1807, Fulton built the paddle steamer Clermont, installing Watt's double-acting steam engine. The length of the steamship was 43 m, the engine power was 20 hp. pp., tonnage - 15 tons. In 1807, the Claremont made its first voyage along the Hudson from New York to Albany, covering 150 miles (270 km). The voyage, which took place against the current and with a headwind, took 32 hours. Fulton's Claremont marked the beginning of steam shipping. Since that time, steamships began to be built in other countries.
Following the invention of the river steamboat, attempts are being made to technically improve all types of maritime transport. Already in 1819, the Savannah steamship appeared on the transatlantic line between America and Europe, 
delivered a cargo of cotton from the USA to England. "Savannah" was on the road for 26 days. In the same 1819, the Savannah arrived at the port of St. Petersburg. This was the first foreign ship to visit Russia. In 1825, the English steamer Enterprise traveled from London to Calcutta in 113 days. In 1829, the Dutch steamer Curaçao sailed from Holland to the West Indies in 32 days.
However, marine shipbuilding until the 40s of the 19th century. developed relatively slowly. The construction of steamships was hampered by design flaws identified during operation, which were not immediately possible to eliminate. And only a fundamental change 
The designs of steamships and engines, as well as the transition to new building materials for ship construction, stimulated the rapid development of marine shipbuilding.
The greatest significance for shipbuilding was the transition to the construction of steel hulls of steamships.
Another very important factor in the development of the navy was the invention of the propeller, which replaced the paddle wheels of the first steamships. Until the end of the 30s of the XIX century. Steamships were built with paddle wheels that broke sea waves. They were the most vulnerable point during the battle; their damage immediately disabled the ship.
In 1838, the English engineer-inventor Smith built the first, quite suitable for practical purposes, steamship “Archimedes” with a propeller. Soon a number of improvements were made to screw steamers, and by the end of the 40s of the 19th century. The propeller began to quickly replace paddle wheels, primarily in the naval fleet.
The idea of creating a self-propelled ship that could sail against the wind and currents occurred to people for a very long time. After all, it is often impossible to sail along a winding channel with a complex fairway, and it is always difficult to row against the current.
The real opportunity to build such a high-speed self-propelled vessel appeared only after the invention of the steam engine. A steam engine converts the energy of heated steam into the mechanical work of a piston, which reciprocates and drives a shaft. Steam is generated in a steam boiler. The first attempts to construct such a machine were made at the end of the 17th century.
One of the inventors who worked on the problem of converting thermal energy into work was the French physicist Denis Papin(1647 - 1712). He was the first to invent a steam boiler, but was unable to come up with a design for a working steam engine. But he designed the first boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels (1707). The world's first steam-powered ship was launched in Kassel, Germany, and quite confidently sailed along the Fulda River. However, the inventor's joy was short-lived. Local fishermen considered the boat, moving without oars or sails, a diabolical invention and hastened to set fire to the first steamer. Papin later moved to England and presented his developments to the Royal Scientific Society. He asked for money to continue experiments and recreate a steam ship. But Papen never received the money and died in poverty.
Thirty years later, in 1736, the Englishman Jonathan Hulls, a watchmaker by profession, invented the steam tug. He received a patent for a ship propelled by steam. However, during the tests it turned out that the steam engine installed on the ship was too weak to move it. The disgraced watchmaker did not find the strength to continue working on improving the invention and died in desperate poverty, like Papin.
The Frenchman was closest to the goal Claude-François-Dorothe, Marquis de Jouffroy. In 1771, the 20-year-old Marquis received the rank of officer, but showed a violent disposition and a year later found himself in prison for gross violation of discipline. The prison was located near the city of Cannes, and the marquis's cell overlooked the sea, so that de Jouffroy could watch from the barred window the galleys driven by the muscular power of the convicts. Filled with sympathy for them, the Marquis came to the idea that it would be nice to install a steam engine on the ship - the kind he heard set in motion the pumps that pumped out water from the English mines. After leaving prison, de Jouffroy sat down to books and soon had his own opinion on how best to build a steamship.
When he arrived in Paris in 1775, the idea of a steam ship was already in the air. In 1776, the Marquis built a steam boat at his own expense, but the tests, according to a contemporary, ended “not entirely happily.” However, the inventor did not give up. At his instigation, the French government promised a 15-year monopoly on the construction and operation of steam ships to the first one to build a steamship suitable for permanent use, and de Jouffroy knew that victory in the steam race would mean wealth and prosperity for the rest of his days.
In 1783, in Lyon, the Marquis finally tested his second steam model. On June 15, on the banks of the Saone River, spectators watched as the boat of the Marquis de Jouffroy moved against the current. True, by the end of the demonstration voyage the engine became unusable, but no one noticed this, and besides, de Jouffroy hoped to make the car more reliable. The Marquis was now confident that he had the monopoly in his pocket, and sent a report of his success to Paris. But the Paris Academy was not inclined to trust messages from the provinces, no matter who they came from. The academicians asked to give an opinion on the invention of the chief specialist in steam engines - manufacturer Jacques Perrier, who himself sought a steamship monopoly, and therefore did everything to quickly forget about the invention of the Marquis. De Jouffroy did not receive financial support from the academicians, and he no longer had money to build the next boat.
Soon a revolution began in the country, and the French had no time for steamships. In addition, the Marquis de Jouffroy found himself on the side of the counter-revolution, and the royalists in France were awaiting not patents, but the guillotine. De Jouffroy was able to return to invention only after the Bourbon restoration, and in 1816 he finally received a patent. But they never gave him money to start a shipping business. De Jouffroy died in 1832 in a home for veterans, forgotten and abandoned by everyone.
In 1774, the outstanding English inventor James Watt created the first universal heat engine (steam engine). This invention contributed to the creation of steam locomotives, steamships and the first (steam) cars.
In 1787 in America John Fitch built the steam boat Experiment, which for a long time made regular trips along the Delaware River between Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and Burlington (New York). It carried 30 passengers and traveled at a speed of 7-8 miles per hour. J. Fitch's steamship was not commercially successful because its route was competing with a good overland road.
In 1802, a mining engineer William Symington from England built the towing boat "Charlotte Dundas" with a Watt engine with a power of 10 horsepower, which rotated a paddle wheel located in the stern. The tests were successful. In 6 hours, with a strong headwind, the Charlotte Dundas towed two barges along the canal 18 miles. The Charlotte Dundas was the first serviceable steam boat. However, authorities began to fear that waves from the paddle wheel would wash away the banks of the canal. The steamer was pulled ashore and condemned to scrapping. Thus, this experience did not interest the British either.
Robert Fulton
Among the spectators watching the tests of the unusual vessel was an American Robert Fulton. He was interested in steam engines from the age of 12 and already as a teenager (at the age of 14) he made his first boat with a wheel engine. After school, Robert moved to Philadelphia and got a job first as a jeweler's assistant and then as a draftsman. At the age of 21 (1786), Fulton went to England to study architecture there. However, here Fulton abandoned drawing and concentrated on inventing. He designed canals, locks, conduits and various machines - for sawing marble, spinning flax, twisting ropes... And then he returned to his old hobby - the use of steam in shipping. However, the English government did not want to give money for his project, and in 1797 Fulton moved to France. But here his inventions were not appreciated either. Fulton thought about it and came up with the idea of a submarine that could be used to mine the bottoms of enemy ships. At first, the French government rejected the project, considering this method of warfare too brutal. But the inventor, at his own expense, built and tested the wooden submarine Nautilus. In 1800, Fulton presented a practical model of his submarine to Napoleon. Having finally appreciated the invention, the French government finally allocated money to build a boat made of sheet copper and even promised to pay Fulton for every enemy ship sunk. However, the English ships deftly dodged the slow Nautilus. Therefore, the Nautilus did not sail for long. Fulton's attempt to sell the submarine to France's naval enemy, England, also failed. The true significance of this invention only became apparent closer to the outbreak of the First World War.
Offended by the whole world, Fulton returned to his homeland and began to look for funds for the steamship project. Here he was much more fortunate. The North River Steamboat of Clermont, with a displacement of 79 tons and a 20-horsepower steam engine that rotated five-meter paddle wheels, was tested in August 1807. Many of those gathered on the shores of Hudson Bay did not believe in success. . Fulton set off on his first voyage on September 4, 1807 without cargo and without passengers: there were no people willing to try their luck aboard the fire-breathing ship. But on the way back, a daredevil showed up - a farmer who bought a ticket for six dollars. This was the first passenger in the history of the shipping company. The touched inventor gave him a lifetime right of free travel on his ships. That same year, Fulton's first steamboat began operating profitably between New York and Albany. This ship went down in history as the "Clermont", although "Clermont" simply referred to the estate of Fulton's partner, Livingston, on the Hudson River, 177 km from New York, which the ship visited during its first voyage.
From that time on, a constant steamship service opened on the Hudson. Newspapers wrote that many boatmen closed their eyes in horror as the “Fulton monster,” spewing fire and smoke, moved along the Hudson against the wind and current.
"North River Steamboat"
Robert Fulton
In 1809, Fulton patented the Claremont design and went down in history as the inventor of the steamboat.
In Russia, the first steamship was built at the Charles Bird plant in 1815. It was called "Elizabeth" and made flights between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt. A report on one of these flights was published by the magazine "Son of the Fatherland". In this article, a Russian naval officer, later Admiral Pyotr Ricord, first used the term “steamboat” in print. Before this, such ships were called “steamboats” or “pyroscaphes” in the English manner.
By the way...
In 1813, Fulton turned to the Russian government with a request to grant him the privilege to build a steamship he had invented and use it on the rivers of the Russian Empire. Emperor Alexander I granted the inventor a monopoly right to operate steamship vessels on the St. Petersburg-Kronstadt line, as well as on other Russian rivers for 15 years. However, Fulton did not create steamships in Russia and was unable to take advantage of the agreement, since he did not fulfill the main condition of the agreement - for three years he did not put a single ship into operation. Fulton died in 1815, and in 1816 the franchise granted to him was revoked, and the contract went to Byrd.
The era of modern shipping began with the use of the steam engine on ships. The inability to take on board very large reserves of fuel and distrust of new technology led to the fact that for a long time even large ocean-going steamships were supplied with rigging. The paddle steamer Clermont, designed by Robert Fulton, which set off on its first voyage along the Hudson in 1807, also featured sails. Steamboats have long been a source of prejudice among the ignorant public. It was only when the Great Western, the creation of Isembard Brunel, was launched in 1838 that transoceanic steamships took the palm from large sailing ships. With the advent of the steam turbine, which replaced the previous steamship engines in 1897, ships gained greater power, which further increased with the advent of marine diesel engines, which came into use in 1902.
New materials and new engines
With the transition from sail to steam power, the materials used in shipbuilding also changed.
If the first steamships were still made of wood, then soon iron, and later steel, began to be used for the hull of the ship. In addition, propulsion mechanisms adapted to sea conditions were needed, since the paddle wheels protruding from the sides were damaged during strong waves, and the ship was deprived of the necessary maneuverability. Here the propeller became an improvement. "Great Britain", built by the same Brunel in 1845, became the first iron ship with a propeller to cross the Atlantic.
- 1690: Denis Papin attempted to use a steam piston engine as a ship engine.
- 1783: Claude de Jouffroy's steam boat demonstrated on the Seine.
- 1802: William Symington's paddle steamer Charlotte Dundas set out on a trial voyage.
- 1807: First voyage of the paddle steamer Clermont.
- 1819: The propeller, an invention of Joseph Ressel, was tested in the harbor of Trieste.
Typewriter
In 1808, the Italian Pellegrino Turri designed a mechanical writing instrument for his blind friend. This invention attracted the attention of engineers. Karl Friedrich Drèse equipped his 1823 model with keys for 26 letters. The typewriter, introduced in 1855 by Giuseppe Ravizza, had circular type arms, a carriage return mechanism and an ink ribbon. Austrian Peter Mitterhofer in the 1860s. used 82 keys in his typewriter for uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
New ideas come to life
A group of mechanics led by the American Christopher Sholes managed to solve the problem that when writing quickly, the lettering levers constantly cling to each other. They arranged the keys in rows and not alphabetically, as before, but by frequency of use.
Serial production of cars
In 1873, Scholes and Associates sold its patent to E. Remington and Sons, which produced mechanical weapons and sewing machines. In 1874, serial production of Remington began. The biggest problem remained that when printing it was impossible to directly see the text - for this it was necessary to first lift the platen. In 1910, a new model appeared with horizontally lying letter arms striking the platen from the front - an invention of Franz Wagner, soon sold to the manufacturer John Underwood . The main advantage of “underwood” was that the printed text could be seen without interrupting work.
At the beginning of the 20th century. The mechanical typing machine was replaced by an electric one, which significantly speeded up and facilitated the work of typing. But with the advent of personal computers in the 1980s. the machines quickly fell out of use.
- 1902: The first electric typewriter was manufactured by the George Blickensderfer Company in Connecticut.
- 1964: IBM launched the first typewriter with electronic memory.
In the modern Russian language there are two small correlative groups of complex terms in which a peculiar opposition of the morphemes hod and voz has been created: motor ship, steamship and electric ship, on the one hand, and diesel locomotive, steam locomotive and electric locomotive with... ... History of words
STEAMBOAT, steamboat, husband. A ship powered by a steam engine. Ocean steamer. Sea steamer. Passenger ship. Coastal steamer. Go by boat, by boat. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Steamboat- Waverlay. STEAMBOAT, a vessel driven by a steam engine or turbine (turbine steamships are called turboships). The first steamship “Clermont” was built in 1807 in the USA by R. Fulton. In Russia, one of the first steamships “Elizabeth” was built in 1815... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Steam engine, pyroskaf, steam locomotive, steamer, steamship, liner, whistle, vessel Dictionary of Russian synonyms. steamship see steam locomotive Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova ... Synonym dictionary
A ship driven by a steam engine or turbine (turbine steamers are usually called turbo ships). The first steamship Claremont was built in 1807 in the USA by R. Fulton. In Russia, one of the first steamships was the Elizaveta (for flights between St. ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
STEAMBOAT, see par. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dahl. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
- (Steamer) a vessel with a displacement of more than 100 tons, driven by a steam engine (steam engine or turbine). The first steamship was built in the North. America by Fulton in 1807. Samoilov K.I. Marine Dictionary. M.L.: State Military... ... Naval Dictionary
STEAMER, see SHIP... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary
STEAMBOAT, huh, husband. Steam engine powered ship. | adj. steamship, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
STEAMBOAT- a self-propelled river or sea vessel, the main engine of which is a steam engine (see). The propulsion mechanism is a propeller or paddle wheels. In the modern fleet, the main type of self-propelled vessel (see), the main engine of which is ... ... Big Polytechnic Encyclopedia
Books
- The steamer goes to Jaffa and back, Gekht Semyon. The book by Semyon Hekht includes short stories and the novel “The Steamboat Goes to Jaffa and Back” (1936) - works that most clearly represent this writer of the Odessa school. Close attention to...
- Steamship to Argentina, Alexey Makushinsky. “Steamboat to Argentina” is the author’s third novel. Its action covers the entire 20th century and takes place in the space from the Baltic states to Argentina. The focus of the novel's narrative is history... eBook
