3. Steamboats

• 3 months by keelboat New Orleans to Louisville
  
• James Rumsey 1784 patent; John Fitch 1787
  
• Robert Fulton and Livingston in Paris 1802
  
  • steam engine from Boulton & Watt
    
• Katherine of Clermont Aug. 9, 1807 on the Hudson
  
  • $7 fare for 150 mi. upstream to Albany in 32 hrs.
    
• given 20-year state monopoly - added 15 boats
  
• Gibbons v. Ogden 1824 by John Marshall
  
• Daniel French and Henry Shreve on Miss. R. 1813
  
• only 1 week New Orleans to Louisville - low cost
  
• " an engine on a raft with $11,000 of jig-saw work"
  
• jackstaff, Texas deck, hogframe, no keel, 24-in draw
  
• only 5-yr. life of a boat - 735 by 1860 - small-scale
  
• some were elegant - Great Republic of 1867
  
• most were shoddy, no food, no entertainment
  
• deck passage included loading wood
  
• racing popular - Natchez v. Eclipse - overheat
  
• 1000 accidents 1811-51 (30% of total number of boats)
  
  • 57% by snags, 21% by explosion (2/3 of casualties)
    
  • 17% by fire, 4% by collision
    
• Franklin Institute boiler tests - Alexander Bache
  
• 1838 law - $5 inspection certificate required
  
• 1852 law - boiler specifications set - 110 psi
  
  • uniform code of Society of Mechanical Engineers
    
• accidents drop 35% after 1852