A history of the growth of the steam-engine . onstruct steam-vessels ; and, after the break-ing down of the Fulton monopoly by the courts, they builtthe most successful steamboats that ran on the HudsonRiver. After Fulton and Stevens had thus led the way, steam-navigation was introduced very rapidly on both sides of theocean ; and on the Mississippi the number of boats set afloatwas soon large enough to fulfill Evanss prediction that the 270 THE MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. navigation of that river would ultimately be effected bysteam-vessels. Tbe changes and improvements which, during the 20years suc
A history of the growth of the steam-engine . onstruct steam-vessels ; and, after the break-ing down of the Fulton monopoly by the courts, they builtthe most successful steamboats that ran on the HudsonRiver. After Fulton and Stevens had thus led the way, steam-navigation was introduced very rapidly on both sides of theocean ; and on the Mississippi the number of boats set afloatwas soon large enough to fulfill Evanss prediction that the 270 THE MODERN STEAM-ENGINE. navigation of that river would ultimately be effected bysteam-vessels. Tbe changes and improvements which, during the 20years succeeding the time of Fulton and of John Stevens,gradually led to the adoption of the now recognized typeof American river-boat and its steam-engine, were prin-cipally made by that son of the senior Stevens, who hasalready been mentioned—Robbet L. Stevens—and whobecame known later as the designer and builder of the firstwell-planned iron-clad ever constructed, the Stevens Bat-tery. Much of his best work was done during his Eobert L, Stevens. He made many extended and most valuable, as wellas interesting, experiments on ship-propulsion, expendingmuch time and large sums of money upon them ; and manyyears before they became generally understood, he had ar- STEAM-NAVIGATION. 271 rived at a knowledge not only of the laws governing thevariation of resistance at excessive speeds, but he had de-termined, and had introduced into his practice, those formsof least resistance and those graceful water-lines which haveonly recently distinguished the practice of other successfulnaval architects. Referring to his invaluable services, President King,who seems to have been the first to thoroughly appreciatethe immense amount of original invention and the surpris-ing excellence of the engineering of this family, in a lecturedelivered in New York in 1851, gave, for the first time, aconnected and probably accurate description of their work,upon which nearly all later accounts h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidc, booksubjectsteamengines
