building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

sailed downstream in 30. 180 Fulton had the idea to mount James Watt’s (1736‐1819)
steam engine, and to exploit the driving force it generated to move boats over the
water. Experiments of the kind had also been attempted in Europe, even by Fulton
himself in Paris, from the end of the eighteenth century, but they proved to be
either financial or engineering failures. Fulton’s boat was, on the other hand,
powerful enough to sail upstream. Moreover, the journey lasted but a few hours in
contrast with the several days and substantial difficulties overland. Fulton and his
financial backer, Robert Livingston (1746‐1813), known in France when the latter
was ambassador, were able to build a small commercial empire thanks to contracts
and favours from politicians. As a result of their wave of success, the two men were
also nominated members of the Eric Canal commission in 1811.
Daniel R. Headrick describes the history of the supremacy of the steamboat on the
waters of American rivers as follows:
In 1816 another competitor, Henry Shreve, built the Washington from a
radically new design. Until then, the engines of the boats constructed by
Fulton and French were located in the hull with a 90 or more centimetre
draught. On the contrary, the hull of Shreve’s boat was wide and flat like
a barge and drew a maximum of 60 centimetres. As the engine would
not fit into the hull, it was placed on the bridge and a second bridge was
built above for the passengers and cargo. Instead of side wheels it had a
single, large wheel astern which could be raised to avoid obstacles.
Shreve had the audacious and even dangerous idea of installing a high
pressure engine which took up little space and worked at 150 pounds
per square inch to provide the necessary power to get the better of the
strong current of the River Ohio. This boat was able to sail on the Ohio
and Mississippi all year, and remained afloat on sandbanks which would
have caused a deeper hull to run aground. The Washington was capable
of sailing up the Mississippi and the Ohio from New Orleans to Louisville
in twenty‐five days, a journey which would have required several
months by barge or canoe. From that day onwards, Shreve’s design was
used as the model for the classic river boat on the Mississippi Later there
was a sensational increase in the number of steamboats. In 1820 sixtynine
sailed the Ohio and Mississippi; in 1830, there were 187; in 1840,
557, and in 1850, 740. The historian, Louis Hunter, calculated that their
engines produced three fifths of all the steam used in the United States
and made a decisive contribution to the industrialisation of the country.
180 Cf. HEADRICK, Daniel R., Power over Peoples. Technology, Environment, and Western Imperialism,
1400 to Present, Princeton‐Oxford, Princeton University Press, 2010 (Italian translation by Giovanni
Arganese, Il predominio dell’occidente. Tecnologia, ambiente, imperialismo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2010,
p. 161)
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