Before his death in 1815 he had constructed
or planned sixteen or seventeen boats, including boats for the
Hudson, Potomac, and Mississippi rivers, for the Neva in Russia,
and a steam vessel of war for the United States. He was a member
of the commission on the Erie Canal, though he did not live to
see that enterprise begun.
The mighty influence of the steamboat in the development of
inland America is told elsewhere in this Series.* The steamboat
has long since grown to greatness, but it is well to remember
that the true ancestor of the magnificent leviathan of our own
day is the Clermont of Robert Fulton.
* Archer B. Hulbert, "The Paths of Inland Commerce".
The world today is on the eve of another great development in
transportation, quite as revolutionary as any that have preceded.
How soon will it take place? How long before Kipling's vision in
"The Night Mail" becomes a full reality? How long before the air
craft comes to play a great role in the world's transportation?
We cannot tell. But, after looking at the nearest parallel in the
facts of history, each of us may make his own guess. The airship
appears now to be much farther advanced than the steamboat was
for many years after Robert Fulton died. Already we have seen men
ride the wind above the sea from the New World to the Old.
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