![]() The device that he fathered no longer plays as important a role in the internal commerce of the nation as it once did, but the steamboat tradition nevertheless has a firm hold on the American imagination. In the popular history of American technology Robert Fulton occupies a place comparable to that of James Wart in England. That the individual credited with "inventing" a device of such influence and fame should be raised to a high pedestal and ranked among the elite of the nation's heroes is natural enough. Eventually the influence of the American steamboat was felt all over the globe, and there were few great river systems that in time did not feel the beat of the paddlewheels by which it was propelled. First developed to the point of practical commercial success in this country, the steamboat was quickly incorporated into the economic structure of the nation and within a few years became the principal vehicle of transportation on the main channels of inland commerce. I.The steamboat was the first great American contribution to modern technology. Hunter was professor of history at American University he is currently preparing a history of industrial power in the United States. ![]() Hunter, an economic historian, is the author of Steamboats on the Western Rivers (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), a classic in the history of technology. Hunter shows that the western steamboat was not the creation of any single man it was an evolutionary development to which many men contributed. The arrival of the steamboat signaled the beginning of a new age but, like many technological innovations, its origins have been obscured by the heroic theory of invention, which explains important developments in terms of a single genius. It was also the means by which the steam engine was introduced to America. ![]() The Heroic Theory of Invention The Heroic Theory of Inventionįew inventions have been as important as the steamboat, which had a revolutionary effect on western development.
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