Steam Tugboat Hercules, first to be fitted with a two-stage steam machinery Gerhard Moritz Roentgen, 38 years old, a former naval officer and an engineer, who co-founded the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (NSM) in 1823, has invented a new compound steam engine and has decided to apply it to a sea-going vessel, a paddle wheel steam tug named Hercules, that he designed four years ago. ¤ Roentgen discovered steam machinery and iron industry through a long study voyage in

John Fitch, 43, originally a clockmaker then a gunsmith, successfully trials his steamboat Perseverance on the Delaware river. Fitch's first model (1785) Two years ago, Fitch achieved to convince the state legislative bodies of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia to award him a conditional 14-year monopoly for steam navigation on their waterways. He just missed Maryland and the district of Columbia to get a complete area of business in the core of the y

Claude d’Auxiron, ex-officer and polymath, a rightly renowned economist, 41, and Charles Monnin de Follenay, ex-officer, 38, formed last year a joint-venture company to promote steam navigation on river. Henri Léonard Bertin They achieved to convince the Secretary-of-State Henri Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin, aged 53, of the feasibility of a steamboat and of its economical interest. Since 1763 Bertin has been leading a ministry including agriculture, mines, river navigation a

Always looking for a solution of river navigation substituting for the horse-drawn barges, Claude de Jouffroy d’Abbans is back in competition after seven years of reflections and of design. He trials a new steamboat moving on the Saône river in the city of Lyon. By all accounts, this is a feat. There have been at least ten thousands eye witnesses to admire the boat when, for the great event, it triumphantly steamed against the stream from Vaise, the place where it had been

Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans Looking for a solution of river navigation substituting for the horse-drawn barges, a French gentleman,...

SS Sirius Two steamships - SS in short -, Sirius and Great Western, simultaneously cross the Atlantic Ocean from Cork in Ireland for the first, from Bristol in England for the second, to New York, in 18½ and 15½ days respectively, the second departing 4 days after the first and arriving the day after, that is on the 23rd of April while Sirius arrived on the 22nd. Sirius has transported 45 passengers, Great Western only seven. ¤ Great Eastern caught fire in her machinery dur