Editing 1810s (section)

=== Steamboats ===
[[File:Enterprise 03.jpg|left|thumb|"Enterprise on her fast trip to Louisville, 1815"]] 
The 1810s continued a trend of increasing commercial viability of [[steamboat]]s in North America, following the early success of [[Robert Fulton]] and others in the preceding years.  In 1811 the first in a continuously operating line of river steamboats left the dock at [[Pittsburgh]] to steam down the [[Ohio River]] to the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] and on to [[New Orleans]].<ref>[http://www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/pennsylvania/history/pghsts3.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927191549/http://www.carnegielibrary.org/locations/pennsylvania/history/pghsts3.html|date=September 27, 2007}}</ref>  Inventor [[John Stevens (inventor, born 1749)|John Stevens]]' boat, the ''Juliana'', began operation as the first [[steam]]-powered [[ferry]] October 11, 1811, with service between [[New York City|New York]], and [[Hoboken, New Jersey]]. [[John Molson]]'s [[PS Accommodation|PS ''Accommodation'']] was the first steamboat on the [[St. Lawrence]] and in Canada.<ref>"Canadian Encyclopedia", 2010.</ref> Unlike Fulton, Molson did not show a profit. Molson had also two paddle steamboats "Swiftsure" of 1811 and "Malsham" of 1813 with engines by B&W.<ref>Boulton & Watt Engine Order Book, Birmingham Public Library, England.</ref> The experience of these vessels, especially that they could now offer a regular service, being independent of wind and weather, helped make the new system of propulsion commercially viable, and as a result its application to the more open waters of the [[Great Lakes]] was next considered. That idea went on hiatus due to the [[War of 1812]].

In a 25-day trip in 1815, the [[Enterprise (1814)|''Enterprise'']] further demonstrated the commercial potential of the steamboat with a 2,200-mile voyage from [[New Orleans]] to [[Pittsburgh]].<ref>''Western Courier'' [Louisville, Ky.], 1 June 1815: "Arrived in this port, in 25 days from New-Orléans, the Steam-Boat ''Enterprize'', capt. SHRIEVE. The celerity and safety with which this boat descends and ascends the currents of these mighty waters, the improvement of the navigation of which is so advantageous to the western world, must be equally interesting to the farmer and the merchant. The facility and convenience of the passage, in ascending the rivers, are such as to give a decided preference to this mode of navigation, while the size and construction of the boat entitles it to all the advantages which the ''Ætna and Vesuvius'' have in vain attempted to ''monopolize'' over the ''free'' waters of our common country."</ref><ref>''American Telegraph'' [Brownsville, Pa.], 5 July 1815: "Arrived at this port on Monday last, the Steam Boat Enterprize, Shreve, of Bridgeport, from New Orleans, in ballast, having discharged her cargo at Pittsburgh. She is the first steam boat that ever made the voyage to the Mouth of the Mississippi and back. She made the voyage from New Orleans to this port, in fifty four days, twenty days on which were employed in loading and unloading freight at different towns on the Mississippi and Ohio, so that she was only thirty four days in active service, in making her voyage, which our readers will remember must be performed against powerful currents, and is upwards of ''two thousand two hundred miles in length.''"</ref>  In 1817, a consortium in [[Sackets Harbor, New York]], funded the construction of the first US steamboat, ''Ontario'', to run on [[Lake Ontario]] and the [[Great Lakes]], beginning the growth of lake commercial and passenger traffic.<ref>[http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/ Barlow Cumberland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050206183038/http://www.hhpl.on.ca/GreatLakes/ |date=2005-02-06 }}, ''A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River'', 1911, accessed 20 August 2010</ref>

The first commercially successful steamboat in Europe, [[Henry Bell (engineer)|Henry Bell's]] ''[[PS Comet|Comet]]'' of 1812, started a rapid expansion of steam services on the [[Firth of Clyde]], and within four years a steamer service was in operation on the inland [[Loch Lomond]], a forerunner of the lake steamers still gracing Swiss lakes.  On the Clyde itself, within ten years of ''Comet's'' start in 1812 there were nearly fifty steamers, and services had started across the [[Irish Sea]] to [[Belfast]] and on many British estuaries.  P.S."Thames", ex "Argyle" was the first seagoing steamer in Europe, having steamed from Glasgow to London in May 1815.<ref>John Kennedy, "The History of Steam Navigation" Liverpool,1903.</ref>  P.S."Tug", the first tugboat, was launched by the Woods Brothers, Port Glasgow, on November 5, 1817; in the summer of 1817 she was the first steamboat to travel round the North of Scotland to the East Coast.<ref>A.I.Bowman, "Swifts & Queens", Strathkelvin, 1983.</ref>

[[File:Draisine1817.jpg|upright|right|thumb|Karl Drais' laufmaschine]]
The first steamship credited with crossing the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe was the American ship ''[[SS Savannah]]'', though she was actually a hybrid between a steamship and a sailing ship. The ''SS Savannah'' left the port of [[Savannah, Georgia]], on May 22, 1819, arriving in [[Liverpool]], England, on June 20, 1819; her steam engine having been in use for part of the time on 18 days (estimates vary from 8 to 80 hours).