ABSTRACT
The increasing use of steam on some of the larger estuaries was just as much a factor in the furtherance of internal trade as was any other improvement in river or canal navigation. In Scotland the year 1788 marked an epoch in the application of steam to navigation purposes. In 1795 Lord Stanhope constructed a vessel to be propelled by steam; but its success led him no farther and Symington was left as the only important worker in this field of investigation. The progress of steam navigation was very rapid after 1814; but its great increase was chiefly confined to the large rivers, to the coast trade, and to the near-by sea traffic. In England, in 1813, one steamboat was plying on the Avon between Bristol and Bath, and another was introduced on the Yare between Norwich and Yarmouth.
