ABSTRACT
The success of the 19th-century marine steam engine was achieved through gradual technological improvements spanning several centuries. Although the gradual development of steam navigation took place over the course of at least two hundred years, steamboats in America took a viable form at the end of a surge in the country's industrialization between 1780 and 1820. While a number of developers contributed to the successful introduction of steam navigation in North America, John Fitch and James Rumsey were two of the most tenacious. The adoption of steam navigation in the early 19th century thus had a significant impact on the growth of trade in Canada and in the development of Montreal as a port. Simultaneous with the development of lake steamers in the Northeast was the introduction of steam navigation on America's western rivers. Chesapeake Bay also saw the develoment of steam navigation during the first quarter of the 19th century.
