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John Fitch's First Steam Boat, ca. 1786.
flipFlip to Illustration of John Fitch's design for a ferry boat with steam-driven oars, Columbian Magazine, December 8, 1786.
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Sketch of a steam boat.

Credit: Image donated by Corbis Bettmann

With small side paddle wheel first trial took place in August, 1787, and the speed attained was barely three miles an hour.

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