science · 15 July 1783 · 241 years ago
In 1783, the first successful steamboat, the Pyroscaphe, made a trial run on the River Saône in France. It was invented by a Frenchman, the Marquee Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans. His earlier steam-powered boat tested in 1778 on the river Doubs used a Newcomen steam engine driving a hinged flap he modelled after the webbed feet of an aquatic bird, which was unsuccessful. He then built on ideas from James Watt's inventions to design a parallel-motion double-acting steam engine to drive a pair of large paddle wheels on the Pyroscaphe. Several thousand people viewed its trial, a 15 minute journey upstream on the River Saône. (Montgolfier's first balloon demonstration took place a few weeks earlier on 4 Jun 1783.)
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