EXPERIMENT paddlesteamer

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aukepalmhof
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EXPERIMENT paddlesteamer

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:33 am

The EXPERIMENT was bought from Brooke & Wilson for the testing of a steam-engine built by John Fitch.
Dimensions 60 x 8 ft.
She was fitted out with three rectangular paddles operating behind the stern of the vessel.
After a steam engine was added the paddles were driven by a series of gears and chain belts.
But by the first public trial held on the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Burlington, NJ. The steam engine got a leak and broke down.
Many modifications were made, the steam engine with a 12 inch cylinder was replaced by an 18 inch cylinder, and when all worked well more trials were held.
12 October 1788 with on board 30 passengers she made her first voyage with passengers in a time of three hours and ten minutes, but she was to slow for commercial use.
Many alternations and modifications were made and a new engine and boiler were built, but when completed it was found out that practical noting worked end by the end of 1789 the boat was not operational.
During a trial in December 1789 she caught fire and had to be sunk to save the hull.
The next spring she was raised, and an eight new condenser fitted in which operated properly.
16 April 1790 a trial was made, in which a speed of 8 mile an hour was made. A passenger cabin was thereafter added
14 June 1790 a advertise was placed in the “Federal Gazette” in which was given that she was ready to take passengers from Philadelphia up the Delaware River to Trenton on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, returning the next day. The fare was 5 shilling or $1.
The passage between Philadelphia and Trenton took her longer than a stage coach although her fares were lower the EXPERIMENT lost money.
And after one summer season the EXPERIMENT was abandoned, fate unknown.

The 1790 EXPERIMENT was the first to carry paying passengers on a regularly schedule voyages anywhere in the world.

USA 1989 25c sg2389, scott2405

Source: American Steamships on the Atlantic by Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt.
Attachments
card01014_fr.jpg
tmp143E.jpg

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aukepalmhof
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Re: EXPERIMENT paddlesteamer

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Oct 08, 2017 7:57 pm

In the early 1780's, an inventor named John Fitch and an engineer named Henry Voight built a steamboat propelled by six twelve-foot vertical oars placed on either side of the craft. She proved extremely slow, and by 1788 the two men had redesigned their vessel using three rectangular paddles operating aft of the stern rather than many oars positioned along the sides. They christened their craft the EXPERIMENT, and put her into commercial service on the Delaware, making the trip from Philadelphia to Burlington and Trenton, New Jersey. But she was just too slow for commercial operations -- the steamboat trip took longer than the journey by stagecoach. Consequently, the little steamer consistently lost money on her voyages and was withdrawn from service in the summer of 1790. Nevertheless, she was a pioneer in American steamboating in two regards. She was the first vessel in American waters to actually move under her own steam, and the first commercial American steamboat

http://www.artworkoriginals.com/EB5TB6Q9.HTM

Marshal Island 2017 of 49c each sg?, scott? (he two stamps show her from the bow and stern)
Attachments
2017 experiment.jpg

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