In the beginning...
October 1781. The war – known here as the American Revolution – was over.
In the new United States of America men could devote themselves once again to reading, to thinking about ways to make life easier, and to dabbling in the sciences of chemistry and physics and the like.
By the mid-1780s the idea of using steam to propel boats on bodies of water had moved from being a dream of visionaries to being a means of making money.
The Prize: Fortune and fame coming from having the monopoly to operate steamboats.