“Pressure’s On,” an article by Mechanical Engineering Professor Frank Wicks, appeared in the October issue of “Mechanical Engineering,” the monthly membership publication of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. The article celebrates the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s commercially successful steamboat, America’s first great invention. Fulton, who had studied to be an artist, became the country's first famous engineer.
“The steamboat allowed the young country to expand through the wilderness via the Hudson and the Mississippi rivers. It led to canals and steam powered railroads. The related technologies would make the United States an industrial super power,” Wicks said.
A challenge to state-issued monopolies was successfully argued by Daniel Webster before the Supreme Court, which was headed by Chief Justice John Marshall. The ruling continues to protect interstate commerce.
“The article describes how the wood burning stoves and steam engines were rapidly depleting the forests, and how Union College president Eliphalet Nott came to the rescue by inventing a coal burning stove and a safer and more efficient coal fueled boiler for steamboats,” Wicks said.
Wicks, a member of the Steamship Historical Society of America who has also served as a steamship engineering officer, will make a related presentation, titled “Full Steam Ahead,” to the Union College Club of Schenectady, Nov. 13, 6-8:30 p.m., at the Rice House at the Albany Institute of History and Art. Those interested should RSVP by Nov. 7 by calling the Office of Alumni Relations at ext. 6157.
Wicks’ talk is being held in conjunction with the exhibition, “Full Steam Ahead: Robert Fulton and the Age of Steamboats,” commemorating the anniversary of Fulton’s first steamboat voyage of the Clermont in 1807 from New York City to Albany. The exhibition, which runs through December, features images, artifacts and the bellowing of steamboats from a bygone era.