A Treatise On the Improvement of Canal Navigation Exhibiting the Numerous Advantages to be Derived from Small Canals And Boats of Two to Five Feet Wide, Containing from Two to Five Tons Burthen…By Robert Fulton

[Robert Fulton]. London, 1796. Published by I. And J. Taylor. First Edition. 17 engraved plates. Contemporary cover boards, with significant wear. Worn spine. Robert Fulton was credited with the design for the first commercially successful steamboat. His breakthrough in this regard came in France 1803, when his steamboat went up the river Sienne. Earlier steam boat designs had been tested in the canals of England. Fulton also designed and built the world's first practical submarine, the Nautilus, launched in 1801. This work was Fulton's attempt to design a canal system that would be operational in hilly terrain and with little water, and concluded by advocating small canals. Fulton sent copies of his book to George Washington and other high government officials to demonstrate how the United States could benefit from canal navigation.