Editing Paddle steamer (section)

== History ==
=== Western world ===
[[File:De Rebus Bellicis, XVth Century Miniature.JPG|thumb|Ox-powered Roman paddle wheel boat from a 15th-century copy of {{Lang|la|[[De Rebus Bellicis]]}}]]
[[File:D'AbbansSteamshipModel.jpg|thumb|left|Model made by de Jouffroy in 1784 to show the French Science Academy the engine and paddle wheels used on {{ship||Pyroscaphe}}: The model is now in the National Maritime Museum in Paris.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musee-marine.fr/cartel.php?lg=fr&id=60|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091118194528/http://www.musee-marine.fr/cartel.php?lg=fr&id=60|title=Musée national de la Marine: Pyroscaphe. Bateau à vapeur|access-date=2012-07-29|archive-date=2009-11-18|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]
The use of a paddle wheel in navigation appears for the first time in the mechanical treatise of the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] engineer [[Vitruvius]] (''De architectura'', X 9.5–7), where he describes multigeared paddle wheels working as a ship [[odometer]]. The first mention of paddle wheels as a means of propulsion comes from the fourth– or fifth-century military treatise {{Lang|la|[[De Rebus Bellicis]]}} (chapter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes an ox-driven paddle-wheel warship:
{{cquote|Animal power, directed by the resources on ingenuity, drives with ease and swiftness, wherever utility summons it, a warship suitable for naval combats, which, because of its enormous size, human frailty as it were prevented from being operated by the hands of men. In its hull, or hollow interior, oxen, yoked in pairs to capstans, turn wheels attached to the sides of the ship; paddles, projecting above the circumference or curved surface of the wheels, beating the water with their strokes like oar-blades as the wheels revolve, work with an amazing and ingenious effect, their action producing rapid motion. This warship, moreover, because of its own bulk and because of the machinery working inside it, joins battle with such pounding force that it easily wrecks and destroys all enemy warships coming at close quarters.<ref>De Rebus Bellicis (anon.), chapter XVII, text edited by Robert Ireland, in: ''BAR International Series'' 63, part 2, p. 34</ref>}}
[[File:Anonymous of the Hussite Wars. Clm 197, Part 1, Folio 17v Supra.jpg|thumb|left|A 15th-century paddlewheel boat powered by crankshafts (Anonymous of the [[Hussite Wars]])]]
Italian physician [[Guido da Vigevano]] (''circa'' 1280–1349), planning for a new crusade, made illustrations for a paddle boat that was propelled by manually turned [[crank (mechanism)|compound cranks]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hall|first=Bert S.|title=The Technological Illustrations of the So-Called "Anonymous of the Hussite Wars". Codex Latinus Monacensis 197, Part 1|year=1979|publisher=Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |isbn=3-920153-93-6|page=80}}</ref>

[[File:Taccola ship.jpg|thumb|Paddle boat, by the Italian artist-engineer [[Taccola]], ''De machinis'' (1449): The paddles wind a rope fixed to an anchor upstream, thus moving the boat against the current.]]
One of the drawings of the Anonymous Author of the [[Hussite Wars]] shows a boat with a pair of paddlewheels at each end turned by men operating compound cranks.<ref name="whitejr">{{cite book|last=White|first=Lynn Jr.|author-link=Lynn Townsend White Jr.|title=Medieval Technology and Social Change|year= 1962|publisher=At the Clarendon Press|location=Oxford |page=114}}</ref> The concept was improved by the Italian [[Roberto Valturio]] in 1463, who devised a boat with five sets, where the parallel cranks are all joined to a single power source by one connecting rod, an idea adopted by his compatriot [[Francesco di Giorgio]].<ref name="whitejr" />

In 1539, Spanish engineer [[Blasco de Garay]] received the support of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] to build ships equipped with manually-powered side paddle wheels. From 1539 to 1543, Garay built and launched five ships, the most famous being the modified Portuguese [[carrack]] ''La Trinidad'', which surpassed a nearby [[galley]] in speed and maneuverability on June 17, 1543, in the harbor of [[Barcelona]]. The project, however, was discontinued.<ref name=Maroto>{{cite book|last=Jiménez Maroto|first=Alfonso José|url=https://elfarodeceuta.es/blasco-de-garay-ingenio-corona/|title=Blasco de Garay, el ingenio de la Corona de España|date= October 14, 2020|access-date=October 31, 2022|publisher=El Faro de Ceuta|language=Spanish}}</ref> 19th century writer Tomás González claimed to have found proof that at least some of these vessels were steam-powered, but this theory was discredited by the Spanish authorities. It has been proposed that González mistook a steam-powered [[desalinator]] created by Garay for a steam boiler.<ref name=Maroto/>

In 1705, Papin constructed a ship powered by hand-cranked paddles. An apocryphal story originating in 1851 by [[Louis Figuire]] held that this ship was steam-powered rather than hand-powered and that it was therefore the first steam-powered vehicle of any kind. The myth was refuted as early as 1880 by {{ill|Ernst Gerland|de|Ernst Gerland (Physiker)}}, though still it finds credulous expression in some contemporary scholarly work.<ref name=wootton>{{cite book |author=Wootton, David|title=The Invention of Science |year=2015|publisher=Harper Collins |location=New York |page=498,647 }}</ref>

In 1787, [[Patrick Miller of Dalswinton]] invented a double-hulled boat that was propelled on the [[Firth of Forth]] by men working a capstan that drove paddles on each side.<ref name=sam>{{Citation|last = Smiles, Samuel|author-link = Samuel Smiles|title = Men of Invention and Industry|publisher =  Gutenberg e-text |year = 1884 }}</ref>

One of the first functioning [[steamship]]s, ''[[Palmipède]]'', which was also the first paddle steamer, was built in France in 1774 by Marquis [[Claude de Jouffroy]] and his colleagues. The {{convert|13|m|ftin|adj=on|abbr=on}} steamer with rotating paddles sailed on the [[Doubs (river)|Doubs River]] in June and July 1776. In 1783, a new paddle steamer by de Jouffroy, {{ship||Pyroscaphe}}, successfully steamed up the river [[Saône]] for 15 minutes before the engine failed. Bureaucracy and the French Revolution thwarted further progress by de Jouffroy.
[[File:The First Paddle Steamer to Navigate the Exe up to Exeter - W H Cox - 44 1929.jpg|thumb|The first paddle steamer to navigate the River Exe up to Exeter in the UK]]
The next successful attempt at a paddle-driven steam ship was by Scottish engineer [[William Symington]], who suggested steam power to [[Patrick Miller of Dalswinton]].<ref name=sam /> Experimental boats built in 1788 and 1789 worked successfully on [[Lochmaben]] Loch. In 1802, Symington built a [[barge]]-hauler, {{ship||Charlotte Dundas}}, for the [[Forth and Clyde Canal Company]]. It successfully hauled two 70-ton barges almost {{convert|20|mi|km|abbr=on}} in 6&nbsp;hours against a strong headwind on test in 1802. Enthusiasm was high, but some directors of the company were concerned about the banks of the canal being damaged by the wash from a powered vessel, and no more were ordered.

While ''Charlotte Dundas'' was the first commercial paddle steamer and [[steamboat]], the first commercial success was possibly [[Robert Fulton]]'s ''[[North River Steamboat|Clermont]]'' in New York, which went into commercial service in 1807 between New York City and [[Albany, New York|Albany]]. Many other paddle-equipped river boats followed all around the world; the first in Europe being {{PS|Comet}} designed by [[Henry Bell (engineer)|Henry Bell]] which started a scheduled passenger service on the [[River Clyde]] in 1812.<ref>{{cite book |last=Robins |first=Nick |date=2012 |title=The Coming of the Comet: The Rise and Fall of the Paddle Steamer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXmuCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |location=Barnsley |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |page=3 |isbn=978-1848321342}}</ref>
[[File:The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner, National Gallery.jpg|thumb|A paddle tug pulling {{HMS|Temeraire|1798|6}} to a [[Ship breaking|breaking yard]] in 1838]]
In 1812, the first U.S. Mississippi River paddle steamer began operating out of New Orleans. By 1814, [[Henry Miller Shreve|Captain Henry Shreve]]{{refn|group=lower-alpha|The namesake of [[Shreveport, Louisiana]]}} had developed a "steamboat"{{Refn|group=lower-alpha|Vessels operating on the Mississippi River system are referred to as "boats".}} suitable for local conditions. Landings in New Orleans went from 21 in 1814 to 191 in 1819, and over 1,200 in 1833.

The first stern-wheeler was designed by [[Gerhard Moritz Roentgen]] from Rotterdam, and used between Antwerp and Ghent in 1827.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[The Monitor (Sydney)|The Monitor]]|date=21 May 1828|url= http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31760025|location=Sydney, NSW|title=Steam-boat on a new construction}}</ref>

[[Team boat]]s, paddle boats driven by horses, were used for [[ferries]] the United States from the 1820s–1850s, as they were economical and did not incur licensing costs imposed by the steam navigation monopoly. In the 1850s, they were replaced by steamboats.<ref>{{Cite news| last = Viegas
| first = Jennifer| title = When Horses Walked on Water to Transport Humans| work = Discovery News| access-date = 2014-04-17| date = 2010-08-24
| url = http://news.discovery.com/history/when-horses-walked-on-water-to-transport-humans.htm}}</ref>

After the American Civil War, as the expanding railroads took many passengers, the traffic became primarily bulk cargoes. The largest, and one of the last, paddle steamers on the Mississippi was the sternwheeler ''Sprague''. Built in 1901, she pushed coal and petroleum until 1948.<ref>{{cite book|last=Paine|first=Lincoln P|title=Ships of the World|year=1997|publisher=Houghton-Mifflin|isbn=0-395-71556-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/shipsofworldhist00pain/page/182 182, 350, 357, 433–434, 487]|url=https://archive.org/details/shipsofworldhist00pain/page/182}}</ref><ref name=acesteamboat>{{cite web|title=Steamboat navigation|url=http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/PAO/history/MISSRNAV/steamboat.asp|work=Mississippi River Navigation|publisher=US Army Corps of Engineers Team New Orleans|access-date=25 Feb 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100129211955/http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/PAO/history/MISSRNAV/steamboat.asp |archive-date=2010-01-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ewen|first=William H|title=Days of the Steamboats|year=1988|publisher=Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc|isbn=0-913372-47-1|pages=27, 53, 70–71}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gandy|first1=Joan W|last2=Gandy|first2=Thomas H|title=The Mississippi Steamboat Era in Historic Photographs|year=1987|publisher=Dover Publications, Inc|isbn=0-486-25260-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mississippisteam00gand/page/2 2–3, 116]|url=https://archive.org/details/mississippisteam00gand/page/2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Sprague|url=http://wheeling.weirton.lib.wv.us/history/bus/river/boats19.htm|publisher=Wheeling National Heritage Area Corp|access-date=25 Feb 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121042049/http://wheeling.weirton.lib.wv.us/history/bus/river/boats19.htm|archive-date=21 January 2013|url-status=dead}}Dead link January 27, 2018</ref>

In Europe from the 1820s, paddle steamers were used to take tourists from the rapidly expanding industrial cities on river cruises, or to the newly established [[seaside resort]]s, where [[Pier#Pleasure piers|pleasure piers]] were built to allow passengers to disembark regardless of the state of the tide. Later, these paddle steamers were fitted with luxurious saloons in an effort to compete with the facilities available on the railways. Notable examples are the [[Thames steamers]] which took passengers from London to [[Southend-on-Sea]] and [[Margate]], [[Clyde steamer]]s that connected Glasgow with the resort of [[Rothesay|Rothsay]] and the [[Köln-Düsseldorfer]] cruise steamers on the [[River Rhine]]. Paddle steamer services continued into the mid-20th century, when ownership of motor cars finally made them obsolete except for a few heritage examples.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gladwell |first=Andrew |date=2015 |title=London's Pleasure Steamers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YP0mCgAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=Amberley Publishing |chapter=Introduction |isbn=978-1445641584 }}</ref>

=== China ===
[[File:Radpaddelsch.jpg|thumb|upright|A Chinese paddle-wheel ship from a [[Qing dynasty]] [[encyclopedia]] published in 1726]]
The first mention of a paddle-wheel ship from China is in the ''[[History of the Southern Dynasties]]'', compiled in the 7th century but describing the naval ships of the [[Liu Song dynasty]] (420–479) used by admiral Wang Zhen'e in his campaign against the [[Qiang people|Qiang]] in 418 AD. The ancient Chinese mathematician and astronomer [[Zu Chongzhi]] (429–500) had a paddle-wheel ship built on the Xinting River (south of [[Nanjing]]) known as the "[[Qianli chuan|thousand league boat]]".<ref name="Needham">[[Joseph Needham|Needham, Joseph]] (1965). ''Science and Civilization in China, Vol. IV: Physics and Physical Technology'', p.416. {{ISBN|978-0-521-05802-5}}.</ref> When campaigning against [[Hou Jing]] in 552, the [[Liang dynasty]] (502–557) admiral Xu Shipu employed paddle-wheel boats called "water-wheel boats". At the siege of Liyang in 573, the admiral Huang Faqiu employed foot-treadle powered paddle-wheel boats. A successful paddle-wheel warship design was made in China by Prince Li Gao in 784 AD, during an imperial examination of the provinces by the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) emperor.<ref>{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics|year=1986|publisher=Caves Books|location=Taipei|page=31}}</ref> The Chinese [[Song dynasty]] (960–1279) issued the construction of many paddle-wheel ships for its standing [[History of the Song dynasty|navy]], and according to the British biochemist, historian, and sinologist [[Joseph Needham]]:

<blockquote>
"...between 1132 and 1183 (AD) a great number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including sternwheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels a side,".<ref name="needham 476">Needham, 476</ref>
</blockquote>

The standard Chinese term "wheel ship" was used by the Song period, whereas a litany of colorful terms were used to describe it beforehand. In the 12th century, the Song government used paddle-wheel ships ''en masse'' to defeat opposing armies of pirates armed with their own paddle-wheel ships. At the [[Battle of Caishi]] in 1161, paddle-wheelers were also used with great success against the [[Jin dynasty, 1115–1234|Jin dynasty]] (1115–1234) navy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 7, Military Technology; The Gunpowder Epic|year=1986|publisher=Caves Books|location= Taipei|pages=165–166}}</ref> The Chinese used the paddle-wheel ship even during the [[First Opium War]] (1839–1842) and for transport around the [[Pearl River (China)|Pearl River]] during the early 20th century.