A steamboat is a boat in which the primary method of marine propulsion is steam power,

 typically driving propellers or paddle wheels.

John Fitch constructed four different steamboats between 1785 and 1796 that successfully plied rivers and lakes and demonstrated,in part,

the feasibility of using steam for water locomotion.

Although John Fitch invented the steamboat The American Inventor Robert Fulton built the first successful steamboat which was named the “Clermont”.

It was invented to increase trade up and down the river, it allowed travels to move up and down the river opening up new areas.

The steamboat was the very first mechanically powered vessel known to mankind.

It has about 150 pounds of pressure and while it runs its super quiet but not when it shoots out steam.

With steamboats, people could make trips in weeks instead of months.

Freight could be moved in larger amounts and on longer trips.

Towns and cities popped up along the rivers to serve steamboats.

Steamboats linked major cities all over the United Stated and helped unite the country.Steamboats were not without dangers, however fires and boiler explosions were not uncommon in the first 40 years of the steamboat era, several thousand people had been hurt or killed in over 500 steamboat disasters.

The era of the steamboat was built in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania.

The invention of the steamboat changed life in America.

Waterways like the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence and Hudson Rivers could be navigated carrying large numbers of passengers and freight and not dependent on the winds.

Larger steamships could cross the ocean which meant that America could export goods to Europe, also import goods,and people could emigrate and also immigrate.

It was the steamboat that permitted “up stream” passage of the Mississippi and many other rivers.

Prior to the steamboat, there was no “up and down” trade it was simply “down river” trade on flat boats.

No one could travel upstream on the Mississippi, and most any other rivers of any importance- the downstream current and fast river flow was just to great for man power

.The purpose for the steamboat was to enable travel of goods up stream rivers even through currents.

It also increased the speed goods traveled at.

Overall,it made it easier for goods to travel in rivers.

Steamboats were an important part of American life throughout the 19th century.
The steamboat is made and ran on by wood, 
It works by putting wood in this capsule and the wood is going to eat up the fire and close the capsule and you have to help by giving it a push and the stream shoots up by making sure you have a lot of water in the boiler,
a steamboat uses a steam engine similar to those on a steam locomotive.
An external wood or coal fire heats water in a boiler but if you put cold water in the boiler it could ruin the whole steamboat, and not work.