Though never satisfied, his new ideas were tested scientifically and the results carefully written down.

Some of his notebooks read almost like geometrical demonstrations; and his drawings and plans were beautifully executed.

Before his death in 1815 he had constructed or planned sixteen or seventeen boats, including boats for the Hudson, Potomac, and Mississippi rivers, for the Neva in Russia, and a steam vessel of war for the United States.

He was a member of the commission on the Erie Canal, though he did not live to see that enterprise begun.
The mighty influence of the steamboat in the development of inland America is told elsewhere in this Series.* The steamboat has long since grown to greatness, but it is well to remember that the true ancestor of the magnificent leviathan of our own day is the Clermont of Robert Fulton.
* Archer B.Hulbert, "The Paths of Inland Commerce".
The world today is on the eve of another great development in transportation, quite as revolutionary as any that have preceded.

How soon will it take place?
How long before Kipling's vision in "The Night Mail" becomes a full reality?
How long before the air craft comes to play a great role in the world's transportation?
We cannot tell.