anomalous machine an anticipation of the locomotive not
approached by any other American of the time. Thus, prior to 1800
almost every type of mechanism for the propulsion of steamboats
had been suggested and tried; and in 1804, Stevens's twin-screw
propeller completed the list.

It is not alone Fitch's development of the devices of the endless
chain, paddle wheel, and screw propeller and of his puzzling
earth-and-water creature that gives luster to his name. His
prophetic insight into the future national importance of the
steamboat and his conception, as an inventor, of his moral
obligations to the people at large were as original and striking
in the science of that age as were his models.

The early years of the national life of the United States were
the golden age of monopoly. Every colony, as a matter of course,
had granted to certain men special privileges, and, as has
already been pointed out, the questions of monopolies and
combinations in restraint of trade had arisen even so early as
the beginning of the eighteenth century. Interwoven inextricably
with these problems was the whole problem of colonial rivalry,
which in its later form developed into an insistence on state
rights. Every improvement in the means of transportation, every
development of natural resources, every new invention was
inevitably considered from the standpoint of sectional interests
and with a view to its monopolistic possibilities. This was
particularly true in the case of the steamboat, because of its
limitation to rivers and bays which could be specifically
enumerated and defined. For instance, Washington in 1784 attests
the fact that Rumsey operated his mechanical boat at Bath in