Nicholas Roosevelt (inventor) 74-gun ships. In 1797, with Robert R. Livingston and John Stevens, he agreed to build a boat on joint account, for which the engines were to be constructed by Roosevelt, and the propelling agency was to be that planned by Livingston. The experiment failed, the speed attained being only equivalent to about in still water. On September 6, 1798, Roosevelt described and earnestly recommended to Livingston a vertical wheel, which is the first practical suggestion of the combination that made steam navigation a commercial success, although four years later Robert Fulton believed that chains and floats were alone to be
Marine steam engine time. A triple-expansion engine is a compound engine that expands the steam in three stages—i.e. an engine with three cylinders at three different pressures. A quadruple-expansion engine expands the steam in four stages, and so on. The first successful commercial use was an engine built at Govan in Scotland by Alexander C. Kirk for the SS "Aberdeen" in 1881. Multiple-expansion engine manufacture continued well into the 20th century. All 2,700 Liberty ships built by the United States during World War II were powered by triple-expansion engines, because the capacity of the US to manufacture marine steam turbines was entirely directed