We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

Quotes: Knock, knock, who's there? 20727 Views


Share It!


Description:

Find out the meaning behind "knock knock, who's there?"

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

the first successful steamship was built in the 1790s by an American named

00:07

John Fitch. it was bulky slow and if we're being [Fitch on steam ships]

00:11

honest pretty ugly. that's a face only a mother could love.

00:14

well uglier not Fitch's steamship could carry 30 people up and down a river at a

00:19

galloping 6 miles an hour. whoa hold on to your bonnets there ladies. as we

00:24

already know the steam engine was in need of revisions if it was gonna be an

00:27

efficient source of power. well by the early 1800s a standard kind of steamer

00:32

had been built using the new Watt steam engines and a giant paddle wheel. think [steam ship sinks a little]

00:38

about a classic Mark Twain kind of riverboat paddling up the Mississippi.

00:42

paddle boats looked awesome but they had some problems. the worst being that their

00:46

paddles operated best at a certain depth. if we loaded our boat down with heavy

00:51

goods or too many people the boat would sink a little and the paddles well

00:55

wouldn't work as well. it wasn't great especially in Gator country. yeah.

01:00

ventually a new kind of steam propulsion swooped in to save the day. these new

01:05

engines were called screw propellers which were giant underwater fans powered [men smile standing next to steamboat]

01:10

by a steam engine.. well screw propellers just rolls off the

01:14

tongue a little nicer don't you think? well propellers were smaller and more

01:18

efficient but they already had that over big clunky paddle wheels. but on top of

01:22

that they worked reliably no matter how deep they were in the water. great for

01:26

people not so great for Gators. one last step in steam engine evolution was the

01:31

steam turbine. aka high-pressure steam engines. these bad boys forced [kid smiles next to steam turbine]

01:36

high-pressure steam through a narrow channel where it turned a turbine

01:41

superfast. way more efficient way faster and probably way scarier for the Gators.

01:46

whatever the technical details steamers had a few things in common. like the fact

01:50

that they burn mountains of coal. they needed extra storage space and crews of

01:56

unfortunate workers to feed the coal into the boiler widow. no one's idea

02:01

of fun. working in a boiler room was kind of like sucking on a smokestack for a

02:05

living. they all took some pretty serious industrial scale equipment to build and [men build equipment]

02:10

assemble, including huge iron furnaces and gigantic welders. but they totally

02:15

blew sailing ships out of the water. no more waiting for the correct wind and

02:19

tide or current ,no more complicated rigging arrangements and no more 40 days

02:23

to get across the Atlantic. well by the early 1900's we can cross the Atlantic

02:28

in just nine days - and sure we can take a transatlantic flight in six hours these [airplane flies by]

02:33

days but to don't tell our ancestors. only depress them .though probably no

02:38

more than the whole being dead thing.

Up Next

Quotes: Brave new world
13765 Views

Find out the meaning behind "brave new world."

Related Videos

Quotes: The be all and end all
79 Views

Find out the meaning behind "the be all and end all."

Quotes: Full circle
6831 Views

Find out the meaning behind "full circle."

Quotes: Wild Goose Chase
229 Views

What does it mean to go on a "wild goose chase"? The phrase comes from Romeo and Juliet, and has nothing to do with Mercutio's hunting habits. He w...

Quotes: All the world's a stage
621 Views

What does "All the world's a stage" mean? Well, it's talking about how all of life is... pretty much like a stage production. We wear costumes, pla...