Mac. OS High Sierra should be out soon. Apple is also giving its desktop OS a facelift with the cheekily named mac. OS High Sierra. Like i. OS 1. 1, High Sierra has been in beta since the spring, but were expecting Apple to announce an official release date for the new version of mac. OS on Tuesday as well. High Sierra wont include any huge upfront changes, but when its finally ready, youll be able to enjoy improved versions of Safari and Photos, along with a number of under the hood upgrades such as the new Apple File System APFS and support for Apples Metal 2 graphics API. Airpods Maybe a longshot, but a refresh would be nice. In 2. 01. 6, Apple released its first wireless earbuds, and even though I think they look a lot like Apple simply cut the wires off its standard Ear. Pods, over the past 1. Air. Pods have become some of the most popular wireless headphones around. While there havent been a ton of rumors discussing the Air. Pods, a patent granted to Apple mentions biometric sensors built into the buds. That could provide users with more accurate health and fitness tracking. Steamboat Wikipedia. Dutch river steam tugboat Mascotte IIA steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation. SS, S. S. or SS for Screw Steamer or PS for Paddle Steamer, however these designations are most often used for Steamships. The term steamboat is used to refer to smaller, insular, steam powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats. As using steam became more reliable, steam power became applied to larger, ocean going vessels. HistoryeditEarly attempts at powering a boat by steam were made by the French inventor Denis Papin and the English inventor Thomas Newcomen. Papin invented the steam digester a type of pressure cooker and experimented with closed cylinders and pistons pushed in by atmospheric pressure, analogous to the pump built by Thomas Savery in England during the same period. Papin proposed applying this steam pump to the operation of a paddlewheel boat and tried to market his idea in Britain. He was unable to successfully convert the piston motion into rotary motion and the steam could not produce enough pressure. Newcomens design did solve the first problem, but remained shackled to the inherent limitations of the engines of the time. A steamboat was described and patented by English physician John Allen in 1. In 1. 73. 6, Jonathan Hulls was granted a patent in England for a Newcomen engine powered steamboat using a pulley instead of a beam, and a pawl and ratchet to obtain rotary motion, but it was the improvement in steam engines by James Watt that made the concept feasible. William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, having learned of Watts engine on a visit to England, made his own engine. In 1. 76. 3 he put it in a boat. The boat sank, and while Henry made an improved model, he did not appear to have much success, though he may have inspired others. The first steam powered ship Pyroscaphe was a paddle steamer powered by a Newcomen steam engine it was built in France in 1. Marquis Claude de Jouffroy and his colleagues as an improvement of an earlier attempt, the 1. Palmipde. At its first demonstration on 1. July 1. 78. 3, Pyroscaphe travelled upstream on the river Sane for some fifteen minutes before the engine failed. Presumably this was easily repaired as the boat is said to have made several such journeys. Following this, De Jouffroy attempted to get the government interested in his work, but for political reasons was instructed that he would have to build another version on the Seine in Paris. De Jouffroy did not have the funds for this, and, following the events of the French revolution, work on the project was discontinued after he left the country. Similar boats were made in 1. John Fitch in Philadelphia and William Symington in Dumfries, Scotland. Fitch successfully trialled his boat in 1. Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, carrying as many as 3. This boat could typically make 7 to 8 miles per hour 1. The Fitch steamboat was not a commercial success, as this travel route was adequately covered by relatively good wagon roads. The following year, a second boat made 3. Delaware River before patent disputes dissuaded Fitch from continuing. Meanwhile, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, near Dumfries, Scotland, had developed double hulled boats propelled by manually cranked paddle wheels placed between the hulls, even attempting to interest various European governments in a giant warship version, 2. Miller sent King Gustav III of Sweden an actual small scale version, 1. Experiment. 7 Miller then engaged engineer William Symington to build his patent steam engine that drove a stern mounted paddle wheel in a boat in 1. The boat was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch in 1. Miller then abandoned the project. The failed project of Patrick Miller caught the attention of Lord Dundas, Governor of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, and at a meeting with the canal companys directors on 5 June 1. Captain Schank to be worked by a steam engine by Mr Symington on the canal. The boat was built by Alexander Hart at Grangemouth to Symingtons design with a vertical cylinder engine and crosshead transmitting power to a crank driving the paddlewheels. Trials on the River Carron in June 1. Forth up the Carron and thence along the Forth and Clyde Canal. In 1. 80. 1, Symington patented a horizontal steam engine directly linked to a crank. He got support from Lord Dundas to build a second steamboat, which became famous as the Charlotte Dundas, named in honour of Lord Dundass daughter. Symington designed a new hull around his powerful horizontal engine, with the crank driving a large paddle wheel in a central upstand in the hull, aimed at avoiding damage to the canal banks. The new boat was 5. The boat was built by John Allan and the engine by the Carron Company. The first sailing was on the canal in Glasgow on 4 January 1. Lord Dundas and a few of his relatives and friends on board. The crowd were pleased with what they saw, but Symington wanted to make improvements and another more ambitious trial was made on March 2. On this occasion, the Charlotte Dundas towed two 7. Forth and Clyde Canal to Glasgow, and despite a strong breeze right ahead that stopped all other canal boats it took only nine and a quarter hours, giving an average speed of about 3 kmh 2 mph. The Charlotte Dundas was the first practical steamboat, in that it demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships, and was the first to be followed by continuous development of steamboats. The 1. 90. 9 replica of the North River Steamboat, the first steamboat to achieve commercial success transporting passengers along the Hudson River. The American, Robert Fulton, was present at the trials of the Charlotte Dundas and was intrigued by the potential of the steamboat. While working in France, he corresponded with and was helped by the Scottish engineer Henry Bell, who may have given him the first model of his working steamboat. He designed his own steamboat, which sailed along the River Seine in 1. He later obtained a Watt steam engine, shipped to America where his first proper steamship was built in 1. North River Steamboat later known as Clermont, which carried passengers between New York City and Albany, New York. Clermont was able to make the 1. The steamboat was powered by a Boulton and Watt engine and was capable of long distance travel. It was the first commercially successful steamboat, transporting passengers along the Hudson River. In October 1. 81. John Stevens, Little Juliana, would operate as the first steam powered ferry between Hoboken and New York City. Stevens ship was engineered as a twin screw driven steamboat in juxtaposition to Clermonts Boulton and Watt engine. The design was a modification of Stevens prior paddle steamer Phoenix, the first steamship to successfully navigate the open ocean in its route from Hoboken to Philadelphia. Henry Bells. PS Comet of 1. River Clyde in Scotland. The Margery, launched in Dumbarton in 1. January 1. 81. 5 became the first steamboat on the River Thames, much to the amazement of Londoners. She operated a London to Gravesend river service until 1. French and became the first steamboat to cross the Channel. When she reached Paris, the new owners renamed her Elise and inaugurated a Seine steamboat service. In 1. 81. 8, Ferdinando I, the first Italian steamboat, left the port of Naples, where it had been built. Ocean goingeditThe first sea going steamboat was Richard Wrights first steamboat Experiment, an ex French lugger she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth, arriving Yarmouth 1. July 1. 81. 3. 1. Tug, the first tugboat, was launched by the Woods Brothers, Port Glasgow, on 5 November 1. North of Scotland to the East Coast. Use by countryeditUnited Statesedit. A typical river paddle steamer from the 1.