The coming of the Comet : the rise and fall of the paddle steamer /Nick Robins.

"Two-hundred years ago, in August 1812, Henry Bell's Comet, a revolutionary paddle steamer, made her first journey on the Clyde. This marked the start of remarkable developments that were to totally transform shipping and transport in Britain, Europe and the Americas. The paddle steamer soon became the key link with Empire, pushing the Honourable East India Company's wooden walls off the seas; it provided the all-important link with the Americas, and it offered emigrants to the New World a means of pushing westwards."--Back cover.