18th century steamboat
john fitch
In 1769, the Scotsman James Watt
patented an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial
Revolution. The idea of using steam power to propel boats occurred to inventors
soon after the potential of Watt's new engine became known. John Fitch was born
on January 21, 1743 and dies July 2, 1798 He was an American inventor,
clock maker, entrepreneur and engineer. He
was most famous for constructing the first steamboat in the United States. Fitch
was born to Joseph Fitch and Sarah Shaler in Windsor, Connecticut on a farm
that is part of present-day South Windsor, Connecticut. He received little formal schooling and
eventually apprenticed himself to a clock maker during time Fitch was not
allowed to learn or even observe watchmaking (later he learned how to repair
clocks and watches). He married Lucy Roberts December 29, 1767. Following this
apprenticeship in Hartford, he opened an unsuccessful brass foundry in East
Windsor, Connecticut and then a brass and silversmith business in Trenton, New
Jersey which succeeded for eight years but was destroyed by British troops
during the American Revolution. He served briefly during the Revolution, mostly
as a gunsmith working for the New Jersey militia. He left his unit after a
dispute over a promotion but continued his work repairing and refitting arms in
Trenton. In the fall of 1777, Fitch
provided beer and tobacco to the Continental Army in Philadelphia.
the steam boat
The
era of the steamboat began in America in 1787 when John Fitch (1743-1798) made
the first successful trial of a forty-five-foot steamboat on the Delaware River
on August 22, 1787, in the presence of members of the Constitutional
Convention. Fitch later built a larger vessel that carried passengers and
freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. John Fitch was granted
his first United States patent for a steamboat on August 26, 1791. However, he
was granted his patent only after a battle with James Rumsey over claims to the
same invention. Both men had similar designs. Pennsylvania was where he began
working on his ideas for a steam-powered boat. The first successful trial run
of his steamboat "Perseverance" was made on the Delaware River on
August 22, 1787, in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional
Convention. It was propelled by a bank of oars on either side of the boat. In
June 1790 launched a 60-foot (18 m) boat powered by a steam engine driving
several stern mounted oars. These oars paddled in a manner similar to the
motion of a swimming duck’s feet. Fitch was granted a patent on August 26,
1791, after a battle with James Rumsey, who had also invented a steam-powered
boat. Unfortunately, the newly-created Patent Commission did not award the
broad monopoly patent that Fitch had asked for, but a patent of the modern
kind, for the new design of Fitch's steamboat. It also awarded
steam-engine-related patents dated that same day to Rumsey, Nathan read, and
John Stevens.