John Fitch's
sketch and description of piston for steamboat propulsion, ca. 1795.
The diagram
and description shown here provides a schematic of a piston designed to
force air or water through the boat's keel, propelling it without allowing
water to swamp the engine. It is not known whether John Fitch's revolutionary
design was ever fabricated.
The era of the steamboat began in
America in 1787 when John Fitch (1743-1798) made the first successful trial
of a steamboat on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence
of members of the Constitutional Convention.
|
|
On August 26, 1791, John Fitch was
granted a United States patent for the steamboat. Four years earlier, on
August 22, 1787, John Fitch demonstrated the first successful steamboat,
launching a forty-five-foot craft on the Delaware River in the presence
of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. He went on to build a
larger steamboat which carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia
and Burlington, New Jersey. Fitch was granted his patent after a battle
with James Rumsey over claims to the invention. Both men invented similiar
inventions.
John Fitch constructed four different
steamboats between 1785 and 1796 that successfully plied rivers and lakes
and demonstrated, in part, the feasibility of using steam for water locomotion.
His models utilized various combinations of propulsive force, including
ranked paddles (patterned after Indian war canoes), paddle wheels, and
screw propellers. While his boats were mechanically successful, Fitch failed
to pay sufficient attention to construction and operating costs and was
unable to justify the economic benefits of steam navigation. Robert
Fulton (1765-1815) built his first boat after Fitch's death, and it
was Fulton who became known as the "father of steam navigation."
Fitch was granted his patent after
a battle with James Rumsey over claims to the invention. In a 1787 letter
to Thomas Johnson, George Washington discussed Fitch's and Rumsey's claims
from his own perspective.
"Mr. Rumsey . . . at that
time applying to the Assembly for an exclusive Act . . . spoke of the effect
of Steam and . . . its application for the purpose of inland Navigation;
but I did not conceive . . . that it was suggested as part of his original
plan . . . It is proper however for me to add, that some timeafter this
Mr. Fitch called upon me on his way to Richmond and explaining his scheme,
wanted a letter from me, introductory of it to the Assembly of this State
the giving of which I declined; and went so [far] as to inform him that
tho' I was bound not to disclose the principles of Mr. Rumsey's discovery
I would venture to assure him, that the thought of applying steam for the
purpose he mentioned was not original but had been mentioned to me by Mr.
Rumsey . . ."
John Fitch
- Sketch of Steamboat, ca. 1787
Continue
with > The
History of Steamboats
|
| 