Search
  
 
Bio Links Gallery Timeline Quotes Contemporaries
Inventors • Scientists • Commerce
bornactivedied
1743, Jan 211780s-1790s1798, Jul 2
an American inventor, clockmaker, entrepreneur and engineer. He was most famous for operating the first steamboat service in the United States. 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. During the next few years, Fitch and Voigt worked to develop better designs, and in June 1790 launched a 60-foot (18 m) boat powered by a steam engine driving several stern-mounted oars.
 Timeline (2)
08/22/1787-John Fitch's steamboat Perseverance completes its test run, years before Robert Fulton
08/26/1791-John Fitch granted U.S. patent for his working steamboat
 Quotes (2) • View in Quotations
The day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches from my invention, but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do anything worthy of attention.
[The steamboat] will answer for sea voyages as well as for inland navigation, in particular for packets, where there may be a great number of passengers. He is also of opinion, that fuel for a short voyage would not exceed the weight of water for a long one, and it would produce a constant supply of fresh water. ... [T]he boat would make head against the most violent tempests, and thereby escape the danger of a lee shore; and that the same force may be applied to a pump to free a leaky ship of her water. ... [T]he good effects of the machine, is the almost omnipotent force by which it is actuated, and the very simple, easy, and natural way by which the screws or paddles are turned to answer the purpose of oars.
 Contemporaries
Category
Nationality
Sort
Selected
20
John Fitch1743, Jan 211780
 
1798, Jul 21798, Jul 2
Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier1754, Mar 301772
 
17851785, Jun 15
 a French chemistry and physics teacher, and one of the first pioneers of aviation. He and the Mar...
Benjamin Franklin1705, Jan 61718
 
17891790, Apr 17
 one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading aut...
Ivan Fyodorovich Lisitsynunknown1770
 
1789unknown
  one of the two sons of Fyodor Lisitsyn. From their childhood they were engaged in metalworking a...
Nazar Fyodorovich Lisitsynunknown1770
 
1789unknown
  one of the two sons of Fyodor Lisitsyn. From their childhood they were engaged in metalworking a...
Thomas Paine [2]1736, Jan 291761
 
18041809, Jun 8
 an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. One of...
Jean-Pierre Blanchard1753, Jul 41784
 
18081809, Mar 7
 a French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight. Blanchard toured Europe, demonstrat...
Charles Newbold17801790
 
1809unknown
 an American blacksmith born in 1780 in Chesterfield Township, New Jersey. On June 26, 1797, Newbo...
Charles Willson Peale1741, Apr 151770
 
18101827, Feb 22
 an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remember...
Alexander Cumming17331750
 
18141814, Mar 8
 a Scottish watchmaker and instrument inventor, who was the first to patent a design of the flush ...
Philip Astley1742, Jan 81759
 
18141814, Jan 27
 an English equestrian, circus owner, and inventor, regarded as being the "father of the modern ci...
Benjamin Thompson1753, Mar 261766
 
18141814, Aug 21
 an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory w...
Robert Fulton1765, Nov 141793
 
18151815, Feb 24
 an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing a commercially successfu...
Samuel Hopkins [2]1743, Dec 91759
 
18191818
 an American inventor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On July 31, 1790, he was granted the first ...
Alessandro Volta1745, Feb 181774
 
18191827, Mar 5
 an Italian physicist, chemist, and a pioneer of electricity and power, who is credited as the inv...
James S. McLeanunknown1790
 
1819unknown
 James Sylvanus McLean, a native of York, Pennsylvania, received a patent for an improvement in pi...
Eli Whitney1765, Dec 81793
 
18251825, Jan 8
 an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions ...
Sir Humphry Davy1778, Dec 171795
 
18291829, May 29
 a Cornish chemist and inventor, who is best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkal...
Samuel Morey1762, Oct 231780
 
18341843, Apr 17
 an American inventor, who worked on early internal combustion engines and was a pioneer in steams...
Petro Prokopovych17751798
 
18501850
 the founder of commercial beekeeping. He introduced novelties in traditional beekeeping that allo...
David Rittenhouse1732, Apr 81750
 
1871796, Jun 26
 a renowned American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrum...
Colonial Sense is an advocate for global consumer privacy rights, protection and security.
All material on this website © copyright 2009-24 by Colonial Sense, except where otherwise indicated.
ref:T5-S50-P1196-CPerson-M