Abstract
ON January 21 occurs the tercentenary of the birth of John Fitch, the American pioneer of the steam-boat, who while other inventors were struggling with costly and inconclusive experiments built several working steam-boats, formed the first steamboat company in the world and for a period carried passengers on the Delaware according to a time-table. Fitch was born at East Windsor, Conn., and after working on his father's farm, pursued various callings, including those of a brassfounder and a silversmith. He suffered many misfortunes, made an unhappy marriage, and during the War of Independence was taken prisoner. In 1780 he became a surveyor in Kentucky and later on took to map-making. On a journey in 1785 he conceived the idea of propelling vehicles and boats by mechanical means. Quickly visualizing the value of his ideas, he made models and drawings, secured favourable opinions from public men and during the years 1786-90 made three or four boats which ran with varying success on the River Delaware. In 1791 a French patent was secured and two years later Fitch visited France to further the exploitation of his invention in Europe. The Terror, however, was then at its height and he soon returned home, having exhausted his means. From that time onwards he strove unsuccessfully against an unkind fate, and died at Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1798, at the age of fifty-three. His merits have not gone unnoticed in the United States, and in 1926 Congress erected a memorial to him where he died.
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An American Steam-Boat Pioneer. Nature 151, 76 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151076b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151076b0