THE GROWTH OF THE STEAM-ENGINE. +49 



82. About 1785 John Fitch and James Rumsey, two ingenious 

 American mechanics, were engaged in experiments having in view 

 the application of steam to navigation. 



83. Rumsey's experiments began in 1774, and in 1786 he suc- 

 ceeded in driving a boat at the rate of four miles an hour against the 

 current of the Potomac, at Shepardstown, Maryland. 



Rumsey employed his engine to drive a great pump, which forced 

 a stream of water aft, thus propelling the boat forward. 



This same method has been recently tried again by the British 

 Admiralty in the Water-witch, a gunboat of moderate size, using a 

 centrifugal pump to set in motion the propelling stream, and with 

 some other modifications which are decided improvements upon Rum- 

 sey's rude arrangements, but which have not done much more than 

 did his toward the introduction of "hydraulic propulsion," as it is 

 now called. 



Rumsey died of apoplexy while explaining some of his schemes 

 before a London society a short time later. 



84. John Fitch was an unfortunate and eccentric, but very ingen- 

 ious, Connecticut mechanic. 



After roaming about until forty years of age, he finally settled on 

 the banks of the Delaware, where he built his first steamboat. 



In 1788 he obtained a patent for the application of steam to navi- 



gation. 



His boat is shown in Fig. 40 ; it was sixty feet long and twenty 



Fig. 46 John Fitch, 1788. 



feet wide. The propelling apparatus was a system of paddles, which 

 were suspended by the upper ends of their shafts, and moved by a 

 series of cranks, one to each, taking hold at the middle, and giving 

 them almost exactly the motion which is imparted to his paddle by 

 the Indian in his canoe. 



VOL. XII. 29 



