CHAPTER VI.

Efforts to improve his Steamboat. - Embarrassments for the Want of skilful Workmen. - He petitions Congress. Visits France and England. Publishes a Tract on Navigation.

Returns unsuccessful.

THE adverse decision of the commissioners was made in April, 1791. It determined him at once to abandon a cause which produced nothing but contention, disappointment, and poverty. The company were informed, the same evening, that he wished to settle his accounts, in order to retire to Kentucky. He complains, that the laws do not protect his inventions; his country has proved ungrateful; and until justice can be done, "permit me to go to Kentucky, in behalf of the company. If not, I shall go there, and try the project for myself." Amid the general gloom, an answer arrived from the Spanish Governor at New Orleans, giving permission to build a boat upon the Mississippi, which greatly cheered his desponding mind. Arrangements had been pending between him and Robert Morris and O. Pollock, in reference to some scheme, which depended upon the reply from New Orleans.

On the 30th of April, the steamboat company ordered the works to be taken out of the remaining boat, which does not appear to have paid them dividends. The contract with Vail appears to have been assigned to Stockton, and Fitch was urged, against his will, to go to France. The steamboat company disagreed among themselves about their future course; and the summer of 1791 passed away without the accomplishment of anything important. Finally, they concluded to build still another boat, on which, with dejected spirits and "subdued feelings," he consented to work at weekly wages. The sum of four thousand pounds had been expended and sunk, in the various projects of the company, without returns. But confidence did not desert the intelligent citizens of Philadelphia, who saw what had been and what might be done.

It is apparent, that the principal obstacles to be overcome lay in the engine. If our limits would permit, it would be pertinent to review at this time, in a brief manner, the history of the engine, as we have that of the boat. They are inseparably connected. The motion of the boat is dependent upon the available force of the engine. The merit which belongs to the conception of an engine in 1785, to its construction in 1786, and its application in 1787, can only be shown by an examination into the state

of improvement in which it was then found. But we are forced to refer our readers to the books treating upon these subjects, with the remark, that the patents of Watt, in 1782 and the two following years, probably were still slumbering among the records of the British capital. The improvements of Watt, in constructing the double-acting engine, were by him long kept a cherished secret, not given to the people of England. The nation, among whom it was his fate to live, had acquired much proficiency in working iron, insomuch that he found means to procure machinery somewhat perfect in its construction.

Fitch had neither tools, apparatus, nor workmen. It was not until the year 1804, that the American shops began to make engines for sale, and the English had built them as early as 1774. The minute parts of the engine of the Perseverance, and its connecting apparatus, are not preserved. But the author's description, in 1786, shows conclusively that it was double-acting, and produced a uniform rotary motion. Its effects were the same in kind, though less perfect in degree. The construction of a cylinder, by the common blacksmiths of Philadelphia, was a work of many months, and after completion for the second boat, the work was so rough, that, with a diameter of eighteen inches, it had less clear

force than the one of twelve inches in the previously built engine. Watt and the English inventors, being more fortunate in point of time and residence, are entitled to the claim of priority. But there is ground for grave discussion respecting their merits as original inventors, when compared with those of America.

Mr. Fitch himself regarded the engine as his greatest achievement. In his petition for a patent, these opinions are forcibly set forth.

"The impracticability of procuring experienced workmen in America, your petitioner's total ignorance of the construction of a steam engine, together with the necessary deviation from the form described in the books, in order to accommodate its weight and bulk to the narrow limits of a vessel, have caused him not only to expend about eight thousand dollars, in successive experiments, but nearly four years of some of his grants have expired before he has been enabled to bring his engine into such a state of perfection, as to be carried into use; and that having fully succeeded in his scheme, he trusts he now comes forward not as an imaginary projector.” *

He begs leave to acquaint the Honorable House, "that the great length of time, and vast sums of money, expended in bringing the scheme

* American State Papers, Miscellaneous, Vol. I. p. 12.

to perfection, have been wholly occasioned by his total ignorance of the improved state of steam engines, a perfect knowledge of which has not been acquired without an infinite number of fruitless experiments; for not a person could be found, who was acquainted with the invention of Bolton and Watt's new engine; and whether your petitioner's engine is similar to those in England, or not, he is at this moment totally ignorant. He is now happy to inform Congress, that he is able to make a complete steam engine, which in its effects, he believes, is equal to the best in Europe, and the construction of which he has never kept a secret."

The earnestness with which he pressed the subject may be inferred from the following incident, related by Mr. John Brown, a member of Congress from the western district of Virginia, then embracing Kentucky.

One morning, at Philadelphia, he was awakened by a loud knock at the door, and opening it, he beheld "a tall, melancholy man, with a wild expression of the eye," who inquired if his name was John Brown. Answer, "Yes, sir." "Are you a member of Congress from Kentucky?" "I am." 66 Then, sir, I have business with you. My name is Fitch. I have, for a number of years, been applying my mind and resources to the discovery of a method of propelling boats by