As a result, Fitch attempted to design his version of a steam engine. Still, there was not a single Watt engine in America at that time, nor would there be for many years (Fulton's exported model in his 1807 steamboat, Clermont, would be one of the first) because Britain would not allow the export of any new technology to its former colony. He had somehow heard about the more efficient steam engine developed by James Watt in Scotland in the late 1770s. With these monopolies, he secured funding from business people and professional citizens in Philadelphia.įitch had seen a drawing of an early British Newcomen atmospheric engine in an encyclopedia, but Newcomen engines were huge structures designed to pump water out of mines. Unable to raise funds from the Continental Congress, he persuaded various state legislatures to award him a 14-year monopoly for steamboat traffic on their inland waterways. Model of the Perseverance, Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, Germany.īy 1785, Fitch was done surveying and settled in Warminster, Pennsylvania, where he began working on his ideas for a steam-powered boat. In the spring of 1782, while surveying in the Northwest Territory, he was captured by indigenous people and turned over to the British, who eventually released him. In 1780, Fitch began working as a Kentucky surveyor, recording a land claim of 1,600 acres (6.5 km 2) for himself. ![]() During the following winter and spring, he provided beer, rum, and other supplies to troops at Valley Forge. In the fall of 1777, Fitch provided beer and tobacco to the Continental Army in Philadelphia. He left his unit after a dispute over a promotion but continued his work repairing and refitting arms in Trenton. He served briefly during the Revolution, mainly as a gunsmith working for the New Jersey militia. Following his apprenticeship in Hartford, he opened an unsuccessful brass foundry in East Windsor, Connecticut, and then a brass and silversmith business in Trenton, New Jersey, which succeeded for eight years but was destroyed by British troops during the American Revolution. In his autobiography, Fitch claimed that his wife was unhappy and argumentative, and he used these reasons to explain why he abandoned his son and wife (pregnant at the time with a daughter), never to return. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter. ![]() He married Lucy Roberts on December 29, 1767. During his apprenticeship, Fitch was not allowed to learn or even observe watchmaking (he later taught himself how to repair clocks and watches). He received little formal schooling and eventually apprenticed himself to a clockmaker. The first boat, 45 feet long, was tested on the Delaware River by Fitch and his design assistant Steven Pagano.įitch was born to Joseph Fitch and Sarah (Shaler) in Windsor, Connecticut, on January 21, 1743, on a farm that is part of present-day South Windsor, Connecticut. He was most famous for operating the first steamboat service in the United States. John Fitch (Janu– July 2, 1798) was an American inventor, clockmaker, entrepreneur, and engineer.
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