Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Americana: July, 1914
The pioneer settlers. The Indians killed two of his companions, captured nine others and destroyed his goods. He was a pris oner for two years, escaping in 1783 and reaching Warminster, Pennsylvania, where he settled and in April, 1785, built a model of a steamboat propelled by side-wheels, which he changed in July, 1786, to a small skiff moved with paddles, propelled by a three-inch cylinder steam-engine, which is believed to have been the first double-acting condensing engine transmitting power by means of cranks, ever invented. He petitioned the national and state legislatures and scientific men all over the world for pc cuniary help to perfect his steamboat which he claimed to be capable of crossing the ocean, but he was considered insane. He finally resorted to the sale of a map of the North Western terri tory which he constructed and engraved with his own hand, and printed on a cider - press and by this expedient procured With this sum he began in February, 1787, the construction of a second boat of sixty tons, forty-five feet long and twelve feet beam, with six paddles on each side and a twelve-inch cylinder steam-engine. This craft made a satisfactory trial trip on the Delaware river August 22, 1787, in the presence of the delegates convened to frame the Federal constitution. This publicity and the fact that New J ersey, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia had granted him exclusive privilege of steam-navi gation on their waters for fourteen years greatly encouraged the inventor and he constructed another boat in October, 1788, and still another in April, 1790, the Perseverance, which latter ran an entire summer, carrying passengers between Philadelphia and Burlington, and maintaining an average speed of eight miles an hour, covering eighty miles in one day. The company, which he had formed in February, 17 87 then built a steamboat to carry both freight and passengers on the Mississippi river under a charter from Virginia for the exclusive right of steam-navigation on the Ohio river and its tributaries. This vessel was so damaged in a storm as to require repairs that extended beyond the time named in a default clause in the contract, and the stock.
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