John Fitch (inventor): Difference between revisions

'''John Fitch''' (January 21, 1743 – July 2, 1798) was an American [[Invention|inventor]], [[clockmaker]], [[Entrepreneurship|entrepreneur]], and [[engineer]]. He was most famous for operating the first [[steamboat]] service in the United States. The first boat, 45 feet long, was tested on the Delaware River by Fitch and his design assistant Steven Pagano.

He married Lucy Roberts on December 29, 1767.<ref>Boyd, Thomas, "Poor John Fitch: Inventor of the Steamboat"</ref> The couple had two children, a son and a daughter. In his autobiography, Fitch reveals that he was unhappy with both his business and his marriage and in 1769 he abandoned his son and wife (pregnant at the time with a daughter), never to return.<ref>{{cite book |last=Westcott |first=Thompson |date=1857|title=Life of John Fitch, The Inventor of the Steam-boat |url=https://archive.org/details/litejohnfitch00unkngoog |location=Philadelphia |publisher=J.B. Lippincott & Co. |pagepages=[https://archive.org/details/litejohnfitch00unkngoog/page/n61 49]-50–50 }}</ref> 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]].

The first successful trial run of his [[steamboat]] ''Perseverance'' was made on the [[Delaware River]] on August 22, 1787, in the presence of delegates from the [[Philadelphia Convention|Constitutional Convention]]. A bank of oars on either side of the boat propelled it. During the next few years, Fitch and Voigt worked to develop better designs, and in June 1790, launched a {{convert|60|ft|m|0|sing=on}} boat powered by a steam engine driving several stern-mounted oars. These oars paddled like the motion of a swimming duck's feet. With this boat, he carried up to 30 paying passengers on numerous round-trip voyages between Philadelphia and [[Burlington, New Jersey]] during the summer of 1790. Estimates of miles traveled that summer range from 1,300 to 3,000, and Fitch claimed that the boat often went for 500 miles without mechanical problems.<ref>Sutcliffe, A.</ref> Estimated speeds were of a minimum 6 miles per hour under unfavorable conditions, to a maximum of 7 or 8 miles per hour.<ref>''Steamboats Come True: American Inventors in Action''. James Thomas Flexner. Fordham University Press, [1944], 1992. p. 187 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Fitch was granted a U.S. [[patent]] on August 26, 1791, after a battle with [[James Rumsey]], who had also invented a steam-powered boat. The newly created federal Patent Commission did not award the broad monopoly patent that Fitch had asked for, but rather a patent of the modern kind for the new design of Fitch's steamboat. It also awarded steam-engine-related patents dated that same day to Rumsey, [[Nathan Read]], and [[John Stevens (inventor, born 1749)|John Stevens]]. The loss of a monopoly due to these same-day patent awards led many of Fitch's investors to leave his company. While his boats were mechanically successful, Fitch no longer had the financial resources to carry on. Fitch's idea would be turned profitable two decades later by [[Robert Fulton]].

Fitch's idea would be turned profitable two decades later by [[Robert Fulton]]. Though Fulton was able to obtain a monopoly in the state of [[New York (state)|New York]] because of the powerful influence of his partner [[Robert Livingston (1746–1813)|Robert Livingston]], he was unable to gain a U.S. patent primarily because he could not demonstrate the originality of his designs. Also, an original member of Fitch's company, [[William Thornton]], had become head of the newly created [[Patent Office]] and made the application process even more difficult for Fulton. Fitch had also received a patent in 1791 from [[France]], and in 1793, having given up hope of building a steamboat in America, he left for France, where an American investor, [[Aaron Vail]], had promised to help him build a boat there. But Fitch arrived just as the [[Reign of Terror]] was beginning, and his plans had to be abandoned. He went to [[London]] to attempt it there, but that also failed. He returned to the United States in 1794 and tried a few more to build a steamboat.

Fitch's legal dispute over state monopoly rights with fellow steamboat inventor James Rumsey and others helped enact the first [[Patent Act of 1790]]. He is mentioned in the personal letters of several historical figures, including [[George Washington]],<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(gw290246)) Letter of George Washington to Thomas Johnson, November 22, 1787]</ref> [[Benjamin Franklin]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.franklinpapers.org/franklin/search?q=fitch&sound=sound |title=Results |access-date=2009-04-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109071759/http://www.franklinpapers.org/franklin/search?q=fitch&sound=sound |archive-date=2013-11-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Thomas Jefferson]], and [[James Madison]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/madison_papers/mjmquery.html|title = About this Collection &#124; James Madison Papers, 1723-18591723–1859 &#124; Digital Collections &#124; Library of Congress}}</ref>

* [[John Fitch School|John Fitch High School]] was built on Bloomfield Avenue in [[Windsor, Connecticut]] in 1922. It became an elementary school in 1952 and was converted to elderly housing in 1988, called Fitch Court, but its facade still bears Fitch's name and likeness carved in stone. It is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>[http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMC39B_John_Fitch_School_Windsor_Connecticut John Fitch School -– Windsor, Connecticut]</ref>

[[Category:18th-century American inventors]]

[[Category:People offrom colonial Connecticut]]