Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-01-17
WHO REALLY AND TRULY IN.
VENTED The STEAMBOAT
A Lively Controversy.

To the Editor OF THE EvrsIso STAR:
Permit dweller by the banks of the Cones
togs creek, whereon, more than a century since
nfteen-year-old boy named Robert Fulton first
evidenced the genius that afterward made him
famous by launching an ingeniously constructed
and crank-propelled boat shouting as he did So
Nothing is impossible" to express some doubt
Of the significance" which -. c. q. X" in
Monday evenings STAR, attaches to this extract,
quoted from the manuscript journal. dated
Philadelphia, January s. 17S6. OF Major Andrew
Ellicott:
81 expected should at least I've clear OF per-
secution from schemers during nv soiourn in
this city, but my expectations prove vain. as
am now pestered by gentleman OF the name
o. FITCH. who has a model of machine for
working boats on rivers by steam engine"
This entry was made twenty-o years before
Fuiton's boat was constructed" but take it,
nevertheless. that that proves nothing: not even
that James Fitch had a priority In the coucep-
tloh Oh navigation by steam; for il is capable of
demonstration that Fulton had reflected upon
sucn possibility more than two decades before
the Clermont was constructed Besides Fulion's
experiment on the Hudsoawas a pronounced prac-
tcaisuccess, while Fitch's ESSAYS on the Delaware
eTentuatcd In failures so mortfying that this
really able New Jersey mechanic drowned his
despair and himself by jumping into the Ale
gheny river at Plttsbarg. Confident that steam
navigation would prevail sooner or later, Fitch
left behind him wish that his body be buried
along the Ohio where the songs OF boatmPa
Will enlven the stiffness OF my restinc-place
and the music of the steam engine soothe my
resting-place"
Indeed. legion is the name of those for whom
priority In the application OF steam as a motive
power is claimed. 1t may be worth while to
note just here that as recently a. two or three
years ago the late Charles j. Faulkner then
president OF the Historical Society of West Viz
gnia, who figured prominently in Washington
before the war. apd who was BUchanan's minis
ter to France. assured me. in referring 10 James
Rumsey. that the steamboat was the child Of
Virginia, and not Of Peansy lyania. nor yet Of
New Jersey. 1t was in the same year that the
gentleman OF the name OF Fitch" thrust his
unwelcone attentions upon Major Ellicutt that
your own Potomac was the scene Of the Rumsey
experiment. made. believe, at ShepherdStown
His boat. as described by Historian Faulkner.
was propelled by q steam engine working YER
tical pump. by which water was drawn in at the
bow and expelled at the stem through an hori-
zontal trunk in tine boats bottom. The reaction
OF the refuent water gave Il rate Of speed not
exceeding four miles per hour. His plan was
not practical. and he died in England in l.y3
while working to perfect it.
The truth seems to be. that numerous invent
I've geniuses, both in this country and in Europe
had sought to solve the problem OF steam navi-
CATION long before Fulton's successful boat was
constructed. and quite likely before his earnest
attention had been diverted from the many in
ventons OF q submarine and kindred character
that distinguished his early manhood Eut
steam navigation had no real existence until he
launched the Clermont.. 1t might as well be
Claimed that Watt did not invent the steam
engine, or George Stephenson the locomotive
or Richard Arkwright the spinnng-machine. or
that to Columbus does not belong the honor for
the discovery OF America. AS to contend that
the world is indebted for steam navigation TO
any one else than Robert Fulton. Others may
have had a priority in the conception of such a
possibility; but through his great genius and
tenaclty OF purpose the result was achieved
All the more honor to Rim that he succeeded
Where others failed. w. W. GRIEsF
Lancaster, Pa, January l3