James Rumsey Pamphlet
date: label: date made
content: 1788
notes: label: Description
content: This pamphlet, “A Short Treastise on the Application of Steam,” was written by James Rumsey and published in 1788. Rumsey began his pamphlet by disputing John Fitch’s claim of inventing the first steam engine powered boat. Rumsey wrote how his and Fitch’s engines had “enormous” and how his idea preceded that of Fitch. To support his claim to the premier steamboat, Rumsey referenced various certificates from observers of his experiments, namely a 1784 trial in Bath, Virginia, witnessed by George Washington, and December 1787 experiments of a steam-powered boat against the current of the Potomac River in which his invention traveled at a rate of 3 miles per hour. These certificates are listed for reference at the end of the pamphlet. After disputing Fitch’s claim, Rumsey discussed the technology of the steamboat itself. In the bottom of the boat, a lower cylinder draws water from the river through the tube and valve and into the boiler. As the upper cylinder receives the steam from boiler, the lower cylinder is also brought up, and the two effectively shut communication from the boiler and open another to discharge the steam. Rumsey’s explanation of his steam engine makes this pamphlet among the earliest American works on steam and signifies the emerging sphere of innovation around steam technology, but not without dispute over the originator of such technology.
label: Description
content: Fitch and Rumsey’s inventions were indeed different, with Fitch’s being a Watt-type engine with a separate water condenser that transmitted power to oars mounted to move and provide force in a paddle fashion. Rumsey’s creation, on the other hand, was powered by the direct force of jet propulsion. Despite these substantive differences, the two sparred over being the originator of steam power. Such debate was fueled by the patent process of the early national period; as there was no federal patent process, states provided inventors with patents. Fitch received a patent to the steamboat engine in Pennsylvania, while Rumsey received patents in Virginia and Maryland.
label: Description
content: James Rumsey (1743-1792) was born in Maryland, and by 1782, had become accomplished in tradeswork such as that of a blacksmith, mechanic, miller, builder, and sawyer based in Bath, Virginia, despite not having a formal education in these trades. In 1785, George Washington hired Rumsey to supervise the operations of the Potomac Company, an enterprise Washington and other investors had formed with the goal of making the Potomac River navigable and a bustling trade hub. With Rumsey’s successful experiment of the steamboat in 1787, the American Philosophical Society formed the Rumseyan Society in early 1788 that raised funds for Rumsey to travel to England to further his steam engine technology. In England, Rumsey received four British patents for about twenty various inventions, including steamboat technology, before his death there in 1792.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.160398
label: catalog number
content: 160398
label: accession number
content: 31315
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Pamphlet: "A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam"