| 1 04 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
Rumsey, informed the General Assembly that he had found a
way of " navigating boats against the current of rapid rivers
at a very small expense " whereby " great advantages would
accrue to citizens of this state." 59 In September 1784, Rumsey
had tested a boat operated by sticks forced against the bottom
of a stream in the presence of George Washington, who gave
him a certificate saying that it was his opinion " that the dis-
covery is of vast-importance and may be of the greatest use-
fulness in our inland navigation." 110 Having considered Rum-
sey's petition, a committee of the General Assembly reported
on November 26, 1784, that they were of the " opinion that
the said invention will be of great utility to facilitate the in-
land navigation of this state." ef Accordingly, Rumsey was
granted a patent for ten years which provided for a penalty
of 0500, to be paid to Rumsey, by any who made or pur-
chased such a boat without his license.e2 The Virginia legisla-
ture granted him a similar ten year monopoly.eg It was not
until 1786, at Harper's Ferry on the Potomac, that Rumsey
successfully tested a boat propelled by steam."
John Fitch, Rumsey's rival for the distinction of inventing
the steamboat and for the capital to put it into production,
also petitioned the Maryland legislature in 1785 for an exclu-
sive patent. The General Assembly committee, appointed to
consider the application, thought the question to be decided
was who had first invented the steamboat. After taking evi-
dence, the Maryland committee found that Rumsey had been
first and so refused Fitch's petition.e1
In 1786 Robert Lemmon of Baltimore County applied to
the General Assembly for an exclusive right to make and sell
two machines which he had constructed for carding and spin-
s° Md. Sess, 1784 c. 20.
e° Joseph S. Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations
(Cambridge, Mass. 1917) , I1, 125-26.
sl J. Thomas Scharf, History of Maryland from the Earliest Period to the
Present Day (Baltimore, 1879) , Il, 525. Hereafter cited as Scharf,
Maryland.
es Md. Sess., 1784 e. 20.
e1 Davis, 11, 125.
°s Scharf, Maryland, II, 525. Later he went to Europe to attract capital,
but
he died in 1792, a year before his boat, the " Columbian Maid;' would make
its
first voyage on the Thames; "Letters of James Rumsey," James A. Padgett,
ed.,
Maryland Historical Magazine, XXXII (March, 1937) , 11.
6a Ibid., p. 10. Also see Jensen, pp. 152-53 for contrasts between Fitch and
Rumsey, and Fitch's later life.
|
