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Plan of John Fitch

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Plan of John Fitch ^An £arly Steamboat "Plan of John Fitch wo unpublished papers of John Fitch are printed and dis- cussed on the following pages. They apparently originated in Tthe summer of 1785, when the mind of the adventuring silversmith and surveyor had just become obsessed by the steamboat idea. They seem to bring an amount of new light, and a multitude of new problems, into the fascinating and obscure story of Fitch. More generally, they show how circuitous the progress of thought can be. The first paper is a kind of steamboat prospectus, in Fitch's hand- writing, illustrated by a fairly simple steam engine diagram.1 For many decades this paper, and especially the drawing forming part of it, was believed to be lost.2 One modern writer discussed the specifica- tion part of it briefly,3 but there is much in it that deserves fuller notice and deeper study. To the Honorable Philosophical society Philadelphia4 The necessity for some helps5 to assist the Navigation of the River Misasippi6 has induced me freqently to wish it might be rendered more easy 1 Fitch Papers, f. 1732,1733 (description), and f. 2800, 2801 (diagram), Library of Congress. 2 Thompson Westcott, Life of John Fitch (Philadelphia, 1857), 132; Mira Clarke Parsons, "John Fitch, Inventor of Steamboats," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, VIII (1900), 402. 3 Greville Bathe, An Engineer's Miscellany (Philadelphia, 1938), Chap. IV. Even Bathe assumes "a drawing not now to be found," but he reconstructs it remarkably well from the description, omitting only parts H, L, and O. He writes that he saw only six volumes of Fitch Papers. Ibid., 35, 42, 44. There are seven volumes in the Library of Congress; the drawings are in Vol. VI. 4 An officer of this society, Dr. John Ewing, was well known to Fitch. See Note 52. 5 This may refer to a similar expression used in George Washington's certificate for James Rumsey, advertised by the latter in 1784. Ella M. Turner, James Rumsey (Scottdale, Pa., 1931), 14. See also Note 51. 6 The Mississippi then was nominally French and Spanish, actually more Indian. James T. Flexner, Steamboats Come True (New York, 1944), 81. 63 64 FRANK D. PRAGER January than it is at present,7 and having a greater desire than genius for effecting new and valuable improvements, I have happened on one which appears to me may be made useful. But since forming this I have been informed that there are Engines for working pumps upon the same principals,8 and there- fore doubt not but there are much greater refinements on the art than my present undegested Ideas, which are as yet almost too confused to give a draft of the Machine, yet flatter myself, if the principals by which it workes are rational, that the other parts will come more clear in the Executing of it. The form of the machine as I would propose it to be made— I would propose two globes made of wrought Iron two feet diameter as at A, to work alternately or together, and tubes to them on one side that should be two feet 2 inches above the top of the globes as B, and Sd globes to be filled with water, in Sd tubes I would have stoppers that should play easy two feet without giving vent, and they to be perhaps 4, 5, or 6 inches diameter as at C, and the Sd stopper have a hole, and near the top of Sd stopper to have a cock fixed at D, and when it had rose to a certain height, to be turned and vented by the chains aa, which whould also winde two springs made fast to the stopper and Cock at dd, that when the chains slackened they should turn the cock and stop the vent.9 and to have a beam to Sd stoppers as II, and that to play up and down in a channel in two up- right pieces of Iron to keep the stopper in its place as bb bb,10 and on the top of Sd upright pieces to have a piece accross as kk, to Sd Cross piece I would screw two springs perhaps five feet Long that should rest at the opposit end on the beam of the stopper, whose business should be to force in the stopper11 and winde the fuzee of a wheel as cc cc.12 to the beam of Sd stopper I would make fast a double chain at LL, and them united in MM, thence over two shivs (or pulleys) at EE, thence made fast to a fuzee at N. 7 See Seymour Dunbar, A History of Travel in America (Indianapolis, Ind., 1915), 38-40. 8 According to the so-called Fitch Autobiography (p. 112) and Fitch Steamboat History (p. 2), both in the Library Company of Philadelphia, Pastor Irwin showed Fitch a volume of Benjamin Martin's Philosophia Britannica. It was probably the second edition (London, 1759), which, in Vol. II, 70-87, describes and illustrates various forms of Worcester, Savery, and Newcomen steam engines. 9 Up to this point, Fitch describes a fairly conventional Newcomen steam engine. 10 Piston-rod guides, as here suggested, had been used rarely. See illustrations 242 and 260 in^Abraham Wolf, History of Science, Technology and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1952). II These piston return springs may be original with Fitch; about their significance, see Note 66. Bathe, 42, not having seen the drawing, makes only a short reference to these springs. Flexner, 77, concludes erroneously that the pistons were "pulled upward by springs." He had no access to the Fitch Papers. Ibid., 379. 12 Bathe, 51, concludes correctly from the text alone that a ratchet is meant. Subsequent documents, like*Fitch Papers, f. 2452-2457, speak of "rock wheels." Bathe credits the watch- maker Voigt with the ratchet idea. However, Fitch, a former watch mender himself, wrote the paper"severaljnonths before he is generally assumed to have met Voigt. See Flexner, 100; also Note 45. FIG. I 6s 66 FRANK D. PRAGER January that when the stopper rises it turns the wheel, and when it shuts windes the fuzee.13 on the same axis of the fuzee wheel I would have two water wheels14 made of Iron in the following manner, (which is not represented in the plate). I would have them perhaps five times the diamiter of the fuzee,16 that by turning the fuzee two feet, would turn the waterwheel 10 feet, and would have the paddles or Buckets hung on hinges on the out side of the wheel,16 that is on the part that should be the greatest extream from the axletree, and when they had passed their nader about 20 or 300 I would have their bolts flung of by a piece of Iron that should slip round on the inside brace of the wheel, and let them turn and follow the wheel edgways till they come on the opposite side of the wheel, when their own weight should bring them to their place and bolt them fast. In order to cool the water in the tubes, I would have a cistern of water at F, that should empty into the tubes two feet above the globes thro' a door with hinges at top, in the inside of the tubes; that when the stopper drew above that it should be thrown open by a spring, and under Sd door have holes drilled in such a manner as to throw the water in fibers in every direction thro* the tubes, so that the tubes might be quenched sudden and the water falling in small drops might heat by the time it reached the Globes, and when the stopper shut to shut the door and with that the water.17 I would have a kittle (which is not represented in the plate) that should also answer the end of a stove for the fire of the globes, and the scalding water that should expend out of the vent I would collect into the kittle, and when the water was exausted out of a globe I would fill it with hot water out of the kittle, in order to fill the globes I would have a short tube on the top at O and a cock 13 This was the opposite of conventional steam engine practice in 1785. The innovation was crude. It provided for venting of used, expanded steam to the atmosphere, and also for (internal) condensation. Such crude ideas, however, may be historically effective. 14 Apparently on the two sides of the boat. It seems that Bathe, who did not see the draw- ing and, on the whole, did not consider the ensuing discussion (see Notes 47-57 and text), was misled. He wrote of "spiral" paddle wheels (p. 36) and of "oars" (p. 42) in connection with Fitch's original design ideas. Fitch did leave a spiral propeller drawing (Fitch Papers, f. 2793), but there is no evidence that it had anything to do with the ideas of 1785. The oar idea came up in 1786. See Note 62. 15 The diameter of the ratchet (see the inset at the upper left of the drawing) is shown as about 1.6 times the stroke length of the piston. The latter is specified as two feet (see text after this Note reference). Accordingly, it seems—assuming that the drawing was roughly to scale—that the ratchet had a 3.15-foot diameter, and the paddle wheel "perhaps five times" as much.
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