THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

To all to whom these LETTERS PATENT shall come:

Whereas, NICHOLAS J. ROOSEVELT, a Citizen of the United States, hath alleged that he has invented a new and useful improvement

IN PROPELLING BOATS &c. BY STEAM,

which improvement he states has not been known or used before his application; hath made oath that he does verily believe that he is the true inventor or discoverer of the said improvement; hath paid into the Treasury of the United States the sum of thirty dollars, delivered a receipt for the same, and presented a petition to the Secretary of State, signifying a desire of obtaining an exclusive property in the said improvement, and praying that a patent may be granted for that purpose: These are therefore to grant, according to law, to the said NICHOLAS J. ROOSEVELT, his heirs, administrators, or assigns, for the term of fourteen years, from the first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, the full and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using and vending to others to be used, the said improvement; a description whereof is given in the words of the said Nicholas J. Roosevelt himself, in the schedule hereto annexed, and is made a part of these presents.

In testimony whereof, I have caused these Letters to be made Patent, and the Seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

SEAL

Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, this first day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen and of the independence of the United States of America, the thirty-ninth.

JAMES MADISON.

By the President.

Jas. Monroe, Secretary of State.

City of Washington, to wit:

I do hereby Certify, That the foregoing Letters Patent were delivered to me on the first day of December in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen to be examined; that I have examined the same, and find them conformable to law: and I do hereby return the same to the Secretary of State within fifteen days from the date aforesaid, to wit; on this first day of December in the year aforesaid.

Richard Rush, Attorney General of the United States.

To all to Whom these Presents shall come:

Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of the State of New Jersey, Esqr. sends greeting:

Be it known, That I, the said Nicholas J. Roosevelt have discovered, invented and constructed a new & useful mode & improvement in the propelling of boats or vessels through water by the force & agency of fire & steam, the construction of which discovery, invention & improvement is specified as follows, as the mode to which I have given a preference reserving to myself the right of varying and changing the proportions and combinations of the several parts of the said discovery and invention as experience may suggest or as I shall think advisable or expedient, to wit.

A true copy from the Specification filed in the Patent Office.

Geo. Lyon, Clk.

Patent Office, 3d December, 1814.

THE SCHEDULE referred to in these Letters potent and making part of the same containing a description in the words of the said Nicholas J. Roosevelt himself of his improvement in propelling Boats, &c. by steam.

In a boat or vessel of any form, but of sufficient capacity to contain the machinery required, I place a Steam Engine of a power proportioned to the restance to be overcome, in propelling a boat or vessel a given distance in a given time, this steam Engine is supplied by a boiler of the usual form or made Cylindric one or more at pleasure so as to be of sufficient capacity to feed the Engine. I next place two wheels over the sides, on the axis of which I put flyes, dispence with them or otherwise combine them at pleasure, either to regulate motion or give additional velocity, or they may be connected with the water shaft and steam Engine, by wheels so as to give any number of revolutions that may be desired. The arms of the water wheels I would make of wood, to which I attach floats or paddles of cast Iron, or of Boiler plate thick sheet Iron, though they may be made of wood. These floats I make move up and down on the arms, by means of screws and holes, so as to make them enter deeper or shallower in the water, in taking a purchase or hold on the water agreeably to the depth of water the boat may draw, and the lading there may be on board, or agreeably to other circumstances. The supporters of the outer ends of the water wheels shaft to be made of Iron with braces, though if required they may be made of wood.

Ns. J. ROOSEVELT.

Witnesses:

Jere’h Ballard,

John Dev’x DeLacy.

Of the foregoing correspondence, but a small portion relates to the question of wheels over the sides. It is inserted at length however,—going, as it does, to shew the warm interest, and the active measures that were on foot at the close of the eighteenth century to develope one of the mighty agencies of the nineteenth. The crudeness of many of the suggestions and the literary carelessness of the correspondence on both sides, is indicative of a very different condition of things from that which exists at present.

L.

FOOTNOTES

[1]Somewhere about the year 1842, the writer of the foregoing address was narrating the substance of it at the White Sulphur Springs of Virginia. Among his hearers was Mr. Samuel Davis, of Philadelphia, but formerly of Natchez, Mississippi, who supplemented the story with the following anecdote. He was standing on the wharf at Natchez, one of a crowd, watching the approach of the New Orleans on her first voyage. There was a rise in the river at the time; and when the steamboat rounded to, to head up stream, she was some short distance below the landing,—and, for a while, the current was more than she could overcome. At Mr. Davis’ side, was an old negro servant, who watched the struggle with much excitement, slapping his thighs and gesticulating in a most outlandish way. When at last, after a more rapid revolution of the wheels started the boat ahead, the negro threw up his hat, exclaiming, “By golly, Sa, old Massesseppa got her massa; hooraw.” Mr. Davis sent a quantity of his cotton by the boat to New Orleans, against the advice of all his friends. He was the first person who ventured a bale on such a risk!

[2]The reference here is to a letter of the Chancellor (numbered 25 in the collection I have,) in which, being then in a dissatisfied and complaining mood, he says: “I again repeat, Sir, that I trust in a few days to hear that experiments have been made and to be minutely acquainted with the result, that I may take my measures accordingly. In doing of which should wish to receive your advice. From a frank and candid communication much more advantage will result to all parties than from reserve, silence and distrust.

I am, dear Sir, your most obt. hum. servt. R. R. LIVINGSTON.