Fitch had seen a drawing of an…
August 1787 CE
He had somehow heard about the more efficient steam engine developed by James Watt in Scotland in the late 1770s, but there is not a single Watt engine in America at this time, nor will there be for many years (Fulton's exported model in his 1807 steamboat, Clermont, will be one of the first) because Britain will not allow the export of any new technology to its former colony.
As a result, Fitch attempts to design his own version of a steam engine.
He moves to Philadelphia and engages the clockmaker and inventor Henry Voigt to help him build a working model and place it on a boat.
The first successful trial run of his steamboat Perseverance is made on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention.
It is propelled by a bank of oars on either side of the boat.
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Northern North America
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