FITCH, John, American inventor: b. East Windsor, Conn., 21 Jan. 1743; d. Bardstown, Ky., 2 July 1798. He had few educational op portunities and at the age of 17 went to sea for a short time. Later he worked as clockmaker, brassfounder and silversmith. At the outbreak of the Revolution he became a gunsmith for the American troops, with whom he wintered at Valley Forge. He next made surveying and trading tours in the West, as a result of which he made a map of the Northwest, and after es caping from captivity among the Indians re turned to Pennsylvania, where at Warminster in 1785 he completed his first model of a steam boat; this had wheels at the sides, which were replaced in the following year with paddles or oars. In the face of discouragement and neglect he succeeded in constructing a vessel, 45 feet long and 12 feet beam, with an engine of 12 inch cylinder, which made a successful trial trip on the Delaware, at Philadelphia, 22 Aug. 1787. Larger vessels were built in 1788 and 1790, the latter being run as a passenger boat, at eight miles an hour from Philadelphia to Burling ton, Trenton, Chester and Wilmington through out the summer. Misfortune, however, dogged °poor John Fitch's° steps; his supporters fell away; and in 1793 he went to France to con struct a steamboat, only to find his project frustrated by the Revolution there. Consider able discussion has been carried on at various times as to whether Fitch was the original in ventor of the steamship or not. It is said that his plans and specifications were deposited with the American consul at L'Orient, who for sev eral months entrusted them to Robert Fulton (q.v.) • and the latter's steamboat certainly was in 1817 declared by a committee of the New York legislature to be °in substance the inven tion patented by John Fitch in 1791? Penniless and dejected, Fitch worked his passage back to America, where in the summer of 1798 he is said to have committed suicide at Bardstown, Ky.
He left, in manuscript, an autobiography, which is owned by the Philadelphia Library Company. His other papers, including his will, correspond ence, plans and specifications of his steamboats were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, hut are now in the manuscript division of the Library of Congress, Washington. Consult Bullocic, S., °Miracle° of the First Steam boat' (in Journal of American History, New Haven 1907) ; History of the State of New York' (Vol. II, p. 1039, Albany 1849) ; Dunbar, S., 'A History of Travel in America' (Vol. I, Indianapolis 1915) ' • Fitch, J., (Description of a New Invented Steamboat) (in Columbian Magazine, Vol. I, p. 174, Decem ber 1786) • Johnson, A. C., (Memorial to John Fitch' (Washington 1915) ; Navy League of the United States, (John Fitch, etc.' (Hartford 1912) ; Phillips, P. L., Rare Map of the Northwest, 1785, by John Fitch' (Washington 1916) ; Preble, G. H., (A Chronological His tory of the Origin and Development of Steam Navigation, 1543-1882' (Philadelphia 1883); Purdy, T. C., (Report on Steam Navigation in the United States' (in United States Census Office, 10th Census, Vol. IV, p.653, Washington 1883) ; Rumsey, J., (A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam, etc.' . (Philadelphia 1788) ; Thurston, R. H., (Growth of the Steam Engine' (New York 1878) ; Westcott, T., (Life of John Fitch, Inventor of the Steamboat' (Philadelphia 1857) ; Whittlesey, C., Fitch' (in (Library of American Biography,' Jared Sparks, ed., Vol. XVI, Boston 1845).