MOREY, mo'ff, Samuel, American in ventor: b. Hebron, Conn., 23 Oct. 1762; d. Fair lee, Vt., 17 April 1843. He early evinced a talent for mechanics and engineering, and at the time of the opening of the Connecticut River to navigation designed and built the locks at Bellows Falls. On his large estates he built chutes with which to bring his pine logs to the mills years before Napoleon's accomplishment of the feat in the Alps. When but 18 he began his experiments with steam, and in 1790 had conceived the idea of propelling boats by means of an improved steam-engine. In 1793 he suc ceeded in building a boat which attained a speed of four miles an hour, which later he im proved and exhibited in New York with a speed of five miles an hour. Morey was often in consultation with Professor Silliman of Yale College as to the value of his inventions-, and when Chancellor Robert R. Livingston offered him $7,000 for the patent allowing him to run the boat from North River to Amboy, Morey declined. He continued his experiments,
encouraged by an offer of $100,000 for an eight-hour steamboat which Livingston was said to have made, and several patents were issued to Morey which showed that he con sidered the object almost within his reach. In 1797 he exhibited a greatly improved boat at Philadelphia and became famous throughout the Middle and New England States. His ob ject seemed practically achieved and arrange ments were made for the operation of the steamboats, when misfortune overtook the capitalists who were to promote the enterprise and it failed of operation. Morey is believed by many authorities to have been the real in ventor of the steamboat, as Robert Fulton visited him before the exhibition of his own invention.