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The History Project – Episode 147
It’s the Daily 304’s presentation of famous people, places, and events that shaped West Virginia.
Welcome to The History Project. Today, we take a look at… James Rumsey & The Steamboat – The Full Story Behind the Invention
The history of invention is often written in monetized terms: Inventions can have existed for years but it is only when someone finds an economically viable way to produce them that an inventor gets to stand on the shoulders of others whose work made their work possible. As is the case with the steamboat with its invention credited to Robert Fulton, but as history is clarified, his credit is amended to “creating the world’s first commercially successful steamboat.”
Steamboats existed for decades before Fulton, and one of its inventors was West Virginian James Rumsey, who had moved to Bath, known today as Berkeley Springs, to run a boarding house along the Potomac River. George Washington was a guest and recommended Rumsey to the Patowmack Company, where he oversaw clearing the river of its rocks. This role dovetailed with his designs for a steam-propelled boat.
In its first iterations, Rumsey’s creation was a pole-boat which never worked properly. This compelled him to consider a design with a steam engine, which required a special pumping system. The final product was demonstrated at Shepherdstown on December 3, 1787. It was a resounding success, but Rumsey got into a war over patents with John Fitch, an inventor who demonstrated his own steamboat in Philadelphia the previous year. As Fitch submitted Rumsey’s designs to London for official patents, a group of men formed the Rumseyan Society to encourage Rumsey to move to England to defend his work, which he did. He lived in London for four years, acquiring patents for many of his ideas before passing away in 1792. His patents are still in use in watercraft today.
The Rumseyan Society built a monument to the inventor in a park in Shepherdstown, overlooking the Potomac, and history has been amended to reflect his ideas that steamed into the future.
