James Rumsey
Encyclopedia
James Rumsey was an American
mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River
at Shepherdstown
, now West Virginia, before a crowd of local notables, including Horatio Gates
. A pump driven by steam power ejected a stream of water from the stern of the boat and thereby propelled the boat forward.
, from Cecil County, Maryland
, where he had helped to run the family water mill at Bohemia Manor. His cousin was Benjamin Rumsey
, a notable Maryland jurist and statesman, who also grew up at Bohemia Manor. In Bath, he built houses, became a partner in a mercantile business, and helped to run a boarding house and tavern called the "Sign of the Liberty Pole and Flag."
was staying at Rumsey's inn, he contracted with Rumsey to build a house and stable on property he owned at Bath. During this visit, Rumsey showed Washington a working model of a mechanical boat which he had designed. It had a bow-mounted paddlewheel that worked poles to pull the boat upstream. Washington had been making plans for making the Potomac river navigable since before the Revolution, and a company was soon to be formed for the purpose. Rumsey's pole-boat, which promised to be able to ascend the river's chutes and swift currents, must have seemed a godsend to Washington, who wrote a certificate of commendation for Rumsey and likely let him know of the river project. Armed with the certificate, Rumsey obtained a patent from the Virginia legislature for "the use of mechanical boats of his model" and also gained an investor.
In July 1785, he was recommended by Washington and appointed to oversee the clearing of rocks at what is now Harper's Ferry Patowmack Company. Rumsey would thus not only be able to build a boat to ascend the river, but alter the river to enable his boat. For a year, Rumsey oversaw work on the Potomac River site, while his assistant and brother-in-law Joseph Barnes did much of the building of the boat around Shepherdstown.
Rumsey had quickly concluded that the pole-boat design was too limited and decided to incorporate steam propulsion into his design. While making his boat much more useful, it also made the building of it far more complex and expensive. Likewise, it soon was obvious that the Patowmack Company had a much greater task than any of its members had foreseen. The Company was hindered by a lack of a supervising engineer: overseers were having to improvise as best they could, and this was a frustrating process. The work required great quantities of brute labor and difficult blasting, and Rumsey found himself directing a large and restive gang of about a hundred workmen, including leased slaves and bondsmen, encamped in a remote area, without adequate supplies.
After a year Rumsey said he would resign if not given an increase in pay. Instead of an offer, his resignation was accepted, and his assistant, Richardson Stewart, was given his job. Other aspects of the matter are open to debate; Stewart may or may not have worked against Rumsey to gain his job; Rumsey thought he had, the Company (and Washington) thought Rumsey's allegations unfounded. Still, according to Company minutes, Stewart was fired soon afterward, for "sundry charges of a serious nature".
It may be that, having left the Patowmack Company, Rumsey was loath to work on a propulsion system limited to be used on rivers. Or, lacking money from the Patowmack Company, he wished to concentrate his efforts on the more promising steam pump. At some point in 1786, work on the pole-boat mechanism was abandoned. For a better boiler, he tried a coil of forged iron pipe, which proved to be not only much more efficient but much smaller and lighter. With a functioning steam engine, another problem revealed itself. The single cylinder pump would draw several gallons of water from beneath the boat, send it down a copper pipe to the stern. Because gallons of water were being drawn into the pump at the same time as water was still flowing from it to the stern, the pump was working against itself; several strong strokes and it bound up. This required replacing the copper pipe with a square wooden trunk, that had flapper valves in the bottom to allow water in from the river, to relieve the negative pressure at the pump.
On December 3, 1787, the boat finally made a very successful public demonstration on the Potomac at Shepherdstown.
constructed and demonstrated the Clermont
. The idea of jet propulsion was not Rumsey's alone. Daniel Bernoulli
(1700–1782) originated the idea of propelling watercraft in that way. In the summer of 1785, while Rumsey and his assistant Joseph Barnes were in the process of assembling his boat, Benjamin Franklin, onboard a ship from France, wrote of propelling a boat by water jet. This coincidence has sometimes led people to believe Rumsey got the idea from Franklin. Indeed, if Franklin had wanted to make such a claim it likely would have been accepted, but he did not and became one of Rumsey's supporters.
John Fitch
had demonstrated his steamboat in Philadelphia the previous August. Although there was yet no overall patent system in the confederated states, he had patents from some states that gave him exclusive rights to his and any other steamboat. Rumsey was more protective of his designs than his children and, though he was even more plagued by money problems, he sent the boat machinery to Philadelphia in March 1788. He quickly followed, armed with affidavits from those who'd seen his steamboat or been involved with its creation. There was a pamphlet war with John Fitch. Some Philadelphia businessmen attempted to make a joint effort between them; but after years of his own travails and poverty, Fitch was not in a mood to compromise. When he said he would apply for a patent in England for Rumsey's water-tube boiler, Rumsey and others formed the Rumseian Society. They decided he should go to England to secure patents for his inventions and seek further financial backing.
After moving to England in 1788, Rumsey was able to take out four patents before his death there in 1792. While some of these relate to steamboats (like his water-tube boiler design, which made the steam engine much smaller and more efficient) most are concerned with hydrostatics and water power. His 1791 patent has all the pumps, motors, and hydraulic cylinders of fluid power engineering. By September 1792 he had a true water turbine, almost 40 years before it would be next invented in France.
He spent four years in England and, on December 20, 1792, on the eve of the demonstration of his new steamboat, the Columbia Maid, he had just finished delivering a lecture to the Society of Mechanic Arts. Suddenly he was stricken with a severe pain in his head and died the next morning. At the time, his death was attributed to overstraining his brain. He was buried in London at Saint Margaret's Church
.
In 1906 a second Rumseyan Society was formed in Shepherdstown. Through its efforts, a monument to Rumsey was constructed in a park overlooking the Potomac.
Another Rumseian Society was formed in Shepherdstown in the 1980s to construct a replica of the successful Rumsey steamboat and celebrate the boat's bicentennial in 1987. The boat was constructed in the machine and blacksmith shop in the back of O'Hurley's General Store. The replica is housed in a small building behind the Entler Hotel. For a time, there was an annual regatta in Shepherdstown in early October in honor of Rumsey.
In addition, the bridge across the Potomac to Maryland is name in honor of Rumsey, as is the James Rumsey Technical Institute in Hedgesville, West Virginia
.
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United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mechanical engineer chiefly known for exhibiting a boat propelled by machinery in 1787 on the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
at Shepherdstown
Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located along the Potomac River. It is the oldest town in the state, having been chartered in 1762 by Colonial Virginia's General Assembly. Since 1863, Shepherdstown has been in West Virginia, and is the oldest town in...
, now West Virginia, before a crowd of local notables, including Horatio Gates
Horatio Gates
Horatio Lloyd Gates was a retired British soldier who served as an American general during the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga – Benedict Arnold, who led the attack, was finally forced from the field when he was shot in the leg – and...
. A pump driven by steam power ejected a stream of water from the stern of the boat and thereby propelled the boat forward.
Early life
Little is known about Rumsey until he was living in Bath, Virginia, (now Berkeley Springs, West Virginia) in 1782. He likely had moved to the area with his family some years before the American RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, from Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is part of the Delaware Valley. It was named for Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , who was the first Proprietary Governor of the colony of Maryland from 1632 until his death in 1675. The county seat is Elkton. The newspaper...
, where he had helped to run the family water mill at Bohemia Manor. His cousin was Benjamin Rumsey
Benjamin Rumsey
Benjamin Rumsey was an American jurist from Joppa, Maryland. He served as a delegate for Maryland in the Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777. For over twenty-five years, beginning in 1778, he was the chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals.Benjamin was born at Bohemia Manor in Cecil County,...
, a notable Maryland jurist and statesman, who also grew up at Bohemia Manor. In Bath, he built houses, became a partner in a mercantile business, and helped to run a boarding house and tavern called the "Sign of the Liberty Pole and Flag."
Early efforts and the Patowmack Company
In September 1784, when George WashingtonGeorge Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
was staying at Rumsey's inn, he contracted with Rumsey to build a house and stable on property he owned at Bath. During this visit, Rumsey showed Washington a working model of a mechanical boat which he had designed. It had a bow-mounted paddlewheel that worked poles to pull the boat upstream. Washington had been making plans for making the Potomac river navigable since before the Revolution, and a company was soon to be formed for the purpose. Rumsey's pole-boat, which promised to be able to ascend the river's chutes and swift currents, must have seemed a godsend to Washington, who wrote a certificate of commendation for Rumsey and likely let him know of the river project. Armed with the certificate, Rumsey obtained a patent from the Virginia legislature for "the use of mechanical boats of his model" and also gained an investor.
In July 1785, he was recommended by Washington and appointed to oversee the clearing of rocks at what is now Harper's Ferry Patowmack Company. Rumsey would thus not only be able to build a boat to ascend the river, but alter the river to enable his boat. For a year, Rumsey oversaw work on the Potomac River site, while his assistant and brother-in-law Joseph Barnes did much of the building of the boat around Shepherdstown.
Rumsey had quickly concluded that the pole-boat design was too limited and decided to incorporate steam propulsion into his design. While making his boat much more useful, it also made the building of it far more complex and expensive. Likewise, it soon was obvious that the Patowmack Company had a much greater task than any of its members had foreseen. The Company was hindered by a lack of a supervising engineer: overseers were having to improvise as best they could, and this was a frustrating process. The work required great quantities of brute labor and difficult blasting, and Rumsey found himself directing a large and restive gang of about a hundred workmen, including leased slaves and bondsmen, encamped in a remote area, without adequate supplies.
After a year Rumsey said he would resign if not given an increase in pay. Instead of an offer, his resignation was accepted, and his assistant, Richardson Stewart, was given his job. Other aspects of the matter are open to debate; Stewart may or may not have worked against Rumsey to gain his job; Rumsey thought he had, the Company (and Washington) thought Rumsey's allegations unfounded. Still, according to Company minutes, Stewart was fired soon afterward, for "sundry charges of a serious nature".
Work in Shepherdstown
Work on a hull had begun in 1785 in Bath by Joseph Barnes. The boat was brought that fall to Shepherdstown. Valve castings, cylinders, and other pieces which had been made in Baltimore and Frederick were installed that December, and the boat was taken downriver to Shenandoah Falls for a test. However, bad weather postponed testing until the following spring. When Rumsey finally tested the boat, it proved very unsatisfactory. The pole-boat mechanism caused the boat to yaw in the current, which disabled the paddlewheel and stopped the boat. In the steam pump, the engine consumed too much steam; the boiler was inadequate.It may be that, having left the Patowmack Company, Rumsey was loath to work on a propulsion system limited to be used on rivers. Or, lacking money from the Patowmack Company, he wished to concentrate his efforts on the more promising steam pump. At some point in 1786, work on the pole-boat mechanism was abandoned. For a better boiler, he tried a coil of forged iron pipe, which proved to be not only much more efficient but much smaller and lighter. With a functioning steam engine, another problem revealed itself. The single cylinder pump would draw several gallons of water from beneath the boat, send it down a copper pipe to the stern. Because gallons of water were being drawn into the pump at the same time as water was still flowing from it to the stern, the pump was working against itself; several strong strokes and it bound up. This required replacing the copper pipe with a square wooden trunk, that had flapper valves in the bottom to allow water in from the river, to relieve the negative pressure at the pump.
On December 3, 1787, the boat finally made a very successful public demonstration on the Potomac at Shepherdstown.
Other innovators and Rumseian Societies
The demonstration occurred 20 years before Robert FultonRobert Fulton
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...
constructed and demonstrated the Clermont
North River Steamboat
The North River Steam Boat or Clermont was the first commercially successful steamship of the paddle steamer design. It operated on the Hudson River between New York and Albany...
. The idea of jet propulsion was not Rumsey's alone. Daniel Bernoulli
Daniel Bernoulli
Daniel Bernoulli was a Dutch-Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechanics, especially fluid mechanics, and for his pioneering work in probability and statistics...
(1700–1782) originated the idea of propelling watercraft in that way. In the summer of 1785, while Rumsey and his assistant Joseph Barnes were in the process of assembling his boat, Benjamin Franklin, onboard a ship from France, wrote of propelling a boat by water jet. This coincidence has sometimes led people to believe Rumsey got the idea from Franklin. Indeed, if Franklin had wanted to make such a claim it likely would have been accepted, but he did not and became one of Rumsey's supporters.
John Fitch
John Fitch (inventor)
John Fitch was an American inventor, clockmaker, and silversmith who, in 1787, built the first recorded steam-powered boat in the United States...
had demonstrated his steamboat in Philadelphia the previous August. Although there was yet no overall patent system in the confederated states, he had patents from some states that gave him exclusive rights to his and any other steamboat. Rumsey was more protective of his designs than his children and, though he was even more plagued by money problems, he sent the boat machinery to Philadelphia in March 1788. He quickly followed, armed with affidavits from those who'd seen his steamboat or been involved with its creation. There was a pamphlet war with John Fitch. Some Philadelphia businessmen attempted to make a joint effort between them; but after years of his own travails and poverty, Fitch was not in a mood to compromise. When he said he would apply for a patent in England for Rumsey's water-tube boiler, Rumsey and others formed the Rumseian Society. They decided he should go to England to secure patents for his inventions and seek further financial backing.
After moving to England in 1788, Rumsey was able to take out four patents before his death there in 1792. While some of these relate to steamboats (like his water-tube boiler design, which made the steam engine much smaller and more efficient) most are concerned with hydrostatics and water power. His 1791 patent has all the pumps, motors, and hydraulic cylinders of fluid power engineering. By September 1792 he had a true water turbine, almost 40 years before it would be next invented in France.
He spent four years in England and, on December 20, 1792, on the eve of the demonstration of his new steamboat, the Columbia Maid, he had just finished delivering a lecture to the Society of Mechanic Arts. Suddenly he was stricken with a severe pain in his head and died the next morning. At the time, his death was attributed to overstraining his brain. He was buried in London at Saint Margaret's Church
St. Margaret's, Westminster
The Anglican church of St. Margaret, Westminster Abbey is situated in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, and is the parish church of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London...
.
In 1906 a second Rumseyan Society was formed in Shepherdstown. Through its efforts, a monument to Rumsey was constructed in a park overlooking the Potomac.
Another Rumseian Society was formed in Shepherdstown in the 1980s to construct a replica of the successful Rumsey steamboat and celebrate the boat's bicentennial in 1987. The boat was constructed in the machine and blacksmith shop in the back of O'Hurley's General Store. The replica is housed in a small building behind the Entler Hotel. For a time, there was an annual regatta in Shepherdstown in early October in honor of Rumsey.
In addition, the bridge across the Potomac to Maryland is name in honor of Rumsey, as is the James Rumsey Technical Institute in Hedgesville, West Virginia
Hedgesville, West Virginia
Hedgesville is a town in Berkeley County in the U.S. state of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. The population was 240 at the 2000 census. The Town of Hedgesville was laid out in 1832 along the old Warm Springs Road and named for the prominent local Hedges family...
.
External links
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