In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

INVENTOR/
MANUFACTURERS
@
Above: Illustration of The First Steam
Engine Designed and Built in the United
States by Oliver Evans, Philadelphia, PA,
1801. At upper right is a depiction of
Evans’ Oruktor Amphibolos, the steampowered
vehicle he built that is considered
the first automobile in America and the
world’s first amphibious vehicle.
PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Below: Oliver Evans in a c. 1790 engraving.
A pioneering inventor and engineer,
Evans was a pivotal figure in America’s
industrial development.
PORTRAIT FROM DIBNER LIBRARY OF HISTORY AND
TECHNOLOGY, SMITHSONIAN LIBRARIES.
operations in the city. These included the
nation’s first mint, navy yard, and arsenal.
The U.S. Mint, established in 1792 under
the directorship of inventor and scientist
David Rittenhouse, began producing coins
in 1793 at its building near Seventh and
Arch Streets. The Navy Yard began in the
late 1790s with the building of warships
for America’s undeclared war with France
at Joshua Humphreys’ shipyard on the
Delaware River in Southwark. Humphreys’
facility eventually became the U.S. Navy
Yard. The Schuylkill Arsenal, established in
1799 across the city on the Schuylkill River
in Grays Ferry, made uniforms and other
military materials and also helped outfit
Lewis and Clark’s famed 1803 transcontinental
expedition. Linking the federal Navy Yard
and Arsenal facilities was Federal Street,
which opened in 1801 and ran east to
west from river to river. These government
manufacturing operations continued for
centuries in Philadelphia: the Schuylkill
Arsenal closed in the 1960s, its operations
shifted mostly to other military facilities in
the city; the Navy Yard, after relocating in
the 1870s to the southern edge of the city,
was active until its decommissioning in
1996; and the U.S. Mint, after several moves
within the city, is still making coins in
Philadelphia, just a hundred yards from its
original 1793 location.
Philadelphia attracted a number of notable
inventor/manufacturers in the federal period.
John Fitch, born in Connecticut in 1743,
tried all kinds of work without success before
settling in the Philadelphia area in the 1780s
and making the first operative steam boat
in America. Members of the Constitutional
Convention and others witnessed a successful
trial run of Fitch’s steam-powered vessel
on the Delaware River in Philadelphia on
August 22, 1787. Fitch initiated steamboat
service between Philadelphia and other
Delaware River cities a few years later and
received a patent for his invention in 1791,
but could not make a success of his venture
financially. After various other failed ventures,
he committed suicide in 1798. Robert Fulton
would start a successful steamboat service in
1807 on the Hudson River in New York and
become much better known than Fitch for
development of the steamboat.
One of the experts with whom John Fitch
consulted in Philadelphia was inventor and
engineer Oliver Evans (1755-1819), a key figure
in the history of American manufacturing.
Born and raised in nearby Delaware, Evans
was a pioneer in automation, materials handling,
and steam power; a brilliant inventor
whose innovations gave great impetus to
the Industrial Revolution. Prior to settling in
Philadelphia in 1793 Evans had successfully
developed the technology for a fully-automated
flour mill. The Evans milling system was
widely implemented in the late eighteenth
century; George Washington was so impressed
upon seeing it in action that he had his own
mill at Mount Vernon converted to it. While
living in Philadelphia Evans turned his attention
to the development of a high-pressure
steam engine. It was in this realm that his
innovations would change the world.
STEAM
Steam engines had long been used for
industrial purposes, but the high-pressure
engine Oliver Evans developed in 1803 was
much more powerful, efficient, and practical.
IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBERTY
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