American inventor, born in Bohemia Manor, MD, about 1743; became a machinist, and made improvements in the machinery of grist-mills. In 1784 he constructed a boat for ascending streams against a current, by means of steam acting against setting-poles, and in 1785 was granted by the Assembly of Pennsylvania exclusive right for ten years to build such boats and use them in rapid rivers. In 1787 he exhibited on the Potomac a boat propelled by forcing jets of water against the wall of water astern, for which invention he was granted a patent by the state of Virginia. He organized at Philadelphia in 1788 the Rumsey Society for the promotion of his inventions. In 1792 he went to England and navigated the Thames with a boat built on his plans, for which he obtained patents in England, France and Holland. He was the author of a Short Treatise on the Application of Steam. He died in London on the 23rd of December 1792.
