Chapter L: Patent to Mr. Roosevelt

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

_To all to whom these LETTERS PATENT shall come_:

Whereas, NICHOLAS J. ROOSEVELT, a Citizen of the United States, hath
alleged that he has invented a new and useful improvement

IN PROPELLING BOATS &c. BY STEAM,

which improvement he states has not been known or used before his
application; hath made oath that he does verily believe that he is the
true inventor or discoverer of the said improvement; hath paid into
the Treasury of the United States the sum of thirty dollars, delivered
a receipt for the same, and presented a petition to the Secretary of
State, signifying a desire of obtaining an exclusive property in the
said improvement, and praying that a patent may be granted for that
purpose: These are therefore to grant, according to law, to the said
NICHOLAS J. ROOSEVELT, his heirs, administrators, or assigns, for the
term of fourteen years, from the first day of December, one thousand
eight hundred and fourteen, the full and exclusive right and liberty
of making, constructing, using and vending to others to be used, the
said improvement; a description whereof is given in the words of the
said Nicholas J. Roosevelt himself, in the schedule hereto annexed,
and is made a part of these presents.

In testimony whereof, I have caused these Letters to be made Patent,
and the Seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

SEAL

Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, this first day of
December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
fourteen and of the independence of the United States of America, the
thirty-ninth.

JAMES MADISON.
_By the President._
Jas. Monroe, _Secretary of State_.

City of Washington, _to wit_:

I do hereby Certify, That the foregoing Letters Patent were delivered
to me on the first day of December in the year of our Lord, one
thousand eight hundred and fourteen to be examined; that I have
examined the same, and find them conformable to law: and I do hereby
return the same to the Secretary of State within fifteen days from the
date aforesaid, to wit; on this first day of December in the year
aforesaid.

Richard Rush,
_Attorney General of the United States_.

To all to Whom these Presents shall come:

_Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of the State of New Jersey, Esqr. sends
greeting_:

Be it known, That I, the said Nicholas J. Roosevelt have discovered,
invented and constructed a new & useful mode & improvement in the
propelling of boats or vessels through water by the force & agency of
fire & steam, the construction of which discovery, invention &
improvement is specified as follows, as the mode to which I have given
a preference reserving to myself the right of varying and changing the
proportions and combinations of the several parts of the said
discovery and invention as experience may suggest or as I shall think
advisable or expedient, to wit.

A true copy from the Specification filed in the Patent Office.
Geo. Lyon, _Clk._
Patent Office, _3d December, 1814_.

_THE SCHEDULE referred to in these Letters potent and making part of the
same containing a description in the words of the said Nicholas J.
Roosevelt himself of his improvement in propelling Boats, &c. by
steam._

In a boat or vessel of any form, but of sufficient capacity to contain
the machinery required, I place a Steam Engine of a power proportioned
to the restance to be overcome, in propelling a boat or vessel a given
distance in a given time, this steam Engine is supplied by a boiler of
the usual form or made Cylindric one or more at pleasure so as to be
of sufficient capacity to feed the Engine. I next place two wheels
over the sides, on the axis of which I put flyes, dispence with them
or otherwise combine them at pleasure, either to regulate motion or
give additional velocity, or they may be connected with the water
shaft and steam Engine, by wheels so as to give any number of
revolutions that may be desired. The arms of the water wheels I would
make of wood, to which I attach floats or paddles of cast Iron, or of
Boiler plate thick sheet Iron, though they may be made of wood. These
floats I make move up and down on the arms, by means of screws and
holes, so as to make them enter deeper or shallower in the water, in
taking a purchase or hold on the water agreeably to the depth of water
the boat may draw, and the lading there may be on board, or agreeably
to other circumstances. The supporters of the outer ends of the water
wheels shaft to be made of Iron with braces, though if required they
may be made of wood.

Ns. J. ROOSEVELT.
Witnesses:
Jere’h Ballard,
John Dev’x DeLacy.

Of the foregoing correspondence, but a small portion relates to the question of wheels over the sides. It is inserted at length however,—going, as it does, to shew the warm interest, and the active measures that were on foot at the close of the eighteenth century to develope one of the mighty agencies of the nineteenth. The crudeness of many of the suggestions and the literary carelessness of the correspondence on both sides, is indicative of a very different condition of things from that which exists at present.