(1765-1815), an American engineer, born at Little Britain, Pa., who claimed to be the introducer of steam navigation on American waters. He adopted the profession of portrait and landscape painter and in his twenty-second year proceeded to England for the purpose of studying art under West. There he became acquainted with the duke of Bridge-water, Earl Stanhope and James Watt and was led to devote himself to mechanical engineering. In 1794 he took a patent for a double-inclined plane, which was intended to supersede locks on canals, and he also patented a mill for sawing marble, machines for spinning flax and making ropes, and a dredging machine. In 1797 he went to Paris, where he produced the first panorama that was exhibited there. He also, after some trials, was successful in introducing a boat propelled by steam upon the Seine. His chief occupation in Paris was the invention of torpedoes for naval warfare. During a visit to Scotland he had seen and obtained drawings of the Charlotte Dundas, a steam vessel which had plied with success on the Forth and Clyde Canal. He returned to America in 1806 and built a steamboat, the Clermont, of considerable dimensions, which began to navigate the Hudson River in 1807. Its progress through the water at the time was five miles an hour. His reputation as an engineer and inventor was now firmly established, and he was employed by the United States government on various engineering works. In 1814 he constructed the first war steamship and was engaged upon an improvement of his submarine torpedo when he died. See STEAMBOAT.