James Rumsey (1743–1792) 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.
Read more about James Rumsey: Early Life, Early Efforts and The Patowmack Company, Work in Shepherdstown, Other Innovators and Rumseian Societies
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“The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology.”
—Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941)