John Stevens

John Stevens (1749-1838), American inventor, engineer, and steamboat builder.

Stevens was born in New York City and educated at King's College (now Columbia University). Through his efforts a bill was passed (1790) by the U.S. Congress that laid the foundations for the present patent system of the country. In 1792 he took out two patents for marine engines under the new law. Subsequently, with the American inventor Nicholas Roosevelt and the American lawyer Robert R. Livingston, he built a steamboat, completed in 1801. Livingston later became associated with the American inventor Robert Fulton in his successful construction and patent of a steamboat.

In 1804 Stevens built a twin-screw steamship and in 1807, with his son Robert Livingston Stevens, built the paddle-wheeled steamboat Phoenix, which operated for six years on the Delaware River. To reach the Delaware, the Phoenix sailed from New York City around New Jersey, thus being the first steamship to navigate the ocean successfully. In 1811 Stevens established the first steam ferry in the world, from Hoboken, New Jersey, to New York City. In 1826 he constructed a locomotive model of his own, reputedly the first locomotive to run on a track in America. He died on March 6, 1838. Another son of Stevens, the inventor and engineer Edwin Augustus Stevens, founded the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.