Episode 2 of 3
French Patent and Later Efforts
- When
- 1791 – 1797
- Where
- France and subsequent American attempts
Fitch received a French patent in 1791, left for France in 1793 with investor Aaron Vail's promised help, and returned in 1794 to make further steamboat attempts.
In addition to his American patent, Fitch received a patent from France in 1791. In 1793, having given up hope of building a steamboat in America, he left for France, where the American investor Aaron Vail had promised to help him build a boat. He returned to the United States in 1794 and tried a few more times to build a steamboat, later moving to Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1797.
Sources
- John Fitch (inventor) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-15
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.