Report

That having examined the certificates and other papers presented to your Committee by the said John Fitch, they are of Opinion that in order to encourage a further Improvement in so useful an Art ; a Bill be brought in for the purpose of granting to the said John Fitch an exclusive right of Navigating boats by the force of Steam or Fire for a certain time, agreeable to the ])rayer of his petition.

To the honorable the Legislature of the state of New- York in Senate and Assembly convened.

The petition of John Fitch of Bucks county in the state of Pensylvania humbly sheweth.

That your peiiuoner has lately invented a method of propelling vessels through the water by the force of steam which he flatters himself is reduced to a moral certainty and will be a very great improvement on navigation and that he has a boat nearly completed to navigate on the river Delaware by the agency thereof.

That the states of New Jersey and Delaware have patronised his scheem so far as to give him an exclusive right for said boats for the term of fourteen years and the state of Pennsylvania have passed a law for pubhc consideration similar thereto -- That your petitioner has invented a method of rowing boats by oars worked by cranks which was never heretofore used which applies not only to the force of steam but the strength of a horse or any other power to equally as good advantage as men with oars whereby inland navigation must be benefited nearly as much as the labour of horses is cheaper than the labour of men. Your petitioner therefore humbly prays that your honourable body will take into their consideration said improvements, and grant your petitioner such