by his new invented method of a Pipe Boiler, and further that .they have examined tlie Petition of John Stevens and the Draughts accompanying the same and are of Opinion that the method proposed by him for propelling boats by steam does not materially differ in its principles from the mode proposed by James Rumsey and that he stands fh the same situation with respect to John Fitch as the said James Rumsey and further that- the committee have prepared the draught of a Bill securing to James Rumsey tlie exclusive right to his inventions for a limited time which they have directed their Chairman to report to the House

To the honourable the Legislative Council and General Assembly of the state of New York

The Petition of John Fitch of the City of Philadelphia humbly sheweth

That your Petitioner received notice on the 10^'' of this Ins* from .Joseph Barnes attorney for James Rumsey, that he was about to ]-)etition your honourable House for an exclusive right to a Steam Boat and a Pipe Boiler.

Your Petitioner humbly begs leave to represent that by a law passed in the year 1787, your honourable Legislature vested in your Petitioner the exclusive Right for a term of years of propelling Vessels through the Water by the agency of Steam, which exclusive Right hath also been granted him in the States of New Jersey, Pensylvania and Delaware, to whose several Legislatures James Rumsey had made application with a view of destroying the Right of your Petitioner, under the pretence of using a different mode in application of Steam to the propelling of Boats and also under a pretence of an invention of boiling water in a pipe for the purpose of creating Steam, which idea of boiling in a Pipe was by your Petitioner laid before the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia some months before the time assum'd by the said Rumsey, as the period of his first invention, and that the mode of propelling by forcing water out abaft, which he claims as his invention, was published by Mon^.