biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1755–1819)
|
| biography:
| Inventor and manufacturer, born near Newport, Delaware, USA. Self-taught, a natural mechanic, he invented a high-speed machine for carding wool in 1777. By 1785, despite a chronic shortage of funds, he had designed and built automatic machinery that made it possible to mill grain in one continuous process. He became America's first steam-engine builder, improving on James Watt's invention with several advanced models, including an amphibious steam-powered dredging machine (1804), America's first self-propelled land vehicle. In 1807 he established the Mars Iron Works, and at the time of his death the company had produced some 50 steam engines. |
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