Nicholas Roosevelt (inventor)

Nicholas Isaac Roosevelt (December 27, 1767, New York City – July 30, 1854, Skaneateles, New York) was an American inventor, a major investor in Upstate New York land, and a member of the Roosevelt family. His primary invention was to introduce vertical paddle wheels for steamboats.

Nicholas Roosevelt was carefully educated. Soon after the evacuation of New York City by the British during the American Revolutionary War, Roosevelt returned to New York City from Esopus, where he then resided. In Esopus, he had made a small wooden boat, across which was an axle projecting over the sides with paddles at the ends, made to revolve by a tight cord wound around its middle by the reaction of hickory and whalebone springs.

In New York City, he engaged in manufacturing and inventing. He became interested in the Schuyler Copper Mine in North Arlington, New Jersey on the Passaic River, and from a model of Josiah Hornblower's atmospheric machine completed a similar one, built engines for various purposes, and constructed those for the water works of Philadelphia.

He was also at the same time under contract to erect rolling works and supply the government with copper drawn and rolled for six 74-gun ships. In 1797, with Robert R. Livingston and John Stevens, he agreed to build a boat on joint account, for which the engines were to be constructed by Roosevelt, and the propelling agency was to be that planned by Livingston. The experiment failed, the speed attained being only equivalent to about 3 miles per hour (4.8 km/h) in still water.

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