This was originally a term paper for Dartmouth College's History 57. Besides being thoroughly documented, I feel it is the most complete view of Samuel Morey available with the possible exception of a privately printed book that I came across. I have access to or copies of most of the material cited, so if you're having trouble finding, say, a Morey's letter in William Duer's Reply to Mr. Colden's Vindication of the Steam-Boat Monopoly, I can provide a copy. You can see Morey in German here. I can be contacted at Leon.N.Maurer.08 ATSYMBOL Alum DOT Dartmouth DOT org. Any derived work or copy should include my name, email address, and a URL to this webpage. My goal is to integrate much of this material into wikipedia's article on Samuel Morey, and for the purpose of integrating the facts from this paper into it, you may ignore the requirements of the creative commons license, although a link to this webpage would be nice.

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Leon Maurer

The Unsolved Mystery of Samuel Morey

            My goal is to provide an extensive view of the life and achievements of Samuel Morey,[*] starting with a skeleton of facts that I have tried to cleanse of contradictory stories that are sometime attached. While a difficult task, it will at least provide a common base for the tales. This skeleton will have four sections: basic biographical information, his experiments with combustion, his work on steam engines and ships, and his internal combustion engine. Although interconnected, I feel the divisions are logical because their content is mostly self-contained (most views of him use these divisions too). The second part of this paper will include the meat, a few of the many stories about him and legacy of his work. Throughout this there is a question to have in mind. Although answering this question is impossible (or at least beyond the scope of this paper) perhaps this paper will hint at the answer. Wonder: why is a man, who accomplished so much, obscure today?

Basic Information

            Samuel Morey was born in Hebron, Connecticut on October 23, 1762 as the second of seven children to Israel Morey (1735-1809) and Martha Palmer (1733-1810). Israel Morey had been a student of Eleazar Wheelock in Lebanon, Connecticut.[1] Preceding his teacher, he moved his family to Orford, New Hampshire in January 1766[2] with two other families from Hebron. It is unclear why they made this arduous trek during the dead of winter, but cheap land and a clergyman's pronouncement that, "Hebron is the household of Satan," may have prompted the move.[3]

            Israel Morey was industrious and eventually established Orford's first store, an inn, a ferry across the Connecticut, a sawmill, and two grain mills. In addition, he ran a farm and a timber business and preformed public duties such as supervising public road creation. During the revolutionary war, he became a General in the New Hampshire militia.[4]

            Little is know of Samuel Morey's early life. His father educated him until a school was opened in 1770. Wheelock founded Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire around that time, and thereafter Morey had access to its library.[5] Apparently he showed an early interest in mechanical devices – perhaps inspired by his father's mills – and built a small workshop.[6] His nephew later told that, as a boy, Morey was a good marksman and took a dislike to alcohol after an odd encounter in his father's inn with drunken deacon who hoped for a severe drought to instigate a revival.[7] Morey joined the Militia and eventually rose to the rank of captain, a title often used when addressing him.[8]

            In 1785 he married Hannah Avery (1769-1822) and they had one daughter, Almira (1799-1830) who would marry Judge Leonard Wilcox.[9] Morey subsidized or gave away corn to those in need and offered to foot the taxes of anyone unable to pay them.[10] Obviously, he was not wanting for money, earned mainly in three ways. He owned a sawmill[11] and large tracts on land on both sides of the Connecticut, including 1500 acres around Fairlee pond (renamed Lake Morey in 1890), which he logged[12]. He created log flumes from the hills down to the pond and a canal from the pond to the river to ease transport. For a time he was in charge of the locks along the Connecticut from Windsor, Connecticut to Olcott falls,[ ][13] and he designed and built the locks at Bellows Falls, Vermont.[14] Lastly, he sold rights to several patents for as much as $20,000,[à][15] for a steam patent to a Boston businessman, to as little as $2, for his patent on an improved fireplace to a local.[16]

His daughter died in 1830, which was likely a severe blow to him, and perhaps led him to cease experimenting.[17] In 1832 he moved across the river to Fairlee.[18]  His last patent was granted in 1833,[19] and there is little evidence of further work. It is said that he spent his later days fishing in Fairlee Pond. He died on April 17, 1843 at the age of 81.[20]

Steam

            His first patent, in 1793[¤][21], was for a steam-powered spit, but he had grander plans. Morey realized that steam could be a power source in the 1880s, and he probably appreciated a steamboat's potential from work on his father's ferry and the locks. In the early 1790s[**][22] he fitted a paddle wheel and steam engine to a small boat and powered up and down the Connecticut.[23]

The most important aspect of this craft was the paddle wheel. It was an old idea – supposedly dating to antiquities[24]– and previously tried with a steam engine. Jonathan Hulls of England used a rear-mounted paddle wheel in 1737 but an inefficient method of turning the steam engine's reciprocating motion into the circular motion hobbled it.[25] In 1789, Nathan Reed of Massachusetts experimented with a paddlewheel, and considered patenting it, but eventually patented a different method instead.[26] The American John Fitch experimented with side-mounted paddlewheels, but in 1791 used and patented oars instead. Thus, Morey's may have been the first successful use of a steam power paddlewheel, which was the best method of propulsion until the propeller, also invented by Fitch, was perfected.[  ] [27]

            Morey's first boat was little more than a proof on concept, so he built another in New York. In a letter to New York legislator William Duer, Morey describes how over the next three summers he traveled down to New York, and the following summer to Hartford, to improve and exhibit his boat. Finally, in 1797 he went to Bordentown, New Jersey (a stop on Fitch's failed Philadelphia to Trenton passenger service[28]), because it was "sickly in New York," and built a boat employing two side-mounted paddle wheels. At this point, Morey considered his boat ready for commercial use and sought financial backers.[29]

            For reasons that are unclear, his backing fell through because of "a series of misfortunes."[30] This is likely the end of Morey's direct work with steamboats – although there are many tales of a later fourth steamboat[31]– but not the end of his steam engine patents. In addition to one received in 1795 for improvements he made working on the steam engine in boat,[àà] he received patents for other applications and improvements in 1799, 1800, and 1803.[32]

            In 1815, Morey patented a "revolving" steam engine, described at length in the American Journal of Science in 1819 by John Sullivan, its purchaser.[33] With the exception of one harsh initial review predicting that it would barely work[34] – which was rebuffed by Sullivan,[35] it was apparently well received and Sullivan's description appeared in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal along with an introduction praising American steam engine and boat refinements.[¤¤][36] Instead of a stationary cylinder driving a rod that turns a wheel through a second linkage, it seems that the cylinder is allowed to pivot as the rod moves, which then turns a crank. The cylinder's pivot doubles as a valve that controls the direction and flow of steam according to its position. The claimed advantages of this configuration are lightweight, high-speed operation, durable construction[***][37], and low cost[38]. This engine met with some commercial success; recorded applications include tugboats, a glass factory,[39] and a sawmill in the Boston naval yard.[40] One tugboat even sailed to South Carolina, where its owner was pleased by its performance. Morey received one more steam patent in 1817[41] but his interest had been captured by experiments with flammable vapors, which had started some time before.

Experiments with vapors and combustion

            In an 1834 letter to Professor Benjamin Silliman – a friend of Morey's and editor of the American Journal of Science and Arts – Morey writes, "It is now more than twenty years since I have been in the constant, I may say daily practice of making experiments on the decomposition of water, by mixing with its vapor that of spirits of turpentine, and a great portion of atmospheric air."[42] This greatly understates the scope of some very interesting research, that lead to diverse discoveries such as the liquid fueled internal combustion engine[43], a method for carbonating water[44], and odd bubbles formed by molten resin.[45] The last two even appeared in journals in England[46] and Germany[47], respectively.

            Morey's combustion experiments followed naturally from his steam research and Orford's cold and dark winters. Wood was the primary fuel, and pine in particular has many derivatives – such as tar, rosin, turpentine, and charcoal – that caught his attention.[48] Specifically, he noted differences in flames near knots, perhaps rich in sap, or in wet wood.[49] Eventually he experimented with what seems like anything he could find: "tar, rosin, rough turpentine, or the spirit, or alcohol, or any kind of oil, fat, or tallow; mineral coal, pitch-pine wood, and the knots, birch bark, pumpkin, sun-flower, flax, and other seeds; as well as many other substances."[50]

            His experiments are described at length over several articles in the American Journal of Science and Arts. They are light on theory, and Silliman comments that "[Morey's] results are often very valuable, and perhaps, in some cases, not the less so, for having been sought without the direction of preconceived, theoretical views."[51] I agree for the most part; theory enters into these articles mostly for possible explanations. However, in 1834, 15 years after his first publication on the subject, he proposes a theory of combustion that has electricity as its basic force.[52] Hints of this theory may be visible in his first paper,[53] but his early experiments were not guided by it.

            His first practical application was to heat water for his revolving engine.[54] He observed that passing steam over burning coal or tar caused the flames to burn brighter and without smoke, and he theorized that the steam was decomposed in this process.[55] Word of these experiments reached the eminent French chemist Gay-Lussac, and he commented on them in Annales de Chimie et de Physique in 1819. He contended that the temperature was insufficient to cause decomposition. Instead, the steam freed more flammable vapors in the fuel[   ] causing the flame's change.[56]

            It turns out that Morey was correct. He produced what is now known as water-gas.[ààà] The oxygen from the water combines with carbon from the fuel to form carbon monoxide and the hydrogen forms a diatomic molecule. Both later burn to form water and carbon dioxide.[57] Morey was not the first to use water-gas for lighting, and his devices, including the patented 1818 American Water Burner, simply used the gas immediately instead of piping it to be burnt elsewhere,[58] done as early as 1792 in England.[59] It seems that Morey did not know of this advance or at least did not recognize it as the same process. Strangely, in 1819 J. F. Dana of Dartmouth and Harvard proposed attaching steam boilers to street lamps to take advantage of Morey's discovery,[60] but water-gas was already being piped to some London street lamps from a central source in 1812.[61] Still, Morey's device did produce more light, and there is evidence that it resulted in more efficient combustion.[¤¤¤][62]^,[63]

Internal Combustion Engine

            During his experiments, Morey discovered that the vapor of turpentine, when mixed with air, was explosive.[****][64] He recognized its potential, developed an engine, and wrote an unpublished description in 1824,[65] which he modified in 1825[66] and 1826. He finally published and patented the later in that year.[67] The revisions between the drafts are small, and deal mostly with reworking of the engine's valves.[68]

            The engine has much in common with modern ones. It has two cylinders, a carburetor, a familiar arrangement of valves and cams, and Morey even thought of using electric sparks for ignition (although there is no indication that he ever did this[69] and it had already been done[70]). However, unlike modern engines, the explosion did not directly provide power. Instead, the explosion expelled air from the cylinder through a one-way valve. The cylinder was cooled by a water jacket and water injected into the combustion chamber after it fired. The cooling gasses caused a vacuum and atmospheric pressure drove the piston.[    ] Morey did mention trying direct action,[71] and elaborated on it in other descriptions. However, his method was more complicated and possibly less efficient because it used more of the engine's stroke to draw in fuel.[72]

            Morey demonstrated his engine in New York and Philadelphia and there are eyewitness reports for both.[73] In Philadelphia, he demonstrated it powering a boat and a wagon. Unfortunately, when he decided to demonstrate the car on the street, he fell off after starting the engine and the vehicle powered across Market Street into a ditch.[àààà][74] This was the second car ride in the world, and the first in the United States.[75] Despite these mostly successful demonstrations, Morey could not find a buyer, and became frustrated. A letter from Reverend Dana of Orford written in October 1829 tells of Morey's trip to Baltimore, "I am told, the Capt. Is determined to make one more vigorous effort, to sell his patent right for some of his modern inventions [he later singles out the vapor engine], and if he does not now succeed, he will give the matter up, and return to Orford, to spend his days in quiet."[76] Morey did not find a buyer, and as he was then in his late 60s, it made sense to stop traveling up and down the east coast, and call it quits.

            While the engine state of the art, it was not novel in many respects.[77]Morey seemed aware of contemporary internal combustion work – Hardenberg, who wrote a book on Morey's engine, adeptly noted that in his 1825 draft Morey "stated that he named his invention Ôvapor engine, to distinguish it from theÉ gas engine.[¤¤¤¤]'" However, Hardenberg concludes that Morey could only have known of three engines similar to his.[*****] He never mentioned them, and Hardenberg concludes that they did not influence Morey.[78] His internal combustion engine is the first documented in the United States,[79] and his use of liquid fuel and a heated surface carburetor was new.[80] Another interesting feature was the wire mesh[     ] used to prevent the combustion from reaching the carburetor. This feature was reinvented and patented again in 1872 because the patent office had lost Morey's patent in the 1836 patent office fire.[81]

Stories

            Morey was the subject of numerous local stories, many preserved in an 1874 publication by the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society. This pamphlet's goal was to establish Morey as the inventor of the American steam boat, and it relied heavily on exaggerated language[ààààà] and these stories, many published earlier elsewhere, for evidence. Unfortunately, the storytellers were recalling memories from long ago or passing on stories told to them, and they often clash with Morey's own accounts or are simply wrong – one person denies that Fitch ever operated a steamboat. Despite these shortcomings, the pamphlet formed the basis for most subsequent articles about Morey. Not only was it a starting point for research, several paragraphs from it are frequently reproduced almost verbatim. One example is the tale of the Morey's move to Orford[82] – which emphasizes, to put it mildly, their pioneer attitude – that is repeated in three articles.[83]^,[84],[85]

            The story of Morey's first steamship voyage in the early 1790s is even more widespread. The basic idea is the he tested his vessel on a Sunday morning, when everyone else was in church, so that he would not be ridiculed if he failed. However, some boys apparently skipped church and witnessed it. One of them, Reverend Cyrus Mann, wrote of the experience in 1858, around 65 years later, in the Boston Recorder.[86] However, his description was not taken as gospel and, in contrast to the previous example, there are as many versions are there are recollections. Permutations include Morey alone in his boat,[87] with an assistant,[88] in a "little boat",[89] in a dugout canoe,[90] with a nondescript boiler,[91] and with a boiler fashioned from a kettle.[92] Unlike the previous example, this story passed mostly by word of mouth – there were people around to transmit it – causing the variations.

            The story of his interaction with Robert Fulton and his financier, Chancellor Livingston, is of more historical relevance than whether he used a dugout canoe or stole another kettle from his wife. Morey's own account, which seems the most fair and fits the facts reasonably well, is laid out in his letter to Duer. The summer after the one Morey spent at Hartford, he retuned to New York and gave Livingston a ride in his boat (perhaps at the advice of Silliman who knew Livingston to be a supporter of the arts[93]). He was impressed and offered Morey a "considerable sum" if he could improve the boat's speed to 8 miles per hour. He also offered $7,000 for the rights to use his current work around New York[¤¤¤¤¤] but Morey declined the offer. However, he continued working towards Livingston's speed goal. Morey also had conversations with Fulton and Livingston, and Livingston even traveled to Orford to see him (although Morey doesn't say when or what was discussed). Later, he was on Fulton's boat with Fulton, and he expressed his displeasure that his ideas had netted Fulton much but nothing for himself.[94]

            Reverend Mann told a modified version of this story in his 1858 article, and this version has been widely circulated. The tale goes that when Morey was in New York he showed his work to both Fulton and Livingston, who were both impressed and offered Morey $100,000 if he made certain modifications. He returned to Orford to make these changes, and Fulton even visited Morey while he was making the alterations. But when Morey returned to New York he was given the cold shoulder, as Fulton and Livingston had finished stealing Morey's design.[95]

            There are major holes in this story, aside from contradicting Morey – Fulton doesn't enter the picture until later, Morey would not have made modifications in Orford as his boat was in New York, and there were no specific modifications requested. Livingston did not partner with Fulton until 1803,[96] and Fulton was in Europe at the time,[97] and indeed from 1786 until 1806 continuously. Moreover, the boat Livingston saw was not the one built in Bordentown, which had the side-mounted paddlewheels Fulton would eventually use. [98] Interestingly, there are similar claims that Fulton was supposed to have milked Fitch for ideas around the same time as Mann claims Fulton was copying Morey. These have also been dismissed since Fulton was supposed to have been an ocean away.[******][99]

            Even if Fulton did not directly steal Morey's ideas, he did receive the sole rights to New York's waterways and a patent in 1811 for side mounted paddlewheels,[      ] which was Morey's main steamboat innovation.[100] Mann does claim that Morey was quite bitter about this,[101] and he was supposed to have used strong language against Fulton: "Blast his belly! He stole my patent!"[102] "Curse his stomach, he stole my patent,"[103] and other variations.

Legacy

            Morey is commonly viewed as a man who achieved much despite lacking finical backing and a nearby city. The view is wanting. He overcame the latter problem by spending many of his summers away from home. The belief that he was pressed for capital is widespread,[104]^,[105] but it lacks evidence. Although much of his work was self-financed, Morey died with $17,042 in assets,[106] unlike Fitch – also largely self-supported – who died broke.[107] I'm unsure where the belief about Morey's financial status came from, although some quote an 1829 letter to the owners of a foundry in Philadelphia, who Morey may have wanted to build his engine:[108] "[I'll try] if possible to collect some money for you and Mr.Garett [another possible business partner], as well as some for myself, which I could do were there any in the country, as I have more than $3,000 in salable property and good debts."[109] It does not sound as if he is desperate for money, and this is already after he had spent the money to design his engine. Finally, some believe Morey wanted for money because of shoddy research. One writer claims that Morey only sold the rights to one patent,[110] while Morey's papers now in Baker library[àààààà] alone include 5 additional sales.[111]

            Morey seems to have been well known in his field in the United States. When his vapor engine was announced in the Franklin Institute Journal, he needed little introduction and was described as "a gentleman whose name is familiar to those who have devoted their attention to mechanical science."[112] His name was also apparently known to people who devoted their attention to pure science, as his work on vapors is cited several times in the American Journal of Science.[113]^,[114]

Thankfully, Silliman diligently inserted notes when work similar to Morey's was done but Morey was not mentioned. Only once did Silliman insert such a note into an American paper, and that author can be forgiven as Morey's work was in the same issue.[115] However, this is not the case with European work and Silliman made sure to note it. "Mr. Samuel Morey, long ago detailed similar facts in this journal."[116] "This has been long known in this country; the fact was discovered by Samuel Morey, and an account of his process may be found in the first vol. Am. Jour. of Science, 1818; and many experiments by him in subsequent volumes, passim."[117] I cannot evaluate why he was not mentioned in European articles, as  he was surprisingly well published in Europe, with Gay-Lussac's French article, the already mentioned German and English articles, and another English article on his vapor work.[118] He faired even less well in Europe with his engine, as his name was not mentioned on his English patent, which is filed under Erskine Hazard, the person who patented it there for Morey.[119] Hardenberg has found only one related mention of Morey's name but several for Hazard.[120]

            This is particularly unfortunate, because the vapor engine was his most farsighted invention. Morey notes in his unpublished 1824 draft that:

Is there not some reason to expect that the discovery will greatly change the commercial and personal intercourse of the country. There is good reason I trust to conclude that transportation on good roads or railroad may be done much cheaper as well as quicker than by locks and canals, besides having the great advantage of being done, much of it, in the winter a time much the most convenient of the farmer. In their personal intercourse, if it should be generally thought most prudent to continue their intercourse on the earth's surface[¤¤¤¤¤¤], yet I think there will be little use of horses for that purpose.[121]

Now that the internal combustion engine's potential has been realized, people often focus on his engine. The first push to popularize his work was done by Charles Duryea, a fellow inventor who produced the first gasoline engine in America around 1890. He funded the creation of two working replicas of Morey's Engine[*******] and wrote about how Morey's engine was a direct precursor of the modern engine.[122] He overstates Morey's influence, which unfortunately is nearly nonexistent. Still the popularization Morey's work continues. Recently, this task has been taken up by people other than locals and engineers – including comedian Jay Leno[123] – an avid car collector – and, of course, the author.[       ] Unlike other areas of Morey's work, it is easy for non-locals to research because it was well documented and a biographer noted, "The writer in his boyhood days was acquainted with several people who knew Morey. So far as he knows, not a shred of knowledge concerning the internal combustion engine survived locally."[124] Perhaps this is because Morey was ahead of his time.

            The steamboat was appreciated contemporaneously, and Morey likely deserves more credit than he is given in books – although some stories probably give him too much credit. Here are my findings. He is mentioned in all three biographies of Fulton that I have examined. They have chapters devoted to previous inventors, and they contain 7, 18, and 20 pages. In one he is mentioned twice in passing.[125] In another he gets a paragraph.[126] In the last one he has two paragraphs and his dispute with Livingston and Fulton is noted.[127] In a general history of steam navigation he is mentioned once in passing.[128] A 1957 article about the history of steamboats in a journal of the United States Navy devotes a paragraph to Morey.[129] Morey is not mentioned at all in a book on the history of propellers.[130] A book on steam engines claims that, "The Claremont [Fulton's boat] established the steamboat in the public's favor. Nicholas I. Roosevelt, Samuel Morey, Nathan Reed, John Stevens and others saw their early efforts vindicated."[131] Vindication is not the word Morey would have used.

Conclusion

            In one of the most recent chapters of Morey's story, 10 of his patents were "found" in Rauner library.[132] Such is the story of Morey. The patents were lost only to the patent office, in the fire, and to outsiders ignorant that his heirs still held the originals. Unfortunately, like much information about Morey, his other 10 patents do seem to be truly lost. Bringing light to Morey's achievements has always been slow going.

            Page 5 of the Dartmouth library's copy of History of American Steam Navigation is the start of chapter one: the experimental stage. Halfway down the page it reads:

There was not at this early date a steam engine in use for any practical purpose in this country, unless it was the atmospheric engine built by Josiah Hornblower for the Schuyler Copper Mines, in New Jersey, many years before Fitch's invention. There is thought to have been one of these atmospheric engines in New England at a date prior to the Revolutionary War.

In the margin to the right of the last sentence, someone has written, in blue ink, "Samuel Morey's".[133] This is hard to believe, as Morey was but a lad at the time. I have seen similar notes elsewhere in my research,[134] and I feel as if I am following in the footsteps of a fellow researcher, who perhaps was even working on a term paper much like my own. Impatient for Morey to gain fame, he or she took to literally rewriting history. I am more patient and concerned with the facts,[ààààààà] so this paper will have to do.