In 1909 a Mr. John Moray of West Virginia presented a petition to Congress in which he asked for the official recognition of James Rumsay as the inventor of the steamboat, and the perpetuation of his memory by the placing of an appropriate bust in the Statuary Hall at the Capitol. According to the petition “The deed-books of Berkeley County, Va., for the year 1782 record the fact that James Rumsay, a native of Maryland, who was a millwright and Revolutionary soldier, purchased a farm, and soon after a pond, for experimental purposes in the line of his calling. On that pond, as the results of many experiments in steam and hydrostatics by James Rumsay, the wonderful discovery of the principle of steam navigation took place. Thoroughly satisfied by continuous experiments that the newly discovered principle would become of immense value in the world, Rumsay contracted with his brother-in-law, Joseph Barnes, for the building of a boat for steam purposes at St. John’s Run, on the Potomac River. The resulting steamboat was publicly exhibited at Shepherdstown, Va., on the Potomac, on December 3 and 11, 1787. The great success and useful character of Rumsay’s steamboat were established by sworn testimony of many notable witnesses, including General Horatio Gates, conqueror of Burgoyne, and by a multitude of astonished and delighted spectators. This practically successful trial took place twenty years before the Hudson River trial in 1807, and the speed of Rumsay’s boat was fully equal to that of the _Clermont_ in its initial trip to Albany--four miles an hour--without sails, paddles, and the complexities of the Hudson River boat.” Rumsay afterwards launched on the Potomac a boat propelled by a steam-engine and machinery, both of which were of his own construction. His method of propelling the boat was to force out a stream of water at the stern, a system known as the “Jet,” which has never commended itself to engineers in general, owing to the friction caused in the pipes by the water rushing through them. A trial trip, in December 1787, was successfully made in the presence of a great number of spectators, and resulted in Rumsay being granted the right to navigate the streams of New York, Maryland, and Virginia. His scheme was taken up by an organisation formed in Philadelphia for that purpose, and known as the Rumsay Society. Benjamin Franklin was among its members. Rumsay also visited England and the Continent, and obtained patents for his invention in Great Britain, France, and Holland, but he did not live long enough to develop his schemes. He made a successful trip on the Thames in 1792, and died in London the same year.