Mary In Kentucky-

I'd love to see that info on Fitch- I'd never heard of him, or don't recall hearing of him, which is surprising, given the steamboat fanatacism around here (or not, considering the loyalty to the claim of Samuel Morey (who also couldn't get the financial backing, and whose steamboat was also better than Fulton's... he wanted to perfect his, but Fulton was content with an imperfect one to patent!) I'll try and sort my way through those links in a little bit... Interesting how history, particularly that including singular people, often has repeating ideas and circumstances... Some things just have their time, I guess.

-J