Evans, OLIVER

Evans, OLIVER, an American inventor, born in Newport, Delaware, in 1755, made several notable improvements in flouring-mills, and is said to have invented the first steam-engine constructed on the high-pressure principle, the drawings and specifications of which he had sent to England in 1787 and 1795. In 1804 he completed a steam-dredging machine, which propelled itself on wheels to the river Schuylkill, a distance of a mile and a half, and thus is considered the first land-carriage worked by steam in America. Evans also projected a railway between New York and Philadelphia, which his narrow means never allowed him to realise. He died in New York, 21st April 1819.