Steamboat
Similar boats were made in 1785 by John Fitch in Philadelphia and William Symington in Dumfries, Scotland. Fitch successfully trialled his boat in 1787, and in 1788, he began operating a regular commercial service along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, carrying as many as 30 passengers. This boat could typically make and travelled more than during its short length of service. The Fitch steamboat was not a commercial success, as this travel route was adequately covered by relatively good wagon roads. The following year, a second boat made excursions, and in 1790, a third boat ran a series of trials on the Delaware River before patent disputes dissuaded Fitch from continuing.
Experiment (horse-powered boat)
"Experiment" was a horse-powered ferry boat. It was a 12-ton, three-masted boat drawing a few feet of water, about long by beam. Its driving mechanism was an in-water screw invented by David Grieve in 1801. The boat was constructed by David Wilkinson (some sources give his name as "Varnum") in 1807 to 1810, depending on the source. It was propelled by a "goose-foot paddle," a large mechanical screw propeller in the water instead of a paddle wheel at water surface. The new technology devised by Grieve and Wilkinson was powered by eight horses on a treadmill. The technology to propel the boat upstream was originally invented by David Grieve and granted a patent February 24, 1801 in the category of "Boats to ascend rivers". The complete recorded patent was lost in the 1836 U.S. Patent Office fire. The idea of propelling vessels by a mechanical screw in the water is now referred to as Ericsson's propeller.