"[The glory] belongs to the author of the experiments made on the River Saone at Lyons in 1783"
Robert Fulton on De Jouffroy's steamboat
It is not uncommon for the American Robert Fulton (1765-1815) to be heralded as the inventor of the steamboat, but in actuality the true creative force behind its invention was a young French aristocrat, Claude-Francois-Dorothee, Marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans (1751-1832). De Jouffroy d'Abbans, according to legend, was wild and unruly, resulting in his incarceration in a military prison on the Isle of St. Marguerite. While he was there he studied the boats passing by and developed an interest in engineering.
On his release he went to Paris and studied with the Perier brothers, examining the Watt steam engine and devising methods in which it could be applied to propelling a vessel. He began work on an experimental boat, a steamship called the Palmipede, which he ran along the Doubs River in June and July 1776. The boat was not entirely successful, and he continued his experimental work, this time moving from Paris to Lyons. In 1783 his new model, the paddle steamer Pyroscaphe, was ready and ran for fifteen minutes along the Saone against the current and to a crowd of scientists and spectators. The boat was a success and ran for sixteen months, but the French Academy of Sciences in Paris refused to acknowledge it and denied de Jouffroy d'Abbans his license. Finally, embittered and impoverished, the inventor retired to the Hotel des Invalides, where he died from cholera.
