"Revolutionary War colonel John Stevens, trained in the law and self-educated as an engineer, was a pioneer in steam-engine experimentation. In 1804 his small steamboat, Little Juliana, operated by twin-screw propellers, made a successful trip across the Hudson and back to the New Jersey shore. Barred by the monopoly held by Robert Fulton from operating on the Hudson River, Stevens in 1808 sent his paddle steamer Phoenix-the first completely American-built steam engine-to Philadelphia by sea and opened a steamship line between that city and Trenton. In 1825 Stevens designed the first American-built steam locomotive, operating it, at the rate of over twelve miles per hour, on a circular track on his estate in Hoboken to demonstrate the feasibility of steam (as a replacement for horses) to power railroad transportation." -- National Portrait Gallery
This drawing of Stevens' first engine appeared in Archibald Turnbull's 1928 book John Stevens, an American Record.
The Earliest Stevens Engine, a drawing eventually used to promote the first United States patent law.
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