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This Day In Founding Fathers History – 27 March
On this day in 1794, Congress authorized the creation of a navy by passing “An Act to provide a Naval Armament.” The act authorized four ships of 44 guns and two ships of 36 guns. 1
In 1849 on this day, Joseph J. Couch of Massachusetts received the first U.S. patent for a steam-powered percussion rock drill. Improved versions of the drill, along with dynamite, made large excavations of earth and rock possible for tunneling, mining and quarrying. 2
On this day in 1841, Paul Hodge tested his new steam-fire engine in New York City. Both citizens and insurance companies were clamoring for a better way to fight fires in the city and challenged Hodge, a mechanical engineer, to build a wagon that could send a stream of water over the flag staff of city hall. When Hodge tested it, it sent a 1.5-inch stream of water over the flag staff and the machine was approved immediately. 3
1 “Chap. XII.—An Act to provide a Naval Armament,” http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=473
2 “First U.S. patent for a steam-powered percussion rock drill,” The Energy Library, theenergylibrary.com/node/1466
3 “Today in New York history – Paul Hodge tests first steam fire engine,” examiner.com/article/today-new-york-history-paul-hodge-tests-first-steam-fire-engine
