Inventor. The son n of Gen. Israel Morey and Martha (Palmer) Morey, his family moved to Orford, New Hampshire in 1766 and he operated a successful lumbering business there and in Fairlee, Vermont. An experimenter since 1780, in 1790 he began work on a steam engine capable of propelling a boat. He exhibited his successful models several times, which were observed by Robert Fulton, who secured more extensive financial backing and built the first commercially successful steamboat, using Morey's as the basis for his design. Later refinements to Morey's steam engine led to commercial success, and it powered tugboats, glass factories, and sawmills. In the 1820s he experimented with explosive vapors, and in 1824 patented the first internal combustion engine in the United States. In the late 1820s he conducted demonstrations to show that it could power boats and wagons (forerunner to the automobile), but was unable to find commercial backers. In the 1890s Charles Duryea, inventor of America's first gasoline engine, which led to creation of the automobile, funded building of two replicas of Morey's internal combustion engine and produced several magazine and newspaper articles detailing how his work had been influenced by Morey's. The bridge between Fairlee and Orford, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is named for Morey, as are Fairlee's Lake Morey and Samuel Morey Elementary School. Morey held over 20 patents, and several models he produced when he applied for them are located at Concord's New Hampshire Antiquarian Society.
Inventor. The son n of Gen. Israel Morey and Martha (Palmer) Morey, his family moved to Orford, New Hampshire in 1766 and he operated a successful lumbering business there and in Fairlee, Vermont. An experimenter since 1780, in 1790 he began work on a steam engine capable of propelling a boat. He exhibited his successful models several times, which were observed by Robert Fulton, who secured more extensive financial backing and built the first commercially successful steamboat, using Morey's as the basis for his design. Later refinements to Morey's steam engine led to commercial success, and it powered tugboats, glass factories, and sawmills. In the 1820s he experimented with explosive vapors, and in 1824 patented the first internal combustion engine in the United States. In the late 1820s he conducted demonstrations to show that it could power boats and wagons (forerunner to the automobile), but was unable to find commercial backers. In the 1890s Charles Duryea, inventor of America's first gasoline engine, which led to creation of the automobile, funded building of two replicas of Morey's internal combustion engine and produced several magazine and newspaper articles detailing how his work had been influenced by Morey's. The bridge between Fairlee and Orford, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is named for Morey, as are Fairlee's Lake Morey and Samuel Morey Elementary School. Morey held over 20 patents, and several models he produced when he applied for them are located at Concord's New Hampshire Antiquarian Society.
Bio by: Bill McKern
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