Nathan Read

American engineer and inventor

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: July 2, 1759, Warren, Mass., U.S.

Died:: Jan. 20, 1849, near Belfast, Maine (aged 89)

See all related content

Nathan Read (born July 2, 1759, Warren, Mass., U.S.—died Jan. 20, 1849, near Belfast, Maine) was an American engineer and inventor.

Read attended and taught at Harvard University, and soon thereafter he invented technology to adapt James Watt’s steam engine to boats and road vehicles. He devised a chain-wheel method of using paddle wheels to propel a steamboat, and in 1791 he was one of four recipients (with John Fitch, James Rumsey, and John Stevens) of the original U.S. steamboat patents. He was also an innovator in windmill, waterpower, and threshing technology.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.