It frequently happens that two persons, reasoning right on a mechanical subject, think alike and invent the same thing without any communication with each other.

The Oruktor Amphibolos was never a success as a dredger and after a few years of sitting at the dock was sold for parts. In 1812 he publiOliver Evansd a prophetic description of the nation connected by a network of railroad lines with transportation by swift steam locomotives. Death
In 1819 while in New York City Oliver Evans was informed that his workshop in Philadelphia had burned to the ground.

He was granted a patent for a steam-carriage design in 1789 but did not produce a working example of such a machine until over a decade later (see below on his Oruktor Amphibolos). (His design was modified by Jacob Perkins who obtained the first patent for a refrigerating machine in 1834. He produced an improved high-pressure steam engine in 1801.