Morey, Samuel (1762–1843)

US inventor. He took out more than 20 patents, some of which were well ahead of their time – most notably his American Water Burner (1817–18) and the first American patent (1826) for an internal combustion engine.

Born in Hebron, Connecticut, he was a successful lumberman and became the town engineer for Bellows Falls, Vermont. He and his older brother experimented with steamboats after 1790; none were commercially successful but Morey later claimed that Robert Fulton had stolen his ideas.