Stevens, John Cox (1749–1856)

US engineer and inventor. Stevens was interested in steam power, especially as applied to ships. Although Robert Fulton's Clermont sailed up and down the Hudson River in 1807 before Stevens' Phoenix was ready, in 1809 it sailed to Philadelphia, thus becoming the world's first ocean-going steamship. Stevens then turned his interest to steam-powered trains and in 1825 he operated the first steam locomotive in America.

He was born in New York City. He served in the American War of Independence. He designed boilers and engines that received some of the first American patents (1791) and he collaborated with such pioneers in steamboats as Nicholas Roosevelt. In 1803 he built the Little Juliana, which was propelled by twin Archimedean screws; it served as a ferry between Manhattan and Hoboken, New Jersey. He proposed several other engineering projects that would not be accomplished for many decades.