[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 79 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. CON. RES. 79

Recognizing Belleville, New Jersey, as the birthplace of the industrial 
                    revolution in the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 5 (legislative day, September 12), 1994

 Mr. Lautenberg (for himself and Mr. Bradley) submitted the following 
   concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing Belleville, New Jersey, as the birthplace of the industrial 
                    revolution in the United States.

Whereas, in 1753, Josiah Hornblower, an English engineer who was an associate 
        and rival of James Watt, assembled the first functioning steam engine in 
        the Western Hemisphere in Belleville, New Jersey, to pump water from the 
        Schuyler copper mines;
Whereas, approximately 40 years after such assembly, the first steam engine made 
        in the United States was manufactured in a foundry in Belleville from 
        designs by Josiah Hornblower;
Whereas the designs were commissioned by Nicholas Roosevelt, who was the great-
        uncle of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, to power the 
        Polacca, which was the first experimental steamboat in the United 
        States;
Whereas the Polacca negotiated the Passaic River on October 21, 1798, which was 
        several years before Robert Fulton's boat, Clermont, sailed the Hudson 
        River;
Whereas historians herald the invention of the steam engine as the beginning of 
        the industrial revolution;
Whereas the presence of Josiah Hornblower in Belleville brought many of the 
        initiators of the industrial revolution in the United States to 
        Belleville;
Whereas such individuals included members of the Rutgers family, many of whom 
        are buried in the cemetery of the old Dutch Reformed Church in 
        Belleville; and
Whereas Belleville has a rightful claim to the title ``Birthplace of the 
        American Industrial Revolution'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That--
            (1) the Congress recognizes Belleville, New Jersey, as the 
        birthplace of the industrial revolution in the United States; 
        and
            (2) the President is authorized and requested to issue a 
        proclamation honoring Belleville as such birthplace.
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