[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    RECOGNIZING BELLEVILLE, NJ, AS THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE INDUSTRIAL 
                    REVOLUTION IN THE UNITED STATES

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Post Office and Civil Service be discharged from further 
consideration of the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 35) 
recognizing Belleville, NJ, as the birthplace of the industrial 
revolution in the United States and ask for its immediate 
consideration.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia?
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I would 
like to congratulate the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Klein], who is 
the chief sponsor of this resolution, and indicate that the minority 
has no objection.
  Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia?
  There was no objection.
  The Clerk read the concurrent resolution, as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 35

       Whereas, in 1753, Josiah Hornblower, an English engineer 
     who was an associate and rival of James Watt, assembled the 
     1st 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 
     1st 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 1st 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 House of Representatives (the Senate 
     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.

  The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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