Evans, Oliver (1755-1819)

US engineer who developed high-pressure steam engines and various machines powered by them. He also pioneered production-line techniques in manufacturing. Evans was born in Newport, Delaware, and apprenticed to a wagonmaker. In 1780, he joined his two brothers at a flour mill in Wilmington, where he helped to build machinery that used water power to drive conveyors and elevators. As a result, one person could operate the whole mill as a single production line. Evans moved to Philadelphia, where he spent more than ten years unsuccessfully trying to develop a steam carriage. He then turned to stationary steam engines, and built about 50, as well as the Orukter Amphibole, a steam dredger he constructed 1804. It had power-driven rollers as well as a paddle so that it could be moved on land under its own power.