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Show Invented Propeller It is just a hundred years since Frederic Sauvage, inventor of the propeller, died in abject poverty in a little hotel at Le Havre, France. Sauvage was a military engineer who left the army to devote himself to shipbuilding. After Aft-er 10 years of painstaking research re-search he invented the propeller. Sauvage received little honor during his lifetime. His invention was at first laughed to scorn, and while he was in prison for a paltry debt of a few hundred francs, unscrupulous un-scrupulous rivals stole his idea and started to produce propellers. Powerful shipping companies fitted fit-ted their vessels with Sauvage's invention, but when . he tried to sue them his case was thrown out of court. He died poverty-stricken. |