George Frederick Augustus Hauto (ca. 1781–1825), merchant and inventor, emigrated by 1802 from his native Germany to the United States, and three years later he was residing in Philadelphia, where he was a merchant. He and Stephen H. Long were in Germantown when they patented their hydrostatic and steam engines on 3 Sept. 1813. About 1816 Hauto opened an office in Philadelphia, and two years later he joined with that city’s wire manufacturers Josiah White and Erskine Hazard in developing coal mines and improving navigation on the Lehigh River. White and Hazard bought out Hauto in 1820, after he failed to raise promised funds. Hauto left an estate valued at $7,418.81 and consisting mostly of coal and canal stock (Hauto’s naturalization record, Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, 7 Dec. 1805, 23 Jan. 1808 [Philadelphia City Archives]; James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory, for 1808 [Philadelphia, 1808]; List of Patents description begins A List of Patents granted by the United States from April 10, 1790, to December 31, 1836, 1872 description ends , 128; Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory, for 1816 [Philadelphia, 1816]; DeGH: Lehigh Coal Mine Company Records; Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1817–18 sess., 197–205 [20 Mar. 1818]; Alfred Mathews and Austin N. Hungerford, History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania [1884], 595, 661–2; “Eleanor Morton” [Elizabeth G. Stern], Josiah White: Prince of Pioneers [1946]; Hauto’s will and estate inventory [Philadelphia Register of Wills]; Philadelphia Aurora and Franklin Gazette, 7 Feb. 1825; Reading, Pa., Readinger Adler, 15 Feb. 1825).

The enclosed engraving & description of the hydrostatic engine (Hydrostatic Engine [undated broadside in DLC: TJ Papers, 200:35689]) described the water-powered engine invented by Hauto and long, included a diagram of the machine keyed to the text (“Engraved by H. Anderson, from an original drawing by W. Lehman”), and mentioned an engine that had been constructed at the brewery of a Mr. bayly in Germantown “for the purpose of grinding malt.” Thomas cooper reprinted the broadside with cautiously supportive commentary of his own later this year (Emporium of Arts and Sciences 3 [June 1814]: 166–70; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library, 1829 description ends , 14 [no. 920]).