Mechanician, born Abbans, near Besançon, France, 1751; died Paris, France, 1832. In 1776 he constructed an experimental steamboat and ran it on the River Doubs. He designed an improved model, which at a public trial, 1783, ran up the Saône at Lyons against the current. This boat continued to ply on the river for 16 months. Further experiments were checked by the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1816 a patent was granted. Jouffroy, however, failed to obtain financial support and died, discouraged and poor, at the Invalides, the home for old soldiers. Robert Fulton, the American inventor of the steamboat, acknowledged his indebtedness to Jouffroy.