I think I'm gonna make my own list of "Top 2 Million Inventions That People Think They Came Up With But Were Really Only Improvements On Existing Ideas"

Sorry excuse for a list and sorry ass responses from people that try to seem open-minded but still get tunnel vision stemming from their limited research ability and cultural persuasion.

The steam boat is more French than American as the birth of the idea is concerned. Only the first not working version was mad in the US. William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania made the first US steam boat and it sank without much hesitation. This happened in 1763.
Denis Papin came up with the idea of steam boat in the last years of the XVII-th century, he made the first working ship. Later in 1736, Anetta Johnson took out a patent in England for a steam engine-powered boat. The first working good solution was made by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy in France in 1774. The next one was made in 1783: a new paddle steamer, successfully steamed up the river Saône.
In the US they started successful experiments after 1784.

Steam engines slowly found their way into folk songs all over the world. Somehow America could not get over it. I guess, if a nation has such a short history, it needs every good idea to forge a self identity. Steam boats are nice things, I would love to go to work every day on a steamer, even if I would have to get up 1 hour early to heat it up.

What a rubbish list - a gun and Jazz of all things - what about anything Edison did for instance?