Nathan Read is best known as an inventor. During his long life, however, he pursued many different careers: member of Congress, jurist, iron manufacturer, farmer, apothecary, and educator. Read was born on July 2, 1759 in Warren, Massachusetts, the son of Rueben and Tamsin (Meachim) Read. He entered Harvard College in 1777, specialized in Hebrew, and graduated valedictorian of his class in 1781. After his graduation, he taught school in Beverly and Salem until 1783, when he was elected tutor at Harvard. He remained at the College until June 1787, when he resigned to study medicine in Salem under the tutelage of Dr. Edward A. Holyoke. In 1788, he abandoned his medical studies and opened an apothecary shop in Salem.

As early as 1788, Read began to experiment with the mechanical arts, and became particularly interested in the application of steam power to land and water transportation. When Congress passed the "Act to Promote Progress in the Useful Arts" in 1790, Read petitioned for patents on several of his inventions. These included a light multi-tubular boiler, an improved double acting steam engine, a paddle wheel operated steamboat, and a steam driven land carriage. Read subsequently learned that the use of paddle wheels was not an original idea and presented a new petition to Congress in 1791 for a steamboat propelled by a chain wheel. He also withdrew his plans for a steam rod carriage when Congress ridiculed the idea. Read's son, David, and other defenders subsequently maintained that Read should be considered the original inventor of both the paddle wheel operated steamboat (his invention predated Robert Fulton's 1807 steamboat) and the automobile. Read's career as an inventor was partially stymied by an inability to secure financing to build his inventions, in particular a full sized steamboat. In 1791, in recognition of his interest in the mechanic arts and natural science, Nathan Read, was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

By 1795, Read had given up his apothecary shop and moved to a farm in Danvers. The next year, he built a dam on the Water's River bordering his property and in 1796, founded the Salem Iron Factory on this site. The factory manufactured anchors, chains, cables, nails, and other iron materials used in shipbuilding. While treasurer and agent of the iron works, Read invented and put into operation at the factory a nail machine, which cut and headed nails in a single operation. Read's nail cutting machine was patented in 1798, and was his most financially successful and widely produced invention.

In 1800, Read was appointed a member of Congress for Essex South District, a position which was left vacant by the death of Judge Sewall. Read was elected to an additional term in Congress and in 1803, upon his return to Danvers, was appointed a justice of the Essex County Court of Common Pleas.

In 1807, Read moved to a larger farm in Belfast, Maine, where he also presided as Chief Justice of the Court in Hancock, Maine. He spent the remainder of his life in Belfast, dividing his time between farming and the development of new inventions. Many of Read's later inventions were agricultural implements designed for use on his farm. In 1817 and 1818, Read received patents for a threshing machine.

Read had always been interested in education and was instrumental in establishing a high school in Belfast. In 1815, he was elected an honorary member of the Linnaean Society of New England. In addition to his other activities, Read was interested in philosophical and religious issues. In 1845, he published an "Essay on Creation and Annihilation, the Future Existence and Final State of all Sentient Beings."

In 1790, Read married Elizabeth Jeffrey, the daughter of William Jeffrey, Clerk of Essex County, and the granddaughter of Joseph Bowditch. They had five children: Elizabeth Holyoke (1793- ), Nancy (1795- ), William Jeffrey (1800- ), George (1803- ), and Edward (1806- ). Read died on January 20, 1849 in Belfast, Maine.