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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Robert Fulton Biography FULTON, Robert (1765–1815). A celebrated American engineer, born at Little Britain, Pa., of Irish parents, who were in such poor circumstances that all the education young Fulton acquired was the ability to read and write. He made good use, however, of his opportunities and passed in study the time allowed him for recreation. At an early age he was apprenticed to a jeweler in Philadelphia, and in addition to devoting himself to this trade, he applied himself to painting. The sale of his portraits and landscapes enabled him, in the space of four years, to buy a small farm, on which he placed his widowed mother. At the age of 22 he proceeded to London, where he studied painting under Benjamin West; but after several years thus spent he abandoned painting to devote himself wholly to mechanics. Some works that he executed in Devonshire obtained for him the patronage of the Duke of Bridgewater and of the Earl of Stanhope. In 1794 he obtained from the British government a patent for an inclined plane, the object of which was to displace canal locks, and in the same year he invented a mill for sawing and polishing marble. His next invention was a machine for spinning flax, followed by one for making ropes. He was received as a civil engineer in 1795 and wrote a work on canals, in which he developed his system and ideas. Accepting an invitation from the United States Minister at Paris, he proceeded to that city in 1796 and remained there for seven years, devoting himself to new projects and inventions. Among the inventions developed here was the Nautilus, or submarine boat, carrying torpe does, invented to be used in naval warfare; but he was unable to secure its adoption by either the French, British, or United States government. He next turned his attention to a subject that had frequently occupied his mind before and about which he had written a treatise in 1793, viz., the application of steam to navigation. In 1803 he constructed a small steamboat, and his experiments with it on the Seine were attended with great success. The French government, however, did not give him any encouragement, but he had the coöperation of Robert Livingston, the Minister of the United States to France, who assisted Fulton in his experiments. Returning in 1806 to New York, Fulton superintended the construction of a larger steamship provided with an English engine. In 1807 he launched the Clermont upon the Hudson, which started off on her trip to Albany in the presence of thousands of astonished spectators. At the beginning the average speed was only about 5 miles an hour, which was considered a great achievement. From this period steamers, for the use of which on the waters of New York State Fulton and Livingston were granted a monopoly by the Legislature, came into general use upon the rivers of the United States. Although Fulton was not the first to apply steam to navigation, as a steam vessel had been tried upon the Forth and Clyde Canal as early as 1789, and by Rumsey and Fitch in America in 1786–87, yet he was the first to do so with any degree of success. His reputation as an engineer and inventor was now firmly established, and he was employed by the United States government in the execution of various projects with reference to canals and other engineering works. In 1814 he obtained the assent of Congress to construct a steam frigate, which was launched in the following year. Though the labors of Fulton were attended with such great success, various lawsuits in which he was engaged in reference to the use of some of his patents prevented him from ever becoming wealthy; and anxiety, as well as excessive application, tended to shorten his days. His death in New York, Feb. 24, 1815, produced extraordinary demonstrations of mourning throughout the United States. He married, in 1806, a niece of Robert Livingston, United States Minister to France. The centennial anniversary of the construction of the Clermont was celebrated in 1909 and a replica of the vessel able to proceed under its own steam was constructed. Fulton's published works included: A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation (1796); Letters on Submarine Navigation (1806) ; Torpedo War (1810); Letter to the Secretary of the Navy on the Practical Use of the Torpedo (1811); Report on the Practicability of Navigating with Steamboats on the Southern Waters of the United States (1813); Memorial of Robert Fulton and Edward P. Livingston in Regard to Steamboats (1814); Advantages of the Proposed Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River (1814). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 334-335. |