FULTON, ROBERT American engineer, was born in 1765 in Little Britain (now Fulton, Lancaster county), Pa. At an early age he was bound apprentice to a jeweller in Philadelphia, but subsequently adopted portrait and landscape painting as his profession. In 1787 with the object of studying with his countryman, Benjamin West, he went to England, and there became acquainted with the duke of Bridgewater, Earl Stanhope and James Watt. Partly by their influence he was led to devote his attention to engineering. He obtained an English patent in for superseding canal locks by inclined planes, and in I 796 he published a Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation. He then took up his residence in Paris, where he projected the first panorama ever exhibited in that city, and con structed a submarine boat, the "Nautilus." It was at Paris also in 1803 that he first succeeded in propelling a boat by steam power. Returning to America he continued his experiments with submarine explosives, but failed to convince either the English, French or United States Governments of the adequacy of his methods. With steam navigation he had more success. In asso ciation with Robert R. Livingston (q.v.) he constructed the "Cler mont," which, engined by Boulton and Watt of Birmingham, began to ply on the Hudson between New York and Albany in 1807. By an act passed in 18o8 the navigation monopoly was secured to them and their associates for a period depending on the number of steamers constructed, but limited to a maximum of 3o years. In 1814-15, on behalf of the United States Government, he constructed the "Fulton," a vessel of 38 tons with central paddle-wheels, which was the first steam warship. He died at New York on Feb. 24, 1815. Among Fulton's inventions were machines for spinning flax, for making ropes, and for sawing and polishing marble.
See C. D. Colden, Life of Robert Fulton (1817) ; Robert H. Thur ston, History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine (1878) ; George H. Preble, Chronological History of Steam Navigation (Philadelphia, 1883) ; and Mrs. A. C. Sutcliffe, Robert Fulton and the Clermont