FULTON, ROBERT (1765-1815). A celebrated American engineer, born at Little Britain, Pa., of Irish parents, who were in such poor circum stances that all the education young Fulton ac quired was the ability to read and write. He made good use, however, of his opportunities and passed in study the time allowed him for recrea tion. At an early age he was apprenticed to a jeweler in Philadelphia, and in addition to de voting himself to this trade, he applied him self 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 twenty-two he proceeded to London, where he studied paint ing under Sir Benjamin West; but after several years thus spent he abandoned painting to de vote 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 ob tained 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 in vented 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 sys tem .and ideas. Accepting an invitation from the United States Minister at Paris, he pro ceeded 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, carry ing torpedoes, invented to be used in naval war fare; but he was unable to secure its adoption by either the French, British, or United States Gov ernment. He next turned his attention to a sub ject 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 at tended with great success. The French Govern ment, however„ did not give him any encour agement, but he had the cooperation of Robert Livingston, the Minister of the United States to France, who assisted Fulton in his experi ments. Returning in 1806 to New York, Fulton superintended the construction of a larger steam ship provided with an English engine. In 1807
he launched the Clermont upon the IIudson, 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 five 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 gen eral 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 Amer ica 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 en gineering 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 en gaged in reference to the use of some of his patents prevented him from ever becoming wealthy; and anxiety, as well as excessive appli cation, tended to shorten his days. His death in New York, February 24, 1815, produced ex traordinary demonstrations of mourning through out the United States. He married, in 1806, a niece of Robert Livingston, United States Minister to France. His published works in cluded: A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation (1796); Letters on Submarine Navi gation (1806) ; Torpedo War (1810) ; Letter to the Secretary of the Navy on the Practical Use of the Torpedo (1811); Report on the Practica bility of Navigating with Steamboats on the Southern Waters of the United States (1813); Memorial of Robert Fulton and Edward P. Liv ingston in Regard to Steamboats (1814) ; Advan tages of the Proposed Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River (1814). Consult: Thurston, History of the Growth of the Steam Engine (New York, 1878) ; Colden, Life of Robert Ful ton (New York, 1817) ; Reixart, Life of Fulton (Philadelphia, 1856) ; Knox, Fulton and Steam Navigation (New York, 1886).