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FULTON, ROBERT (1765—1815)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 300 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FULTON, See also:ROBERT (1765—1815) , See also:American engineer, was See also:born in 1765 in Little See also:Britain (now Fulton, See also:Lancaster See also:county), Pa. His parents were Irish, and so poor that they could afford him only a very scanty See also:education. At an See also:early See also:age he was See also:bound apprentice to a jeweller in See also:Philadelphia, but subsequently adopted portrait and landscape See also:painting as his profession. In his twenty-second See also:year, with the See also:object of studying with his countryman, See also:Benjamin See also:West, he went to See also:England, and there became acquainted with the See also:duke of See also:Bridgewater, See also:Earl See also:Stanhope and See also:James See also:Watt. Partly by their See also:influence he was led to devote his See also:attention to See also:engineering, especially in connexion with See also:canal construction; he obtained an See also:English patent in 1794 for superseding canal locks by inclined planes, and in 1796 he published a See also:Treatise on the Improvement of Canal See also:Navigation. He then took up his See also:residence in See also:Paris, where he projected the first See also:panorama ever exhibited in that See also:city, and constructed a submarine See also:boat, the " See also:Nautilus," which was tried in See also:Brest See also:harbour in 1801 before a See also:commission appointed by See also:Napoleon I., and by the aid of which he was enabled to See also:blow up a small See also:vessel with a See also:torpedo. It was at, Paris also in 1803 that he first succeeded in propelling a boat by See also:steam-See also:power, thus realizing a See also:design which he had conceived ten years previously. Returning to See also:America he continued his experiments with submarine See also:explosives, but failed to convince either the English, See also:French or See also:United States governments of the adequacy of his methods. With steam navigation he had more success. In association with Robert R. See also:Livingston (q.v.), who in 1798 had been granted the exclusive right to navigate the See also:waters of New See also:York See also:state with steam-vessels, he constructed the " Clermont," which, engined by See also:Boulton & Watt of See also:Birmingham, began to ply on the See also:Hudson between New York and See also:Albany in 1807. The See also:privilege obtained by Livingston in 1798 was granted jointly to Fulton and Livingston in 1803, and by an See also:act passed in 1808 the See also:monopoly was secured to them and their associates for a See also:period depending on the number of steamers constructed, but limited to a maximum of See also:thirty years.

In 1814—1815, on behalf of the United States See also:

government, he constructed the " Fulton," a vessel of 38 tons with central See also:paddle-wheels, which was the first steam warship. He died at New York on the 24th of See also:February 1815. Among Fulton's inventions were See also:machines for See also:spinning See also:flax, for making See also:ropes, and for sawing and polishing See also:marble. See C. D. See also:Colden, See also:Life of Robert Fulton (New York, 1817) ; Robert H. Thurston, See also:History of the Growth of the Steam-See also:Engine (New York, 1878) ; See also:George H. Preble, See also:Chronological History of Steam. Navigation (Philadelphia, 1883) ; and Mrs A. C. Sutcliffe, Robert Fulton and the Clermont (New York, 1909).

End of Article: FULTON, ROBERT (1765—1815)

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