Robert Fulton
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Robert Fulton |
Robert Fulton (
November 14,
1765 –
February 24,
1815) was a
U.S. engineer and
inventor, who was widely credited with developing the first steam-powered ship.
In 1889, the state of
Pennsylvania donated a marble statue of Fulton to the
National Statuary Hall Collection in the
US Capitol Building.
Robert was born in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He may have become interested in
steamboats in
1777 when (at the age of 12) he visited
William Henry of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, who had found out about
Watt's steam engine on a visit to
England; on return, Henry made his own engine and in
1763 â€" two years before Fulton was born â€" tried putting it in a boat, which sank.
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Fulton presents the first steamship to Bonaparte in 1803. |
When he came of age Fulton went to England in 1786 to study painting. As early as
1793 he proposed plans for steam vessels to both the United States and the British Governments, and in England he met the Duke of Bridgewater, whose canal would shortly be used for trials of a steam tug, and who later ordered steam tugs from
William Symington. Symington had successfully tried
steamboats in
1788, and it seems probable that Fulton would have been well aware of these developments.
In
1797 Fulton went to France (where the Marquis
Claude de Jouffroy had made a working
paddle steamer in
1783) and commenced experimenting with submarine torpedoes and torpedo boats. He designed the first practical submarine,
Nautilus, commissioned by
Napoleon.
Nautilus was first tested in
1800.
In that year he met
Robert Livingston, United States Ambassador (whose daughter he married), and they decided to build a steamboat to try out on the Seine. Fulton experimented with the water resistance of hull shapes, made drawings and models and had a
steamboat constructed. At the first trial it sank, but the hull was rebuilt and strengthened, and on
August 9,
1803, this boat steamed up the
River Seine, watched by a large crowd. The boat was 66 feet (20 m) long, 8 feet (2.4 m) beam and made between 3 and 4 miles an hour (5 and 6 km/h) against the current.
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" Fulton's monster", the Clermont or North River Steamer |
At about this time Fulton wrote to
James Watt of
Boulton and Watt, ordering an engine to be built to his plans, and in
1804 he returned to England. In
1802 Symington's
Charlotte Dundas had towed two 70 ton barges along the
Forth and Clyde Canal, demonstrating the practicality of
steam power. Although Fulton probably never saw this boat, he apparently had correspondence with
Henry Bell who was taking a keen interest in it. Fulton now worked on torpedo experiments, also corresponding with
William Murdoch on the design and technical details of his
Boulton & Watt steam engine . When this was completed he had it delivered to
New York, sailing there separately himself and arriving at the end of
1806. A suitable hull was built for what would be the first commercially successful
Paddle steamer.
The name of Fulton's first steamboat is often given as the
Clermont. In fact, he never called it by that name, generally referring to it simply as the
North River Steamboat, but the name often appears in the literature. (
Clermont was the name of the home of his partner, Mr. Livingston, located 110 miles [177 km] away on the
Hudson River to which the steamboat traveled on its initial voyage. The trip to Albany continued after 20 hours were spent at
Clermont). The
Clermont left
New York City for
Albany, New York on the
Hudson River on
August 17, 1807, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world. The initial voyage of
Fulton's monster was described as follows in an 1870 publication [
1]:
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The world's first steam warship, the 1814 Fulton the First, also called Demologos, in New York harbor. |
Fulton patented his design for a steamboat on
February 11,
1809, built more steamboats and designed the first steam powered warship, the
Fulton the First. The keel was laid in
1814, but he did not live to see it completed.
The New York legislature granted Fulton the privilege to be the sole provider of all steamboat traffic for thirty years. Competition was forbidden by law. Thomas Gibbons, a steamboat entrepreneur, hired
Cornelius Vanderbilt to ferry passengers for a cheaper fare in defiance of the law in an attempt to compete with Fulton for about six months. In 1824, in
Gibbons v. Ogden, the Supreme Court struck down Fulton's
government-granted monopoly ruling that states cannot legally regulate interstate commerce. Steamboat fares almost immediately dropped from seven to three dollars after the decision and traffic increased dramatically. Fulton was unable to successfully compete with the low fares offered by Gibbons and Vanderbilt, which resulted in his bankruptcy.
Fulton is accused by
Burton W. Folsom, Jr. in
The Myth of the Robber Barons of being what he calls a "
political entrepreneur" --a businessperson who seeks to gain profit through subsidies, protectionism, government contracts, or other such favorable arrangements with government(s) through political influence rather than competing fairly in the marketplace.
He died of
pleurisy at the age of 49. Robert Fulton is interred in the
Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in
Manhattan, New York.
A wide number of places are named for Robert Fulton, including (but not limited to):
*
Fulton Street in
Manhattan*
Fulton County, Indiana*
Fulton County, Kentucky*
Fulton County, Ohio*
Fulton County, New York*
Fulton, New York*
Fulton, Schoharie County, New York*
Fultonham, Ohio*
Robert Fulton Birthplace*
A history of the growth of the steam-engine*
William Symington*
A TREATISE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF CANAL NAVIGATION, by Robert Fulton, 1796. (searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries;
DjVu &
layered PDF format)
*
CHAPTER XIII: ROBERT FULTON in
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made (1871), by James D. McCabe, Jr., Illustrated by G. F. and E. B. Bensell, a
Project Gutenberg eBook.
