Robert Fulton, Native of Lancaster County, Operates First Steamboat, August 17, 1807.

Robert Fulton demonstrated the first successful commercial steam vessel August 17, 1807, when he opened the throttle and the Clermont slowly, but surely, moved against the swift current of the Hudson River.

Robert Fulton was born on a farm in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, in 1765. His father was a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, and emigrated to Lancaster County in 1735, where he soon became one of the foremost citizens, but did not make a success of farming. A year after Robert’s birth he mortgaged the farm and moved to Lancaster, where he died in 1768.

Mrs. Fulton was left with three daughters and two sons, and but little money and less time to spare to help meet the mortgage. She managed well with her family but the farm was lost.

The boyhood of Robert was filled with a desire to express his feelings through the dual medium of painting and mechanics. He seemed to love both with equal ardor.

His first great thrill came through the acquisition of some discarded paints and brushes brought to school one day by a companion. Fulton accomplished great things with them, and quite forgot he was in school to study.

When Robert was thirteen, the citizens of Lancaster wished to light up the town on the evening of July 4. It was in the midst of the Revolution and candles were as scarce as money. The demonstration was given up until Robert thought out a plan for skyrockets and the lad made possible the celebration.

565In Lancaster lived a clever man named William Henry, who had made some experiments with a steamboat. Robert often visited the Henry home, and there saw some pictures painted by Benjamin West, a former Chester County boy, who had gained great fame as an artist. Here was a man who appealed to young Fulton.

Robert placed a paddle wheel on his rowboat after the Henry plan, but propelled it by hand. It is quite possible that he dreamed of the greater speed if steam power could be applied.

When Robert was seventeen his mother apprenticed him to a Philadelphia silversmith. This was a mistake. He showed his character by quitting and establishing himself as a miniature painter—work that he loved. His plain studio was at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets. Here he supported himself for four years. He sketched and painted portraits and landscapes, and made drawings of machinery. So well did he work that at twenty-one he returned to Lancaster with enough money to buy a small farm for his mother.

Following the advice of some friends in 1786, he went to England, where he devoted several years to his profession, under the tuition of Benjamin West, who received him into his own home. Here he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, the founder of the great canal system of Great Britain, who induced Fulton to abandon art, and take up the study of mechanical science.

Fulton soon invented a double-inclined plane for raising or lowering boats from one level to another. In 1794 he devised a mill for sawing marble. In 1796 he evolved the idea of cast iron aqueducts, and a structure of this kind was built over the River Dee. He designed several bridges; he invented machinery for spinning flax; another for making ropes; one for digging ditches, and a dispatch boat.

In 1796 he published a “Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation,” copies of which were sent to President Washington, and other public officials, accompanied by letters telling of the advantages to be derived by canal navigation in America.

From 1797 to 1804 he resided in Paris with Joel Barlow, the American representative at the French court. During this period Fulton invented a submarine or plunging boat, called a “torpedo” designed to be used in naval warfare. Bonaparte appointed a commission to examine it. Fulton could easily descend to any depth, or rise to the surface. On one occasion he remained below the surface for four hours.

The French Government declined to patronize the project, and Fulton accepted the invitation from the English ministry, but would not agree to sell them a secret which the United States might need.

In 1806, after an absence of nineteen years, Fulton returned to the United States, and devoted his thought to the perfection of a steamboat, a project which he had in his mind for many years.

566When in France Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a rich man from New York, who was much interested in steamboats. Livingston had already built one, which proved a failure. The two men now joined forces. This made a fine association for Fulton’s knowledge of machinery was far greater than Livingston’s, but the latter had the wealth and influence which could bring an invention to the public.

Livingston obtained the sole right for them to navigate the waters of New York State for twenty years, if they could produce a steam vessel capable of a speed of four miles an hour against the current of the Hudson River.

Fulton finished his first steamboat in the Spring of 1807. He called it the Clermont, which was the name of Livingston’s estate near Albany. The first trip from New York to Albany was made on Monday, August 17, 1807—a day that will never be forgotten.

Crowds assembled at the wharf to see the Clermont start. Few believed it would move; most called it “Fulton’s Folly.” The trip was even more successful than Fulton had anticipated; it excited great admiration, and steamboats were rapidly multiplied on American waters. The Clermont made regular trips between New York and Albany, at the rate of five miles per hour, but this speed was soon increased by improvements in the machinery.

The success of the Clermont caused Fulton to construct other and larger boats and ferry boats. He also built the world’s first steam propelled warship, in the War of 1812.

In 1806 he married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, by whom he had four children. He possessed great personal dignity and agreeable manners, and many noble qualities of heart.

In the midst of his triumph and in the height of his prosperity he died.

During the winter of 1814–15 he was building a floating steam battery and visited the works at Paulus Hook, now Jersey City. He stood three hours in the cold, and then tramped through pools of water. He became ill from this exposure, but again visited the construction, and died February 24, 1815. The New York Legislature wore mourning six weeks. His funeral was the largest ever held in New York City up to that time. The body of this distinguished Pennsylvanian rests in Trinity churchyard on Broadway, at the head of Wall Street.

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