Robert Fulton

American inventor

• Born: November 14, 1765
• Birthplace: Little Britain Township, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania
• Died: February 24, 1815
• Place of death: New York, New York

Fulton did not invent the steam engine; however, he built the first profitable steamboat, established the traditions that distinguished American steamboats for the remainder of the century, and laid the groundwork for future submarine and torpedo warfare.

Early Life

At the beginning of 1765, Robert Fulton, Sr., a successful tailor and leading citizen of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sold most of his possessions and borrowed money in order to purchase a large farm, thirty miles to the south in Little Britain Township. There, his first son, Robert Fulton, Jr., was born toward the end of that year. Nothing else went well for the inexperienced farmer. Six years later, the elder Fulton returned to Lancaster, a bankrupt and dispirited man. He died in 1774, leaving his wife and six children without means of support other than the charity of relatives. Thus, at the age of nine, Robert Fulton learned the meaning of failure and poverty. For the remainder of his life, he struggled to achieve financial success and social status.

With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Lancaster changed from a small, isolated agricultural community to a bustling military and economic center. The population swelled with refugees, soldiers on the march, military prisoners, and gunsmiths. As young Fulton’s curiosity attracted him to the new inhabitants, his quick intelligence and enthusiasm induced strangers to give time to the dark, handsome boy. Fulton spent an increasing amount of time with the gunsmiths, for whom he made mechanical drawings and painted signs. Perhaps he was having too good a time: His mother apprenticed him to a Philadelphia jeweler.

Little is known about Fulton’s Philadelphia years. His master was a former London jeweler named Jeremiah Andrews. Fulton’s talent at drawing and painting prepared him to produce miniature portraits on ivory lockets. By 1785, Fulton was listed in a city directory as a “miniature painter.” The following year saw Fulton struck with two burdens that characterized the remainder of his life. He borrowed money to help his mother and sisters purchase another farm. At the same time, he was ill with respiratory ailments.

Despite his debts, Fulton borrowed money and took the waters at Bath, a spa in northern Virginia favored by the upper class. There, Fulton recovered his health and doubtlessly heard about the steamboat experiments of a local man named James Rumsey. Upon his return to Philadelphia, Fulton found another steamboat pioneer, John Fitch, running his strange vessel across the Delaware River. At this time, however, Fulton displayed no interest in steam engines. He was a painter who desired to improve his skills and status. That meant that he, like other American painters before and since, had to work in Great Britain. Thus, in the summer of 1787, Fulton sailed for England. He would be absent from the United States for the next thirteen years.

Thanks to a letter of introduction, Fulton settled in London as a student of Benjamin West, an American painter popular with Britain’s upper class. Fulton was not a gifted painter; he was, however, successful at cultivating wealthy friends and patrons. Thus, Fulton managed to survive for several years as a painter. By the early 1790’s, Fulton turned toward machines and canals. He devoted considerable time to studying canals and, in 1796, wrote Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation . Many of his ideas were quite dated, but the volume was distinguished by its format. Fulton demonstrated details with excellent drawings, attempted to base designs upon mathematical calculations, and focused all canal features toward the concept of an inexpensive and national transportation system. The book established Fulton as a canal engineer.

Life’s Work

With France and Great Britain at war during the mid-1790’s, the patents of citizens of one nation were freely copied by the citizens of the other nation. Fulton believed that his canal ideas were valuable and ought to be patented in France. He arrived in France in 1797 and soon abandoned canals. After all, that nation had been building canals for more than a century and had little use for experts who lacked experience. Anyway, Fulton already had a new patron and a new mechanical passion.

Benjamin West had given Fulton an introduction to Joel Barlow, a Yale graduate who was making much money by running American ships through the British blockade and into French ports. Barlow and his wife, Ruth, welcomed Fulton into their Paris residence. The three lived together for the next seven years. The educated Barlow tutored Fulton in science and mathematics, and it was probably Barlow who introduced Fulton to the subject of submarine warfare. Barlow had been at Yale when another student, Robert Bushnell, designed Turtle, a submarine that had engaged in unsuccessful attacks upon British warships during the American Revolution. Bushnell, living in seclusion in Georgia, had sent Thomas Jefferson a detailed description of his submarine efforts, and the latter made the material available to Barlow. By the end of 1797, Fulton was working on submarines.

Within three years, Fulton completed a submarine, and in late 1800, he launched several unsuccessful attacks against British warships off French ports. His submarine Nautilus was an enlarged and refined version of the craft that Bushnell had built more than twenty years earlier. The method of attack was similar: The submarine carried a mine (which Fulton called a “torpedo”) to the enemy vessel. If the intended victim moved, it was safe from the slow, awkward submarine. Moreover, the hand-cranked Nautilus could not overcome contrary tides or currents. In one attempt, however, Fulton and his crew of two remained submerged for more than six hours. That record was unequaled until the late nineteenth century. Fulton reached the obvious conclusion that Nautilus was inadequate as a weapon; he dismantled the submarine—perhaps to protect its secrets from imitators and its weaknesses from critics.

While still trying to collect funds from the French government for past submarine activities and future proposals, Fulton opened negotiations with British agents. In exchange for a substantial monthly payment, Fulton agreed to develop plans for small rowboats to tow torpedoes against French ships. In the midst of this scheme, Robert Fulton found a new patron.

Robert R. Livingston was one of the wealthiest men in America. Since helping to draft the Declaration of Independence, he had been active in public service. In 1801, Livingston became the American minister to the French government. For the past three years, the wealthy New Yorker had tried to promote steam navigation. While his brother-in-law, John Stevens, had set up a machine shop in New Jersey to conduct steamboat experiments, Livingston had secured a monopoly to steam navigation on New York waters. The two men, however, were not suited as partners. Hence Robert Fulton, the engineer eager to win fame and fortune, and Livingston satisfied each other’s needs. They became partners.

Fulton first studied the design of earlier steamboats and their engines. Next, he built models to test his own designs. Finally, in 1803, he placed a British engine aboard a craft of his own design, but the vessel moved too slowly. Fulton then left France, telling Livingston that he would return within two weeks. Fulton remained in England for two years working on his favorite project, undersea warfare. Fulton finally left England and sailed for New York.

The tall, handsome man who landed in the United States after nearly twenty years abroad was often mistaken for a foreign aristocrat. The boy from Lancaster had come a long way. Robert Fulton wasted no time: In the remarkably brief space of eight months, Fulton assembled the first steamboat to earn money for its owners. Fulton hired one of the best builders, Charles Brown, to construct the hull. The boat was supposed to have been designed in accordance with Fulton’s study of water and wind resistance. Nevertheless, the vessel looked like an enlarged British canal boat. The engine was the best that could be bought, a Boulton and Watt from England. After a brief trial run, Fulton informed Livingston that the vessel was ready.

On August 17, 1807, The North River Steamboat left New York City with forty passengers, mostly apprehensive relatives of Livingston. On its way up the Hudson River to Albany, the vessel stopped at Livingston’s river estate, Clermont, the origin of the steamboat’s unofficial but popular name, Clermont. Only a few passengers ventured aboard the steamboat for its first commercial run several weeks later. Public acceptance of the vessel increased, however, as it maintained a regular schedule. By the time river transportation closed for the winter, Livingston was earning a small but steady return on his investment.

During the winter of 1807-1808, Fulton rebuilt the steamboat with more comfortable accommodations. Because the vessel lacked sails to roll her about and voyaged on the relatively smooth waters of the Hudson River (locally called the North River), Fulton could install furniture that a sailing vessel could not accommodate. In the remaining seven years of his life, Fulton completed twenty more steamboats, each with fancier fittings than its predecessor. Thus, Fulton established the tradition of steamboat luxury. This tradition distinguished steam vessels from sailing vessels and attracted passengers.

In January, 1808, Fulton married Harriet Livingston, the beautiful niece of Robert Livingston. Once again, Fulton was working on torpedoes. In 1810, he published Torpedo War and Submarine Explosions , the first “do-it-yourself” book on that subject. Besides an expanding transportation system, a growing family, and torpedo work, Fulton was spending much time defending the steamboat monopoly that Livingston had pushed through the legislature years earlier. Other builders saw no more reason for a steamboat monopoly than one for sailing ships. Further, New Jersey citizens resented the Livingston-Fulton claim that New York’s waters extended to the Jersey shore. The lawsuits dragged on for years.

When the War of 1812 began, Fulton concentrated on naval weapons. In marked contrast with his numerous letters and public demonstrations that characterized his earlier work in France and England, Fulton now worked in secret. He built a semisubmersible vessel to tow torpedoes against British warships off New London, Connecticut. A storm washed the vessel ashore, and the British later blew it up. Fulton’s major work during the war was Demologes, a steam-driven battery. With its heavy cannon and thick sides, people (including British officers) expected the warship to destroy British blockaders near New York.

On February 24, 1815, shortly before the vessel was finished and just as news of peace reached the United States, Robert Fulton died. Exhausted by rushing the steam battery toward completion, by court actions over the steamboat monopoly, and by overexposure to a cold winter, he was too weak to resist another bout with respiratory problems.

Significance

The achievement of Robert Fulton was in developing a commercially successful steamboat. Other men may vie for the honor of inventing the steamboat, but their work failed to alter marine transportation. Robert Fulton and The North River Steamboat ended the dependence of ships upon the wind. Moreover, whereas travel had always involved varying degrees of hardship, Fulton developed the concept of voyaging in comfort. Finally, in an age suspicious of change, Fulton introduced the modern practice of continual product development.

It is ironic that Fulton’s fame in steamboats came so easily when compared with the brief time involved. The fact that he succeeded in steam navigation was because of his willingness to build upon the work of others, to cooperate with financial backers, and to follow a logical pattern. Research, conceptualization, scale models, and mathematical calculations distinguished his work method. As a result of Fulton’s efforts, the vision of steamboat pioneers became a reality.

In turn, Fulton’s pioneering work in submarines and torpedoes had to wait upon further advances in technology. However, his vision of undersea warfare fascinated contemporaries and inspired people throughout the nineteenth century. Fulton’s ideas were employed with some success by the Confederacy during the Civil War, and Jules Verne named his imaginary submarine after Fulton’s Nautilus. The United States Navy completed Fulton’s Demologes, the world’s first steam warship, renamed it Fulton, and then left the vessel to rot.

Robert Fulton belonged to a select group of Americans. Along with Francis Cabot Lowell and Eli Whitney, Fulton introduced technology to American society and laid the foundation for the nation to become the industrial leader of the world.

Bibliography

Chapelle, Howard I. Fulton’s Steam Battery: Blockship and Catamaran. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1964. Most detailed account of the steam battery based upon plans located in Denmark in 1960. Although the author is best known for his many books on American sailing vessels, he devoted the same care and expertise to collecting and analyzing the plans of steamships. Using copies of the steam battery’s plans that were located in Danish archives, the author has produced the lost detailed account of Robert Fulton’s last work.

Flexner, James T. Steamboats Come True: American Inventors in Action. Boston: Little, Brown, 1978. An excellent account of steamboat pioneers before Fulton.

Fulton, Robert. Torpedo War and Submarine Explosions. New York: W. Elliot, 1810. Fulton’s descriptions of underwater warfare not only guided the efforts of Americans who attempted to attack British warships during the War of 1812 but also became required reading for British officers aboard those same ships.

Hutcheon, Wallace, Jr. Robert Fulton: Pioneer of Undersea Warfare. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1981. The best account of Fulton’s underwater work. Draws on many different sources for its information.

Morgan, John S. Robert Fulton. New York: Mason/Charter, 1977. Provides a clear and well-written summary of Fulton’s life and work. This book meets the needs of the general reader.

Philip, Cynthia O. Robert Fulton. New York: Franklin Watts, 1985. This well-researched biography is particularly good for its thoughtful analysis of Fulton’s character and behavior. The author’s conclusions about the relationship between Fulton and the Barlows are not accepted by all scholars.

Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream. New York: Free Press, 2001. Well-written, balanced biography, describing how Fulton’s steamboat transformed nineteenth century America, for good and ill. While the steamboat boosted the American economy and opened up the western United States to settlement, this settlement facilitated the destruction of Native American civilizations.

Shagena, Jack L. Who Really Invented the Steamboat? Fulton’s Clermont Coup: A History of the Steamboat Contributions of William Henry, James Rumsey, John Fitch, Oliver Evans, Nathan Read, Samuel Morey, Robert Fulton, John Stevens, and Others. Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books, 2004. Shagena, a retired aerospace engineer, traces the technological contributions of the many inventors, including Fulton, who helped create the steamboat.

Taylor, George R. The Transportation Revolution: 1815-1850. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. This standard history examines the role of the steamboat in the expansion of the American economy and society during the first half of the nineteenth century.