THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL INVENTORS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7

Beginning in 1794, however, having admitted defeat as
a painter, Fulton turned his principal efforts toward canal
engineering. His Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Nav-
igation, in 1796, dealt with a complete system of inland-water
transportation based on small canals extending through-
out the countryside. He included details on inclined planes
for raising boats—he did not favour locks—aqueducts for
valley crossings, boats for specialized cargo, and bridge
designs featuring bowstring beams to transmit only vertical
loads to the piers. A few bridges were built to his design in
the British Isles, but his canal ideas were nowhere accepted.
Undaunted, he travelled in 1797 to Paris, where he
proposed the idea of a submarine, the Nautilus, to be
used in France’s war with Britain; it would creep under
the hulls of British warships and leave a powder charge to
be exploded later. The French government rejected the
idea, however, as an atrocious and dishonourable way to
fight. In 1800 he was able to build the Nautilus at his own
expense; he conducted trials on the Seine and finally
obtained government sanction for an attack, but wind and
tide enabled two British ships to elude his slow vessel.
In 1801 Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a member
of the committee that drafted the U.S. Declaration of
Independence. Before becoming minister to France,
Livingston had obtained a 20-year monopoly of steamboat
navigation within the state of New York. The two men
decided to share the expense of building a steamboat in
Paris using Fulton’s design—a side paddlewheel, 66 -foot-
(20-metre-) long boat, with an eight-horsepower engine of
French design. Although the engine broke the hull, they
were encouraged by success with another hull. Fulton
ordered parts for a 24-horsepower engine from Boulton
and Watt for a boat on the Hudson, and Livingston
obtained an extension on his monopoly of steamboat
navigation.