7 Robert Fulton 7

Robert Fulton

(b. Nov. 14, 1765, Lancaster county, Pa. [now in U.S.]—d. Feb. 24, 1815,

New York, N.Y.)

R

obert Fulton was an American inventor, engineer, and

artist who brought steamboating from the experi-

mental stage to commercial success. He also designed a

system of inland waterways, a submarine, and a steam

warship.

Fulton was the son of Irish immigrants. When their

unproductive farm was lost by mortgage foreclosure in 1771,

the family moved to Lancaster, where Fulton’s father died in

1774 (not 1786 as is generally written). Having learned to read

and write at home, Fulton was sent at age eight to a Quaker

school; later he became an apprentice in a Philadelphia

jewelry shop, where he specialized in the painting of min-

iature portraits on ivory for lockets and rings.

After settling his mother on a small farm in western

Pennsylvania in 1786, Fulton went to Bath, Va., to recover

from a severe cough. There the paintings by the young

man—tall, graceful, and an engaging conversationalist—

were admired by people who advised him to study in

Europe. On returning to Philadelphia, Fulton applied

himself to painting and the search for a sponsor. Local

merchants, eager to raise the city’s cultural level, financed

his passage to London in 1787.

Although Fulton’s reception in London was cordial,

his paintings made little impression; they showed neither

the style nor the promise required to provide him more

than a precarious living. Meanwhile, he became acquainted

with new inventions for propelling boats: a water jet

ejected by a steam pump and a single, mechanical paddle.

His own experiments led him to conclude that several

revolving paddles at the stern would be most effective.