(1765-1815)
[Illustration: Robert Fulton.]
Very few inventors have achieved success in giving to the world new
or improved methods of carrying on the business of life without long
and hard study, repeated experiments and failures, and trying
struggles with opposing elements. Many have labored through long
years of poverty and obscurity to dazzle their fellow-beings in the
end by the triumph of genius. The idea of an inventor has almost
become coupled with that of anxiety, patient or impatient waiting,
trials, and hardships. They are usually enthusiasts in the special
pursuit to which they devote themselves, and the coldness and
incredulity of those whose approval they seek to win, wear heavily
upon them. The chilling common-sense of men more practical than
themselves overwhelms them.
If the wonderful improvements of the present and the past age could
be placed in comparison with the attempts, the struggles, to
accomplish what has now been achieved, the list of failures would
far outnumber that of successes. Many of those who have rendered
priceless blessings to their own and after generations by the
production of wonderful machines or methods from the fine fibre of
their brains, were plundered and buffeted, even in the midst of
their grand successes, to such a degree that it requires a lofty
comprehension to determine whether their lives were triumphs or
defeats. Sometimes the failure of one generation becomes the success
of the next.
Born the same year that gave Robert Fulton to the world was Eli
Whitney, who really made "cotton king," so that the great staple of
the South yielded millions upon millions of dollars to the planters;
but he might have died a beggar, so far as his marvellous invention
affected his fortunes. Before he had fully completed his machine for
separating the seeds from the cotton, which only two persons had
been permitted to see, his workshop was broken open, and it was
stolen. His idea was incorporated in other machines before he had
obtained his patent, though it was only his own that transmuted
cotton into gold. False reports, the repudiation of contracts for
royalties fairly made, the refusal of Congress, through Southern
influence, to renew his patent, constant litigation to protect his
rights, harassed his life, and robbed him of the pecuniary results
of his success. Defeated, he gave up the battle, devoted his
attention to the manufacture of firearms, and finally made a fortune
in this business. Fulton's experience was not very different.
On the other hand, important discoveries in methods and mechanical
appliances have been made by accident, as it were, and fortunes
accrued from very little labor or study; but these are the
exceptions rather than the rule.
It would be difficult to estimate the influence upon the prosperity
of the United States of steam-navigation. It came but a few years
after the organization of the Federal Government, when the greater
portion of the territorial extent of the country was a wilderness,
and preceded the general use of railroads by a quarter of a century.
Transportation on the inland waters of the nation was slow,
difficult, and expensive, and the introduction of the steamboat upon
its great lakes and rivers, notably upon the latter, was a new era
in its history. On the great streams of the West flatboats floated
for weeks, laden with the productions of the States, on their way to
a market, where days or hours are sufficient at the present time.
Between the metropolis of the nation and the capital of New York,
the sloops, which were the only means of communication by water,
required an average of four days to make the trip of about one
hundred and fifty miles, while to-day it is accomplished in half a
day or less.
Now all the navigable rivers of the country are alive with
steamboats, and the growth and development of the States have been
mainly indebted to the introduction of steam navigation. On the
great lakes, though more available for transportation by means of
sailing vessels, the same powerful agency has achieved wonders, and
all of them are now covered by lines of steamers, by which, either
as tow-boats or independent vessels, a large proportion of the
inland commerce of the nation is carried on. On the ocean the result
of the introduction of steam-navigation is even more impressive, and
nations separated by thousands of miles of rolling billows now join
hands, as it were, with hearts commercially united, if not more
intimately, through the medium of peace-giving commerce, of which
thousands of gigantic steamers are the angel-messengers. On the
Atlantic a score or more of them leave the one side for the other
every week, and at the present time a merchant may breakfast in New
York on Saturday, and dine in London the next Saturday.
It is now conceded, both in Europe and America, that the world is
indebted to Robert Fulton for the practical application of steam to
the purposes of navigation. Whatever has been claimed for or by
others in regard to the priority of the invention or application of
the mighty power of steam to the propulsion of vessels, Fulton was
"the first to apply it with any degree of practical success," as an
English work states it. As one who labored for years over the idea
which came from his own brain, though it also came to others, who
wellnigh sacrificed his own life in its improvement, and who
achieved the crowning glory of its utility, he is certainly entitled
to be regarded and honored as the Father of Steam-Navigation.
Robert Fulton was born in a small village near Lancaster, in the
State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1765. He was the son of a poor
man of Scotch-Irish descent, who died when his son was only three
years old. He obtained only a common-school education, which he
afterward increased by his own efforts. He early manifested a taste
for, and considerable skill in, drawing and painting, and he
selected this art as his profession, though he was more inclined to
mechanical occupations, and spent his leisure hours in the shops of
the workmen in his vicinity. He was somewhat precocious in his
development, and at the age of seventeen he established himself as a
portrait painter. He could hardly have attained to any high standard
in art, though it appears that he had considerable success in his
occupation, for at the age of twenty-one he had purchased a small
farm in the western part of the State, where he placed his mother,
indicating that he had a proper filial regard for the welfare of his
remaining parent. It was evident from this success that he had
decided talent and that it attracted the attention of others.
He was advised to visit England and place himself under the tuition
of Benjamin West, the eminent American painter, who had achieved
distinguished success in art. He followed this advice, was kindly
received by the great artist, and remained as an inmate of his home
for some years. In the palaces and mansions of the British nobility
were treasured up many of the most noted pictures of the day and of
the past. In order to see, study, and copy these, Fulton procured
letters of introduction which gave him admission to these paintings.
He resided for some time in the stately mansions of the Duke of
Bridgewater and Earl Stanhope. Both of these peers were largely
interested in making internal improvements in England, especially in
promoting inland navigation by canals.
The duke was the possessor of immense wealth, and he had invested
largely in companies connected with the canal system. Through him
Fulton became interested in the same subject, and his mechanical
tastes and talent drew him in that direction. The result was that he
abandoned his easel and became a civil engineer, a profession hardly
known by that name in the early part of this century. Earl Stanhope
was also of a mechanical turn of mind, and had projected some
important enterprises. At that time he was engaged upon a scheme
which afterward filled up so much of the existence of Fulton--the
application of steam to navigation.
The earl had devised a method of accomplishing the result, and had
caused a small craft to be built which was to be propelled by a
series of floats, by some compared to the paddles of a canoe, and by
others to the feet of water-fowls. He described his plan to Fulton,
who did not regard it as practicable, and stated plainly the reasons
for his belief. The earl clung to his idea, highly as he appreciated
the talents of the critic. The inventor resided at Birmingham about
two years, and was employed in a subordinate capacity at his newly
adopted profession for the greater portion of the time. In this city
he made the acquaintance of Watt, who had developed the steam-engine
from a mere pumping-machine to something near what it is at the
present time.
Fulton's inventive genius was exercised during his residence at
Birmingham, and he devised an improvement of the machine for sawing
marble, from which he reaped both honor and profit. He produced a
machine for spinning flax, and for the manufacture of ropes, and
also one for excavating canals or river bottoms, for which purpose
many such are now in use. As an author he wrote a work on canals,
and published a treatise on the same subject in a London paper. He
had a plan for the use of inclined planes in changing the level of
the water for boats on canals, in place of locks, after the manner
of the Chinese, claiming that greater elevations could be overcome
in this manner; but it was never adopted.
In 1797 Fulton went to Paris, where he resided seven years, as the
terrors of the French Revolution were passing away. At this period
he had invented what is now called a torpedo, largely used in modern
warfare for the protection of harbors. He devised a submarine boat
to operate these destructive weapons, which was not a success. He
demonstrated what he claimed for the torpedo in the destruction of a
brig of two hundred tons; but he failed to procure the adoption of
this more modern engine of warfare by either France or England, and
he had the honor to be snubbed by Napoleon I. In 1806 he returned to
New York, where he labored for the recognition and introduction of
the torpedo. He was encouraged by Jefferson and Madison, and
Congress appropriated money for experiments; but the naval officers
reported against him, and nothing came of his efforts.
In Paris he had made the acquaintance of Chancellor Livingston, then
the American minister to France, who was interested in Fulton's
work, and who soon entered into business relations with him in
connection with it. He was a man of abundant fortune, while the
inventor was comparatively poor; occupied an elevated social
position, and was a person of great influence. He obtained a grant
of the monopoly of steam-navigation from the State of New York.
Fulton took out two patents for his invention; but unfortunately
they were not adequate to his protection, for they covered only the
application of the steam-engine to the turning of a crank in
producing the rotary motion of the paddle-wheels.
While in England Fulton had contracted with Watt for the building of
such an engine as he desired, without stating the purpose for which
it was to be used. This engine reached New York at about the same
time as the inventor. He made his plans for the construction of the
boat, which was to be of different form and proportions from
ordinary vessels, and it was completed and fitted out with its
engine during the year following his return. Not long before this
event, when he found the sum of money Mr. Livingston had provided to
complete the steamboat was nearly exhausted, Fulton attempted to
sell an interest in his exclusive grant in order to raise funds to
supply the deficiency; but so little faith existed in the success of
his enterprise that he could find no one who had the courage to
purchase it. But the vessel was finished, and a trial trip was made
in her, to which gentlemen of science and general intelligence were
invited, most of them, like the rest of the world, sceptics and
unbelievers. A few minutes served to satisfy these men that the
steamboat was a success, and that the problem of steam-navigation
had been solved in its favor. It was the hour of Fulton's triumph.
The strange craft, to which the name of Clermont had been given,
soon made a trip to Albany, accomplishing the distance in thirty-two
hours, or one-third of the average time of the sloops, and making
the return in thirty. Doubters and cavillers were silenced, and
regular trips were made till the ice closed the river for the
season. During the winter the Clermont was lengthened to one hundred
and forty feet, improved in many respects, gaudily painted, and
looked upon as a "floating palace." Another steamboat, called the
Car of Neptune, was built, and soon a contract for five more was
placed. The practical triumph had been achieved, and from that small
beginning has come forth the mighty steam-marine of the present
time.
Fulton was married to Miss Harriet Livingston, a niece of the
Chancellor, and was the father of four children. His business
affairs were in anything but a prosperous condition. The State of
New Jersey contested his monopoly, which proved to have been
unconstitutionally granted. Fitch, or his successors, who had made
some successes in the same line, endeavored to supplant him, and his
patents were worthless. He was embarrassed by constant litigation,
and his last years were full of trials and anxiety. He died February
24, 1815, at the age of fifty.
[Signature: William S. Adams.]