ROBERT FULTON.
One of the pleasantest as well as one of the most prominent places in
the city of New York is the grave-yard of old Trinity Church. A handsome
iron railing separates it from Broadway, and the thick rows of
grave-stones, all crumbling and stained with age, present a strange
contrast to the bustle, vitality, and splendor with which they are
surrounded. They stare solemnly down into Wall Street, and offer a
bitter commentary upon the struggles and anxiety of the money kings of
the great city. Work, toil, plan, combine as you may, they seem to say,
and yet it must all come to this.
Not far from the south door of the church, and shaded by a venerable
tree, is a plain brown stone slab, bearing this inscription: "The vault
of Walter and Robert C. Livingston, sons of Robert Livingston, of the
manor of Livingston." A stranger would pass it by without a second
glance; yet it is one of the Meccas of the world of science, for the
mortal part of Robert Fulton sleeps in the vault below, without monument
or legendary stone to his memory, but in sight of the mighty steam
fleets which his genius called forth. Very few visitors ever see this
part of the churchyard, and the grave of Fulton is unknown to nine out
of ten of his countrymen. Yet this man, sleeping so obscurely in his
grave without a name, did far more for the world than either Napoleon or
Wellington. He revolutionized commerce and manufactures, changed the
entire system of navigation, triumphed over the winds and the waves, and
compelled the adoption of a new system of modern warfare. Now he lies in
a grave not his own, with no monument or statue erected to his memory in
all this broad land.
ROBERT FULTON was born in the township of Little Britain (now called
Fulton), in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765. He was of Irish
descent, and his father was a farmer in moderate circumstances. He was
the eldest son and third child of a family of five children. The farm
upon which he was born was conveyed by his father in 1766 to Joseph
Swift, in whose family it still remains. It contains three hundred and
sixty-four acres, and is one of the handsomest farms in Lancaster
County.
After disposing of his farm, Mr. Fulton, senior, removed to the town of
Lancaster, where he died in 1768, and there young Robert grew up under
the care of his mother. He learned to read and write quickly, but did
not manifest much fondness for his books after mastering his elementary
studies. He early exhibited an unusual talent for drawing, however,
greatly preferring the employment of his pencil to the more serious
duties of the school. His instructors and companions considered him a
dull boy, though all admitted that he showed no disposition to be idle.
All his leisure time was spent either in drawing, or in visiting the
shops of the mechanics in the place and eagerly watching their
operations. He displayed a remarkable talent for mechanism, which was
greatly assisted by his skill in drawing, and his visits to the machine
shops were always welcomed by both the apprentices and their employers,
who recognized the unusual genius of the boy, and predicted great things
for him in the future. But to his teacher, who seems to have been rather
more belligerent than is usual with Quakers, Robert's neglect of his
studies and visits to the machine shops were so many indications of
growing worthlessness. The indignant pedagogue once took occasion to
remonstrate with him upon his course, and, failing to convince him by
argument, rapped him sharply over the knuckles with a ruler, telling him
he would make him do something. Robert at once placed his arms akimbo,
and, looking his tutor sternly in the face, replied: "Sir, I came here
to have something beat into my brains, not into my knuckles."
Some time after this Mrs. Fulton, in conversation with the teacher,
expressed her solicitude lest her son should "turn out nothing," since
he neglected his books so entirely. The teacher frankly confessed that
he had done all in his power for the boy, but that he was discouraged,
and added: "Only yesterday, madam, Robert pertinaciously declared to me
that his head was so full of original notions that there was no vacant
chamber to store away the contents of any dusty books." The lad was only
ten years of age at the time, and, as may be supposed, the good Quaker
who directed his education was not a little dismayed by such a remark.
The boyhood of Fulton was passed during the stormy period of the
Revolution, and in a section so close to the theater of war that he was
in the midst of all the excitement engendered by the conflict. He was an
ardent patriot from the first, and used his pencil freely to caricature
all who showed the slightest leaning to the cause of the enemy.
In 1778 the supply of candles was so low in Lancaster that the town
authorities advised the people to refrain from illuminating their houses
on the 4th of July of that year, in order to save their candles. Robert,
at this time but thirteen years old, was determined not to forego a
patriotic display of some sort. He had prepared a quantity of candles
for the occasion, and after the proclamation of the Town Council was
issued, he took them to a Mr. John Fisher, who kept a store in the
place, and sold powder and shot. Mr. Fisher was somewhat astonished at
Robert's desire to part with the candles, which were at that time scarce
articles, and asked his reason for so doing. The boy replied: "Our
rulers have requested the citizens to refrain from illuminating their
windows and streets; as good citizens we should comply with their
request, and I prefer illuminating the heavens with sky-rockets." Having
procured the powder, he left Mr. Fisher's, and entered a small variety
store kept by a Mr. Cossart, where he purchased several sheets of
large-sized pasteboard. As Mr. Cossart was about to roll them, the boy
stopped him, saying he wished to carry them open. Mr. Cossart, knowing
Robert's mechanical genius, asked him what he was about to invent.
"Why," said the boy, "we are prohibited from illuminating our windows
with candles, and I'm going to shoot my candles through the air."
"Tut, tut, tut," said Mr. Cossart, laughingly; "that's an
impossibility."
"No, sir," said Robert, "there is nothing impossible."[A]
[Footnote A: He proved that this was not impossible, for he had his
display, making his rockets himself, and after his own model.]
"Robert was known," says one of his biographers, "to purchase small
quantities of quicksilver from Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, druggist, residing
opposite the market-house. He was trying some experiments that he did
not wish to make public, and which the workmen in Mr. Fenno's and Mr.
Christian Isch's shops were anxious to find out, but could not. He was
in the habit almost daily of visiting those shops, and was a favorite
among the workmen, who took advantage of his talent for drawing by
getting him to make ornamental designs for guns, and sketches of the
size and shape of guns, and then giving the calculations of the force,
size of the bore and balls, and the distances they would fire; and he
would accompany them to the open commons near by potter's field, to
prove his calculations by shooting at a mark. On account of his
expertness in his calculations, and of their ineffectual efforts to
discover the use he was making of quicksilver, the shop-hands nicknamed
him 'quicksilver Bob.'
"Mr. Messersmith and Mr. Christian Isch were employed by the Government
to make and repair the arms for the troops; and on several occasions
guards were stationed at their shops to watch and see that the workmen
were constantly employed during whole nights and on Sunday, to prevent
any delay. The workmen had so much reliance and confidence in
'quicksilver Bob's' judgment and mechanical skill, that every suggestion
he would make as to the alteration of a gun, or any additional ornament
that he would design, was invariably adopted by common consent.
"In the summer of 1779, Robert Fulton evinced an extraordinary fondness
for inventions. He was a frequent visitor at Mr. Messersmith's and Mr.
Fenno's gunsmith shops, almost daily, and endeavored to manufacture a
small air-gun."
Among the acquaintances of Robert Fulton at this time was a young man,
about eighteen years of age, named Christopher Gumpf, who used
frequently to accompany his father in his fishing excursions on the
Conestoga. Mr. Gumpf, Sen., being an experienced angler, readily
consented to allow Robert to join himself and his son in these
expeditions, and made the two boys earn their pleasure by pushing the
boat about the stream, as he desired to move from point to point. As the
means of propulsion was simply a pole, the labor was very severe, and
Robert soon became tired of it. Not wishing, however, to give up his
pleasant fishing trips, he determined to devise some means of lightening
the labor.
"He absented himself a week, having gone to Little Britain township to
spend a few days at his aunt's; and while there he planned and completed
a small working model of a fishing boat, with paddle-wheels. On leaving
his aunt's, he placed the model in the garret, with a request that it
should not be destroyed. Many years afterward, that simple model was the
attraction of friends, and became, instead of lumber in the garret, an
ornament in the aunt's parlor, who prized it highly. That model was the
result of Robert's fishing excursions with Christopher Gumpf; and when
he returned from his aunt's he told Christopher that he must make a set
of paddles to work at the sides of the boat, to be operated by a double
crank, and then they could propel the old gentleman's fishing-boat with
greater ease. Two arms or pieces of timber were then fastened together
at right angles, with a paddle at each end, and the crank was attached
to the boat across it near the stern, with a paddle operating on a pivot
as a rudder; and Fulton's first invention was tried on the Conestoga
River, opposite Rockford, in the presence of Peter and Christopher
Gumpf. The boys were so pleased with the experiment, that they hid the
paddles in the bushes on the shore, lest others might use and break
them, and attached them to the boat whenever they chose; and thus did
they enjoy very many fishing excursions."
This was the first experiment in the science of navigation attempted by
the man who afterward became the author of a new system.
Having chosen the profession of an artist and portrait painter, young
Fulton removed to Philadelphia at the age of seventeen, and remained
there, pursuing his vocation, until the completion of his twenty-first
year. He formed there the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, by whom he
was much noticed. His success was rapid, and upon attaining his majority
he was enabled to purchase and stock a farm of eighty-four acres in
Washington County, Pennsylvania, which he gave to his mother for a home
as long as she should live. Having thus insured her comfort, he went to
England for the purpose of completing his studies in his profession. He
took with him letters to Benjamin West, then at the height of his fame,
and living in London. He was cordially received by Mr. West, who was
also a native of Pennsylvania, and remained an inmate of his family for
several years. West was then the President of the Royal Academy of Great
Britain, and was thus enabled to extend to Fulton, to whom he became
deeply attached, many advantages, both social and professional, of which
the young artist was prompt to avail himself.
Upon leaving the family of Mr. West, Fulton commenced a tour for the
purpose of examining the treasures of art contained in the residences of
the English nobility, and remained for two years in Devonshire. There he
became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, to whom England is
indebted for the introduction of the canal system within her limits; and
it is said that he was induced by this nobleman to abandon the
profession of an artist, and enter upon that of a civil engineer. This
nobleman being devoted to mechanical investigations, proved a very
congenial acquaintance to Fulton. He was engaged at the time on a scheme
of steam navigation by a propeller, modeled after the foot of a water
fowl. His plan did not commend itself to Fulton's judgment, and he
addressed him a letter, setting forth its defects, and advancing some of
the views upon which he acted himself in after life. Here he also met
with Watt, who had just produced the steam-engine, which Fulton studied
enthusiastically. His own inventive genius was not idle, and while
living in Devonshire, he produced an improved mill for sawing marble,
which won him the thanks and medal of the British Society for the
Promotion of the Arts and Commerce; a machine for spinning flax and
making ropes; and an excavator for scooping out the channels of canals
and aqueducts, all of which were patented. He published a number of
communications on the subject of canals in one of the leading London
journals, and a treatise upon the same subject. Having obtained a patent
in England for canal improvements, he went to France in 1797, with the
design of introducing them in that country.
Upon reaching Paris, he took up his residence with Mr. Joel Barlow, and
thus was laid the foundation of a friendship between these two gentlemen
which lasted during their lives. He remained in Paris seven years,
residing during that time with Mr. Barlow, and devoting himself to the
study of modern languages, and engineering and its kindred sciences.
His work was continuous and severe in Paris. He invented and painted the
first panorama ever exhibited in that city, which he sold for the
purpose of raising money for his experiments in steam navigation; he
also designed a series of splendid colored illustrations for _The
Columbiad_, the famous poem of his friend Mr. Barlow. Besides these, he
invented a number of improvements in canals, aqueducts, inclined planes,
boats, and guns, which yielded him considerable credit, but very little
profit.
In 1801, he invented a submarine boat which he called the "Nautilus,"
which is thus described by M. de St. Aubin, a member of the Tribunate:
"The diving-boat, in the construction of which he is now employed, will
be capacious enough to contain eight men and provision for twenty days,
and will be of sufficient strength and power to enable him to plunge one
hundred feet under water, if necessary. He has contrived a reservoir of
air, which will enable eight men to remain under water eight hours. When
the boat is above water, it has two sails, and looks just like a common
boat; when it is to dive, the mast and sails are struck.
"In making his experiments, Mr. Fulton not only remained a whole hour
under water, with three of his companions, but had the boat parallel to
the horizon at any given distance. He proved that the compass points as
correctly under water as on the surface, and that while under water the
boat made way at the rate of half a league an hour, by means contrived
for that purpose.
"It is not twenty years since all Europe was astonished at the first
ascension of men in balloons: perhaps in a few years they will not be
less surprised to see a flotilla of diving-boats, which, on a given
signal, shall, to avoid the pursuit of an enemy, plunge under water, and
rise again several leagues from the place where they descended!
"But if we have not succeeded in steering the balloon, and even were it
impossible to attain that object, the case is different with the
diving-boat, which can be conducted under water in the same manner as
upon the surface. It has the advantage of sailing like the common boat,
and also of diving when it is pursued. With these qualities, it is fit
for carrying secret orders, to succor a blockaded fort, and to examine
the force and position of an enemy in their harbors."
In connection with this boat, Fulton invented a torpedo, or infernal
machine, for the purpose of destroying vessels of war by approaching
them under water and breaking up their hulls by the explosion. He
offered his invention several times to the French Government, and once
to the Ambassador of Holland at Paris, without being able to induce them
to consider it. Somewhat later, he visited London, at the request of the
British Ministry, and explained his invention to them. Although he
succeeded in blowing up a vessel of two hundred tons with one hundred
and seventy pounds of powder, and in extorting from Mr. Pitt the
acknowledgment that, if introduced into practice, the torpedo would
annihilate all navies, his invention was rejected, through the influence
of Lord Melville, who feared that its adoption might injure England more
than it would benefit her. At the first, when it was thought that
England would purchase Fulton's invention, it was intimated to him that
he would be required to pledge himself not to dispose of it to any other
power. He replied promptly:
"Whatever may be your award, I never will consent to let these
inventions lie dormant should my country at any time have need of them.
Were you to grant me an annuity of twenty thousand pounds, I would
sacrifice all to the safety and independence of my country."
In 1806, Mr. Fulton returned to New York, and in the same year he
married Miss Harriet Livingston, a niece of Chancellor Livingston, by
whom he had four children. He offered his torpedo to the General
Government, but the trial to which it was subjected by the Navy
Department was unsuccessful for him, and the Government declined to
purchase the invention.
But it was not as the inventor of engines of destruction that Robert
Fulton was to achieve fame. A still nobler triumph was reserved for
him--one which was to bring joy instead of sorrow to the world. From the
time that Fulton had designed the paddle-wheels for his fishing-boat, he
had never ceased to give his attention to the subject of propelling
vessels by machinery, and after his acquaintance with Watt, he was more
than ever convinced that the steam-engine could, under proper
circumstances, be made to furnish the motive power.
Several eminent and ingenious men, previous to this, had proposed to
propel vessels by steam power, among whom were Dr. Papin, of France,
Savery, the Marquis of Worcester, and Dr. John Allen, of London, in
1726. In 1786, Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, and about the same time
Dr. Franklin, proposed to accomplish this result by forcing a quantity
of water, by means of steam power, through an opening made for that
purpose in the stern of the hull of the boat.
In 1737, Jonathan Hulls issued a pamphlet proposing to construct a boat
to be moved by steam power, for the purpose of towing vessels out of
harbors against tide and winds. In his plan the paddle-wheel was used,
and was secured to a frame placed far out over the stern of the boat. It
was given this position by the inventor because water fowls propelled
themselves by pushing their feet behind them.
In 1787, Mr. James Rumsey, of Shepherdstown, Virginia, constructed and
navigated the first steamboat in actual use. His boat was eighty feet in
length, and was propelled by means of a vertical pump in the middle of
the vessel, by which the water was drawn in at the bow and expelled at
the stern through a horizontal trough in her hull. The engine weighed
about one third of a ton, and the boat had a capacity of about three
tons burthen. When thus laden, a speed of about four miles an hour could
be attained. The boiler held only five gallons of water, and needed but
a pint at a time. Rumsey went to England to exhibit his plan on the
Thames, and died there in 1793.
About the same time the Marquis de Joffrey launched a steamer one
hundred feet long on the Loire, at Lyons, using paddles revolving on an
endless chain, but only to find his experiment a failure.
In December, 1786, John Fitch published the following account of a
steamer with which he had made several experiments on the Delaware, at
Philadelphia, and which came nearer to success than any thing that had
at that time been invented:
"The cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal
force at each end. The mode by which we obtain what I term a vacuum is,
it is believed, entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water
into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any
friction. It is expected that the cylinder, which is of twelve inches
diameter, will move a clear force of eleven or twelve cwt. after the
frictions are deducted: this force is to be directed against a wheel of
eighteen inches diameter. The piston moves about three feet, and each
vibration of it gives the axis about forty revolutions. Each revolution
of the axis moves twelve oars or paddles five and a half feet: they work
perpendicularly, and are represented by the strokes of a paddle of a
canoe. As six of the paddles are raised from the water, six more are
entered, and the two sets of paddles make their strokes of about eleven
feet in each revolution. The crank of the axis acts upon the paddles
about one-third of their length from their lower ends, on which part of
the oar the whole force of the axis is applied. The engine is placed in
the bottom of the boat, about one-third from the stern, and both the
action and reaction turn the wheel the same way."
Fitch was unfortunate in his affairs, and became so disheartened that
he ceased to attempt to improve his invention, and finally committed
suicide by drowning himself in the Alleghany River at Pittsburgh.
In 1787, Mr. Patrick Miller, of Dalwinston, Scotland, designed a double
vessel, propelled by a wheel placed in the stern between the two keels.
This boat is said to have been very successful, but it was very small,
the cylinder being only four inches in diameter. In 1789, Mr. Miller
produced a larger vessel on the same plan, which made seven miles per
hour in the still water of the Forth and Clyde Canal, but it proved too
weak for its machinery, which had to be taken out.
It was in the face of these failures that Fulton applied himself to the
task of designing a successful steamboat. During his residence in Paris
he had made the acquaintance of Mr. Robert R. Livingston, then the
American minister in France, who had previously been connected with some
unsuccessful steamboat experiments at home. Mr. Livingston was delighted
to find a man of Fulton's mechanical genius so well satisfied of the
practicability of steam navigation, and joined heartily with him in his
efforts to prove his theories by experiments. Several small working
models made by Fulton convinced Mr. Livingston that the former had
discovered and had overcome the cause of the failure of the experiments
of other inventors, and it was finally agreed between them to build a
large boat for trial on the Seine. This experimental steamer was
furnished with paddle wheels, and was completed and launched early in
the spring of 1803. On the very morning appointed for the trial, Fulton
was aroused from his sleep by a messenger from the boat, who rushed into
his chamber, pale and breathless, exclaiming, "Oh, sir, the boat has
broken in pieces and gone to the bottom!" Hastily dressing and hurrying
to the spot, he found that the weight of the machinery had broken the
boat in half and carried the whole structure to the bottom of the river.
He at once set to work to raise the machinery, devoting twenty-four
hours, without resting or eating, to the undertaking, and succeeded in
doing so, but inflicted upon his constitution a strain from which he
never entirely recovered. The machinery was very slightly damaged, but
it was necessary to rebuild the boat entirely. This was accomplished by
July of the same year, and the boat was tried in August with triumphant
success, in the presence of the French National Institute and a vast
crowd of the citizens of Paris.
This steamer was very defective, but still so great an improvement upon
all that had preceded it, that Messrs. Fulton and Livingston determined
to build one on a larger scale in the waters of New York, the right of
navigating which by steam vessels had been secured by the latter as far
back as 1798. The law which granted this right had been continued from
time to time through Mr. Livingston's influence, and was finally amended
so as to include Fulton within its provisions. Having resolved to return
home, Fulton set out as soon as possible, stopping in England on his
return, to order an engine for his boat from Watt and Boulton. He gave
an exact description of the engine, which was built in strict accordance
with his plan, but declined to state the use to which he intended
putting it.
Very soon after his arrival in New York, he commenced building his first
American boat, and finding that her cost would greatly exceed his
estimate, he offered for sale a third interest in the monopoly of the
navigation of the waters of New York, held by Livingston and himself, in
order to raise money to build the boat, and thus lighten the burdens of
himself and his partner, but he could find no one willing to risk money
in such a scheme. Indeed, steam navigation was universally regarded in
America as a mere chimera, and Fulton and Livingston were ridiculed for
their faith in it. The bill granting the monopoly held by Livingston was
regarded as so utterly absurd by the Legislature of New York, that that
wise body could with difficulty be induced to consider it seriously.
Even among scientific men the project was considered impracticable. A
society in Rotterdam had, several years before Fulton's return home,
applied to the American Philosophical Society to be informed whether any
and what improvements had been made in the construction of steam-engines
in America. A reply to this inquiry was prepared, at the request of the
Society, by Mr. Benjamin H. Latrobe, a distinguished engineer. The
following extracts from this paper will show the reader how Fulton's
scheme was regarded by one who was confessedly one of the most brilliant
engineers of his day, and who has since accomplished so much for the
improvement of steam travel:
During the general lassitude of mechanical exertion which succeeded
the American Revolution, We utility of steam-engines appears to
have been forgotten; but the subject afterward started into very
general notice in a form in which it could not possibly be attended
with success. A sort of mania began to prevail, which, indeed, has
not yet entirely subsided, for impelling boats by steam-engines.
Dr. Franklin proposed to force forward the boat by the immediate
application of the steam upon the water. Many attempts to simplify
the working of the engine, and more to employ a means of dispensing
with the beam in converting the _libratory_ into a rotatory motion,
were made. For a short time, a passage-boat, rowed by a
steam-engine, was established between Borden-town and Philadelphia,
but it was soon laid aside. The best and most powerful steam-engine
which has been employed for this purpose--excepting, perhaps, one
constructed by Dr. Kinsey, with the performance of which I am not
sufficiently acquainted--belonged to a gentleman of New York. It
was made to act, by way of experiment, upon oars, upon paddles, and
upon flutter-wheels. Nothing in the success of any of these
experiments appeared to be sufficient compensation for the expense
and the extreme inconvenience of the steam-engine in the vessel.
There are, indeed, general objections to the use of the
steam-engine for impelling boats, from which no particular mode of
application can be free. These are:
First. The weight of the engine and of the fuel.
Second. The large space it occupies.
Third. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel, and render it
leaky.
Fourth. The expense of maintenance.
Fifth. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion of the water
in the boiler and cistern, and of the fuel-vessel in rough water.
Sixth. The difficulty arising from the liability of the paddles and
oars to break, if light, and from the weight, if made strong.
Nor have I ever heard of an instance, verified by other testimony
than that of the inventor, of a speedy and agreeable voyage having
been performed in a steamboat of any construction.
I am well aware that there are still many very respectable and
ingenious men who consider the application of the steam-engine to
the purpose of navigation as highly important, and as very
practicable, especially on the rapid waters of the Mississippi, and
who would feel themselves almost offended at the expression of an
opposite opinion. And, perhaps, some of the objections against it
may be avoided. That founded on the expense and weight of the fuel
may not, for some years, exist on the Mississippi, where there is a
redundance of wood on the banks; but the cutting and loading will
be almost as great an evil.
Scientific men and amateurs all agreed in pronouncing Fulton's scheme
impracticable; but he went on with his work, his boat attracting no less
attention and exciting no less ridicule than the ark had received from
the scoffers in the days of Noah. The steam-engine ordered from Boulton
and Watt was received in the latter part of 1806; and in the following
spring the boat was launched from the ship-yard of Charles Brown, on the
East River. Fulton named her the "Clermont," after the country-seat of
his friend and partner, Chancellor Livingston. She was one hundred and
sixty tons burthen, one hundred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet
wide, and seven feet deep. Her engine was made with a single cylinder,
two feet in diameter, and of four feet stroke; and her boiler was twenty
feet long, seven feet deep, and eight feet broad. The diameter of the
paddle-wheels was fifteen feet, the boards four feet long, and dipping
two feet in the water. The boat was completed about the last of August,
and she was moved by her machinery from the East River into the Hudson,
and over to the Jersey shore. This trial, brief as it was, satisfied
Fulton of its success, and he announced that in a few days the steamer
would sail from New York for Albany. A few friends, including several
scientific men and mechanics, were invited to take passage in the boat,
to witness her performance; and they accepted the invitation with a
general conviction that they were to do but little more than witness
another failure.
Monday, September 10, 1807, came at length, and a vast crowd assembled
along the shore of the North River to witness the starting. As the hour
for sailing drew near, the crowd increased, and jokes were passed on all
sides at the expense of the inventor, who paid little attention to them,
however, but busied himself in making a final and close inspection of
the machinery. Says Fulton, "The morning I left New York, there were
not, perhaps, thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat
would ever move one mile per hour, or be of the least utility; and while
we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I
heard a number of sarcastic remarks."
One o'clock, the hour for sailing, came, and expectation was at its
highest. The friends of the inventor were in a state of feverish anxiety
lest the enterprise should come to grief, and the scoffers on the wharf
were all ready to give vent to their shouts of derision. Precisely as
the hour struck, the moorings were thrown off, and the "Clermont" moved
slowly out into the stream. Volumes of smoke and sparks from her
furnaces, which were fed with pine wood, rushed forth from her chimney,
and her wheels, which were uncovered, scattered the spray far behind
her. The spectacle she presented as she moved out gradually from her
dock was certainly novel to the people of those days, and the crowd on
the wharf broke into shouts of ridicule. Soon, however, the jeers grew
silent, for it was seen that the steamer was by degrees increasing her
speed. In a little while she was fairly under weigh, and making a steady
progress up the stream at the rate of five miles per hour. The
incredulity of the spectators had been succeeded by astonishment, and
now this feeling gave way to undisguised delight, and cheer after cheer
went up from the vast throng. Many people followed the boat for some
distance up the river shore. In a little while, however, the boat was
observed to stop, and the enthusiasm of the people on the shore at once
subsided. The scoffers were again in their glory, and unhesitatingly
pronounced the boat a failure. Their chagrin may be imagined when, after
a short delay, the steamer once more proceeded on her way, and this time
even more rapidly than before. Fulton had discovered that the paddles
were too long, and took too deep a hold on the water, and had stopped
the boat for the purpose of shortening them.
Having remedied this defect, the "Clermont" continued her voyage during
the rest of the day and all night, without stopping, and at one o'clock
the next day ran alongside the landing at Clermont, the seat of
Chancellor Livingston. She lay there until nine the next morning, when
she continued her voyage toward Albany, reaching that city at five in
the afternoon, having made the entire distance between New York and
Albany (one hundred and fifty miles) in thirty-two hours of actual
running time, an average speed of nearly five miles per hour. On her
return trip, she reached New York in thirty hours running time--exactly
five miles per hour. Fulton states that during both trips he encountered
a head wind.
The river was at this time navigated entirely with sailing vessels, and
large numbers of these were encountered by the "Clermont" during her up
and down trips. The surprise and dismay excited among the crews of these
vessels by the appearance of the steamer was extreme. These simple
people, the majority of whom had heard nothing of Fulton's experiments,
beheld what they supposed to be a huge monster, vomiting fire and smoke
from its throat, lashing the water with its fins, and shaking the river
with its roar, approaching rapidly in the very face of both wind and
tide. Some threw themselves flat on the deck of their vessels, where
they remained in an agony of terror until the monster had passed, while
others took to their boats and made for the shore in dismay, leaving
their vessels to drift helplessly down the stream. Nor was this terror
confined to the sailors. The people dwelling along the shore crowded the
banks to gaze upon the steamer as she passed by. A former resident of
the neighborhood of Poughkeepsie thus describes the scene at that place,
which will serve as a specimen of the conduct of the people along the
entire river below Albany:
"It was in the early autumn of the year 1807 that a knot of villagers
was gathered on a high bluff just opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west
bank of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a strange,
dark-looking craft, which was slowly making its way up the river. Some
imagined it to be a sea-monster, while others did not hesitate to
express their belief that it was a sign of the approaching judgment
What seemed strange in the vessel was the substitution of lofty and
straight black smoke-pipes, rising from the deck, instead of the
gracefully tapered masts that commonly stood on the vessels navigating
the stream, and, in place of the spars and rigging, the curious play of
the working-beam and pistons, and the slow turning and splashing of the
huge and naked paddle-wheels, met the astonished gaze. The dense clouds
of smoke, as they rose wave upon wave, added still more to the
wonderment of the rustics.
"This strange-looking craft was the 'Clermont,' on her trial trip to
Albany; and of the little knot of villagers mentioned above, the writer,
then a boy in his eighth year, with his parents, formed a part. I well
remember the scene, one so well fitted to impress a lasting picture upon
the mind of a child accustomed to watch the vessels that passed up and
down the river.
"The forms of four persons were distinctly visible on the deck as she
passed the bluff--one of whom, doubtless, was Robert Fulton, who had on
board with him all the cherished hopes of years, the most precious cargo
the wonderful boat could carry.
"On her return trip, the curiosity she excited was scarcely less
intense. The whole country talked of nothing but the sea-monster,
belching forth fire and smoke. The fishermen became terrified, and rowed
homewards, and they saw nothing but destruction devastating their
fishing-grounds; while the wreaths of black vapor, and rushing noise of
the paddle-wheels, foaming with the stirred-up waters, produced great
excitement among the boatmen, which continued without abatement, until
the character of that curious boat, and the nature of the enterprise
which she was pioneering, had been understood."
The alarm of the sailors and dwellers on the river shore disappeared as
the character of the steamer became better known; but when it was found
that the "Clermont" was to run regularly between New York and Albany, as
a packet-boat, she became the object of the most intense hatred on the
part of the boatmen on the river, who feared that she would entirely
destroy their business. In many quarters Fulton and his invention were
denounced as baneful to society, and frequent attempts were made by
captains of sailing vessels to sink the "Clermont" by running into her.
She was several times damaged in this way, and the hostility of the
boatmen became so great that it was necessary for the Legislature of New
York to pass a law declaring combinations to destroy her, or willful
attempts to injure her, public offenses punishable by fine and
imprisonment.
It had been supposed that Fulton's object was to produce a steamer
capable of navigating the Mississippi River, and much surprise was
occasioned by the announcement that the "Clermont" was to be permanently
employed upon the Hudson. She continued to ply regularly between New
York and Albany until the close of navigation for that season, always
carrying a full complement of passengers, and more or less freight.
During the winter she was overhauled and enlarged, and her speed
improved. In the spring of 1808 she resumed her regular trips, and since
then steam navigation on the Hudson has not ceased for a single day,
except during the closing of the river by ice.
In 1811 and 1812, Fulton built two steam ferry-boats for the North
River, and soon after added a third for the East River. These boats were
the beginning of the magnificent steam ferry system which is to-day one
of the chief wonders of New York. They were what are called twin-boats,
each of them consisting of two complete hulls, united by a deck or
bridge. They were sharp at both ends, and moved equally well with
either end foremost, so that they could cross and re-cross without being
turned around. These boats were given engines of sufficient power to
enable them to overcome the force of strong ebb tides; and in order to
facilitate their landing, Fulton contrived a species of floating dock,
and a means of decreasing the shock caused by the striking of the boat
against the dock. These boats could accommodate eight four-wheel
carriages, twenty-nine horses, and four hundred passengers. Their
average time across the North River, a mile and a half wide, was twenty
minutes.
The introduction of the steamboat gave a powerful impetus to the
internal commerce of the Union. It opened to navigation many important
rivers (whose swift currents had closed them to sailing craft), and made
rapid and easy communication between the most distant parts of the
country practicable. The public soon began to appreciate this, and
orders came in rapidly for steamboats for various parts of the country.
Fulton executed these as fast as possible, and among the number several
for boats for the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Early in 1814, the city of New York was seriously menaced with an attack
from the British fleet, and Fulton was called on by a committee of
citizens to furnish a plan for a means of defending the harbor. He
exhibited to the committee his plans for a vessel of war to be propelled
by steam, capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for
red-hot shot, and which, he represented, would move at the rate of four
miles an hour. These plans were also submitted to a number of naval
officials, among whom were Commodore Decatur, Captain Jones, Captain
Evans, Captain Biddle, Commodore Perry, Captain Warrington, and Captain
Lewis, all of whom warmly united in urging the Government to undertake
the construction of the proposed steamer. The citizens of New York
offered, if the Government would employ and pay for her after she was
built, to advance the sum ($320,000) necessary for her construction. The
subject was vigorously pressed, and in March, 1814, Congress authorized
the building of one or more floating batteries after the plan presented
by Fulton. Her keel was laid on the 20th of June, 1814, and on the 31st
of October, of the same year, she was launched, amid great rejoicings,
from the ship-yard of Adam and Noah Brown. In May, 1815, her engines
were put on board, and on the 4th of July of that year she made a trial
trip to Sandy Hook and back, accomplishing the round trip--a distance of
fifty-three miles--in eight hours and twenty minutes, under steam alone.
Before this, however, peace had been proclaimed, and Fulton had gone to
rest from his labors.
The ship was a complete success, and was the first steam vessel of war
ever built. She was called the "Fulton the First," and was for many
years used as the receiving ship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was an
awkward and unwieldy mass, but was regarded as the most formidable
vessel afloat; and as the pioneer of the splendid war steamers of to-day
is still an object of great interest. The English regarded her with
especial uneasiness, and put in circulation the most marvelous stories
concerning her. One of these I take from a treatise on steam navigation
published in Scotland at this period, the author of which assures his
readers that he has taken the utmost pains to obtain full and accurate
information respecting the American war steamer. His description is as
follows:
"Length on deck three hundred feet, breadth two hundred feet, thickness
of her sides, thirteen feet, of alternate oak plank and corkwood;
carries forty-four guns, four of which are 100-pounders, quarter-deck
and forcastle guns, 44-pounders; and further, to annoy an enemy
attempting to board, can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water
in a minute, and by mechanism brandishes three hundred cutlasses, with
the utmost regularity, over her gunwales; works also an equal number of
heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with
prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute!"
Fulton followed up the "Clermont," in 1807, with a larger boat, called
the "Car of Neptune," which was placed on the Albany route as soon as
completed. The Legislature of New York had enacted a law, immediately
upon his first success, giving to Livingston and himself the exclusive
right to navigate the waters of the State by steam, for five years for
every additional boat they should build in the State, provided the whole
term should not exceed thirty years. "In the following year the
Legislature passed another act, confirmatory of the prior grants, and
giving new remedies to the grantees for any invasion of them, and
subjecting to forfeiture any vessel propelled by steam which should
enter the waters of the State without their license. In 1809 Fulton
obtained his first patent from the United States; and in 1811 he took
out a second patent for some improvement in his boats and machinery. His
patents were limited to the simple means of adapting paddle wheels to
the axle of the crank of Watt's engine.
"Meanwhile the power of the Legislature to grant the steamboat monopoly
was denied, and a company was formed at Albany to establish another line
of steam passage boats on the Hudson, between that city and New York.
The State grantees filed a bill in equity, and prayed for an injunction,
which was refused by Chancellor Lansing, on the ground that the act of
the State Legislature was repugnant to the Constitution of the United
States, and against common right. This decree was unanimously reversed
by the Court of Errors, and a compromise was effected with the Albany
company by an assignment to them of the right to employ steam on the
waters of Lake Champlain.
"Legislative aid was again invoked, and an act was passed directing
peremptorily the allowance of an injunction on the prayer of the State
grantees, and the seizure of any hostile boat at the commencement of the
suit. Litigation was thus effectually arrested in New York, though by an
arbitrary and unconstitutional enactment, and the waters of the State
remained in the exclusive possession of Fulton and his partner during
the lifetime of the former. A similar controversy with Colonel Aaron
Ogden, of New Jersey, was compromised by advantageous concessions, which
converted the opponent of the monopoly into its firmest friend, and left
him many years afterward the defeated party in the famous suit of
Gibbons and Ogden, in the Supreme Court of the United States."
In January, 1815, Fulton was summoned to Trenton, New Jersey, as a
witness in one of the numerous suits which grew out of the efforts to
break down his monopoly. During his examination he was very much
exposed, as the hall of the Legislature was uncommonly cold. In
returning home, he crossed the Hudson in an open boat, and was detained
on the river several hours. This severe exposure brought on an attack of
sickness, which for a short time confined him to his bed. The steam
frigate, then almost ready for her engines, occasioned him great anxiety
at the time, and before he had fairly recovered his strength he went to
the ship-yard to give some directions to the workmen employed on her,
and thus exposed himself again to the inclemency of the weather. In a
few days his indisposition prostrated him again, and, growing rapidly
worse, he died on the 24th of February, 1815, at the age of fifty
years. His death was universally regarded as a national calamity, and
appropriate honors were paid to his memory by the General Government and
by many of the State and municipal governments of the Union. He was
buried from his residence, No. 1 State Street, on the 25th of February,
and his body was placed in the vault of the Livingston family, in
Trinity church-yard.
He left a widow and four children. By the terms of his will he
bequeathed to his wife an income of nine thousand dollars a year, and
five hundred dollars to each of his children until they were twelve
years old, after which they were each to receive one thousand dollars a
year until they should attain the age of twenty-one years.
In person, Fulton was tall and handsome. His manner was polished,
cordial, and winning. He made friends rapidly, and never failed in his
efforts to enlist capital and influence in support of his schemes. He
was manly, fearless, and independent in character, and joined to a
perfect integrity a patience and indomitable resolution which enabled
him to bear up under every disappointment, and which won him in the end
a glorious success. His name and fame will always be dear to his
countrymen, for while we can not claim that he was (nor did he ever
assume to be) the inventor of steam navigation, or even the inventor of
the means of such navigation, we do claim for him the honor of being the
first man to cross the gulf which lies between experiment and
achievement, the man whose skill and perseverance first conquered the
difficulties which had baffled so many others, and made steam navigation
both practicable and profitable. The Committee of the London Exhibition
of 1851 gave utterance in their report to a declaration which places his
fame beyond assault, as follows:
"Many persons, in various countries, claim the honor of having first
invented small boats propelled by steam, but it is to the undaunted
perseverance and exertions of the American Fulton that is due the
everlasting honor of having produced this revolution, both in naval
architecture and navigation."