Robert Fulton was born on a farm in Little Britain, Pennsylvania, in November 1765. Fulton had three sisters, and a younger brother. For 6 years, he lived in Philadelphia, where he painted portraits and landscapes and drew houses and machinery. Through his art, Fulton was able to send money home to support his mother. After his father died in 1785, Fulton bought a farm near Pittsburgh and moved his mother and family into the farm.
In early 1786, Fulton developed symptoms of tuberculosis and was advised to take an ocean voyage. He traveled to Europe, and began to experiment with mechanical inventions, while continuing to paint portraits and landscapes to support himself. In 1793, Fulton developed ideas for canals with inclined planes instead of locks and obtained a patent for his system in 1794. At the same time, he began working on ideas for the steam power of boats and patented a dredging machine.
As early as 1793, Fulton proposed plans for steam-powered vessels to both the United States and British governments. Steamships had already been developed, and Fulton was probably aware of Claude de Jouffroy’s Palmipède, the engine of which moved oars, and Pyroscaphe, the first paddle steamer; John Fitch’s American steamboat, which had a successful trial on the Delaware River in 1787; and William Symington’s successful trials with steamboats in 1788.
In Britain, Fulton met the Duke of Bridgewater, Francis Egerton, who had Britain’s first canal. The canal was being used for trails of a steam tug. Working for the Duke, Fulton had a boat constructed in the timber yard, and the boat was christened Bonaparte in honor of Fulton having served under Napoleon. After expensive trials, Fulton’s team feared the paddles might damage the clay lining of the canal, and the experiment was abandoned.
In 1797, Fulton went to Paris, where he was well known as an inventor. Fulton studied French, German, mathematics, and chemistry. While living in France, he designed the first working muscle-powered submarine, the Nautilus, and experimented with torpedoes. When tested, Fulton’s submarine operated underwater for 17 minutes in 25 feet of water. After being turned down twice by the French government to subsidize the submarine’s construction, he approached the Minister of Marine and was granted permission to build in 1800. The Nautilus first sailed in July 1800 on the Seine River.
In France, Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, who was appointed U.S. Ambassador to France in 1801. Livingston had a scientifically curious mind, and the two men collaborated on building a steamboat and trying to operate it on the Seine. Fulton experimented with the water resistance of various hull shapes, made drawings and models, and had a steamboat constructed. On the first trial, the boat ran perfectly, but the hull was later rebuilt and strengthened. The boat was 66 feet long, with an 8-foot beam, and made between 2.5 and 3.5 knots against the current.
In 1804, Fulton switched allegiance and moved to Britain. He was commissioned by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger to build a range of weapons for use by the Royal Navy during Napoleon’s invasion scares. Among Fulton’s inventions were the world’s first modern royal naval torpedoes (modern “mines”). Fulton continued to develop his inventions with the British until 1806, but Britain’s naval victory in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar greatly reduced the risk of French invasion, and Fulton was increasingly sidelined.
Fulton returned to the United States in 1806, and built the first commercially successful steamboat, North River Steamboat, in 1807 with Robert Livingston. Livingston’s shipping company began using the steamboat to carry passengers from New York City up the Hudson River to Albany. The steamboat made the 150-nautical-mile trip in 32 hours.
North River Steamboat, later called The Clermont, was the first successful steamboat in America. It had sails at each end, as well as a 24-horsepower steam engine at the center of the boat surrounded by cord wood. On each side was a big paddle wheel with a diameter of 15 feet. Fulton received two patents for his steamboat, in 1809 and 1811.
Fulton’s final design was the floating battery Demologos, the first steam-driven warship in the world built for the U.S. Navy for the War of 1812. The heavy vessel was not completed until after Fulton’s death and was named in his honor.
From October 1811 to January 1812, Fulton, Livingston, and Nicholas Roosevelt world together on a joint project to build a new steamboat, New Orleans, sturdy enough to take down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Less than a decade after the United States had acquired the Louisiana Territory, the New Orleans traveled from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, with stops at Wheeling, West Virginia; Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Cairo, Illinois; Memphis, Tennessee; and Natchez, Mississippi. At the time, the rivers were not well settled, mapped, or protected, so achieving the first breakthrough voyage and proving the ability of the steamboat to travel upstream against powerful river currents changed the entire trade and transportation outlook for the American heartland.
In 1808, Fulton married Livingston’s niece, Harriet, and together Robert and Harriet had four children.
In 1815, Fulton was walking home on the frozen Hudson River, when one of his friends fell through the ice. In rescuing his friend, Fulton got soaked with icy water and contracted pneumonia. He died at 49 years old in New York City and was buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery at Wall Street in New York City. Fulton’s descendants include Cory Lidle, a former pitcher for the New York Mets.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania donated a marble statue of Fulton to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol. Five ships of the U.S. Navy have borne the name USS Fulton. Fulton Hall at the United States Merchant Marine Academy houses the Department of Marine Engineering, and included laboratories for diesel and steam engineering, among other disciplines. A bronze statue of Fulton represents commerce on the balustrade of the galleries of the Main Reeding Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill. In 2006, Fulton was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.