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| When
When Robert Fulton was a boy, riverboats often carried goods
from place to place. Some riverboats had sails and depended
on the wind to push them through the water. Others were pulled
by teams of horses that followed paths along the riverbanks.
One of Fulton's dreams was to build a riverboat that would be
powered not by wind or horses but by a machine. In the year
Fulton was born, an inventor named James Watt developed an
improved steam
engine. Many years later Fulton would use the steam engine
to build the first successful steamboat. |
Steam
engine |
| Fulton
grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. By the time he
was a teenager, he had become a good artist. His specialty
was painting miniatures, or very small portraits of people.
In 1782 Fulton moved to Philadelphia, where he became a full-time
artist. There he met and became friends with Benjamin
Franklin. Franklin was impressed by the portrait that
Fulton painted of him. He told Fulton that if he wanted to
become an even better artist, he should move to Britain to study
art. |
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| Fulton
took Franklin's advice. At the age of 30, Fulton was still living in
Britain, but he was not able to support himself as an artist. He
decided to give up painting and become an engineer. One of Fulton's
first designs was for a mill that cut stone. He also built a machine
that could make rope. |
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| In
1794 Fulton began working on better designs for canals, or
human-made waterways. In 1796 he published his book
Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, which
presented designs for small canals, boats, and bridges. He
wrote a letter to United States President George
Washington about the benefits of canals in the United
States. This letter led to the building of a canal between
Philadelphia and Lake Erie. Designed by De Witt Clinton, it became known as the Erie
Canal. |
Erie
Canal |
| In
1802 Fulton met Robert R. Livingston, a United States diplomat
to the French government. By this time Fulton had become interested
in steamboats. Livingston supported Fulton's idea to build
a steamboat in the United States. In 1807 Fulton's first steamboat,
the Clermont, sailed
up the Hudson River at the amazing speed of 5 miles per hour. Many
people had tried to build a working steamboat, but Fulton
was the first to succeed. Soon steamboats became a common
sight on American waterways. |
Clermont |
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