Robert Fulton (14 November 1765 - 24 February 1815) was an engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat commercially. In 1800 he was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to design the Nautilus, the first practical submarine in history.
Fulton has been interested in steamboats in 1777 when he visited William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who earlier learned about James Watt steam machine on a visit to England. Henry then made his own engine and in 1767 he had tried to put the engine into the boat. The experiment failed because the ship sank, but interest continues.
In 1786, Fulton went to study painting in Paris, where he met James Rumsey, who sat for a portrait at the studio of Benjamin West where Fulton was a student. Rumsey was an inventor from Virginia who manages his own first steamboat in Shepherdstown (now in West Virginia) in 1786. In early 1793, the Fulton proposed plans for steam-powered ship both United States and British governments, and in England he met the Duke of Bridgewater, whose canal is used for trials of a steam tug, and were then ordered steam tugs from William Symington. Symington had successfully tried steamboats in 1788, and it seems likely that the Fulton aware of this development.
The first successful trial run of a steamboat was created by inventor John Fitch on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. It is driven by the banks on both sides of the boat paddle. The next year Fitch launched a 60-foot (18 m) boat is powered by a steam engine to drive a paddle mounted aft. The rowing scull in a manner similar to the movement of the foot duck pond. With this boat he was carrying thirty passengers on a variety of round-trip travel between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey.
Fitch was granted a patent on August 26, 1791, after a battle with Rumsey, who had created a similar discovery. Unfortunately the newly created Patent Commission did not award the broad monopoly patent that Fitch has been requested, but the modern type of patent, for a new design Fitch steamboat. It also granted a patent for Rumsey and John Stevens to design their boats, and the loss of monopoly caused many investors to leave the company Fitch. While the boat mechanically successful, Fitch does not pay sufficient attention to construction and operating costs and can not justify the economic benefits of steam navigation. It was Fulton who will turn profitable ideas Fitch decades later.
In 1797, Fulton went to France, where Claude de Jouffroy had made a working paddle steamer in 1783, and began experimenting with submarine torpedoes and torpedo boats. Fulton was the first inventor of the panorama will be displayed in Paris, which was completed in 1800. The way in which the panorama was shown still called "'Rue des Panorames'" (Panorama Street) now.
Fulton designed the first working submarine, Nautilus between 1793 and 1797, while living in France. He asked the government to subsidize its construction but he turned it down twice. Finally, he approached the Minister of Marine himself and in 1800 was given permission to build.
Fulton presents his steamship to Bonaparte in 1803
In France Fulton also met with Chancellor Robert R. Livingston who was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to France in 1801, and they decided to build a boat together and try to run on the Seine. Fulton experimented with the water resistance of the hull shapes, made drawings and models, and have built steamers. In the first trial the boat ran perfectly, but the hull was rebuilt and reinforced, and on August 9, 1803, this boat steamed up the River Seine. The boat was 66 feet (20.1 m) long, 8 feet (2.4 m) beam, and made between 3 and 4 miles per hour (4.8 and 6.4 km / h) against the current.
In 1806, Chancellor married Harriet Livingston Fulton's nephew (who is the daughter of Walter Livingston), and they later had four children: Robert, Julia, Mary and Cornelia.
In 1807, Fulton and Livingston together to build the first commercial ship, the North River Steamboat (later known as the Clermont), which carry passengers between New York City and Albany, New York. That Clermont was able to make about 300 miles round trip in 62 hours. From 1811 until his death, Fulton was a member of the Erie Canal Commission.
Fulton died in 1815. He was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City, along with famous Americans such as Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin.
Source: wikipedia
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