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CHAPTER 2
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 Robert Fulton |
Nor was Fulton the first to suggest the introduction of steam-power to ship propulsion. Such suggestions had come down through the early centuries and Denis Papin had actually built a steamboat a century before Fulton. Fitch, too, had earlier designed and built a steamboat in America, as well as Morey and Rumsey, Ormsbee and Stevens.
Upon what solid ground does the fame of Fulton rest?
Looking back upon those confused times when steam was beginning to be understood, we find long periods elapsing when little progress seemed to be made, and a record of pertinent facts, now available, was then unknown to the pioneers. Fulton, perhaps, was better equipped with knowledge of the art and progress than any of the others. Fulton was fortunate, too, in the time when he built his Clermont, the creation upon which his fame rests. The world was beginning to realize its need for steamboats. Fulton's craft is outstanding among the early attempts, as a reliable ship, making 130 miles on its first trip, and repeating the performance regularly.
Previous experimentation, based upon vision, was largely imaginative, and the clearest thinking was aborted by inability to express in manufacture, for the steamboat waited upon skilled mechanics. Fulton was aided in his plans by machining knowledge which was not available to those who had gone before. Fulton's place in history is secure because he was equipped with knowledge of the art, because he lived at a fortunate time when the world was beginning to understand its need of transportation, and because there was available to Fulton a growing number of mechanics to interpret his plans.
In giving credit to Fulton we do not deny recognition to Papin, who first put his steamboat vision into practice, or to John Fitch, or Rumsey, Morey, or to Miller, Taylor and Symmington in England; nor can we fail to credit Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken, who built steamboats before Fulton, and who was, perhaps, the best trained engineer to give his life to steam. Colonel Stevens' gifts to steam-boating were of more practical importance than the earlier inventions of all others, and of those of his own time.
Fulton cannot be dismissed as being one of a number of experimenters in this field, for his accomplishment is outstanding and the shake-down of years has made his place in history secure.
Fulton was born in Little Britain, Pennsylvania, November 14, 1765. In 1783 he was engaged in painting portraits, and in 1786 sailed for England to study under Benjamin West. He turned to engineering in 1794 and was engaged by the Duke of Bridgewater in canal projects, including a system of inclined planes in the place of canal locks. In 1796 Fulton went to France, at the invitation of Joel Bariow, an American merchant living in Paris.
For seven years Fulton devoted his attention to submarine designs, and other destructive devices of war, his experiments being made first for the French Government, and later for Great Britain. In 1803 Fulton turned to the steamboat, building an experimental craft in association with Barlow and Chancellor Livingston. The boat was 86 feet length, 8 feet beam, but the hull was too light to bear the weight of the machinery, and before completion the boat literally broke in two and sank at its moorings.
The wreck was recovered from the Seine and rebuilt, and in August, 1803, a trial trip was made in the presence of invited guests, and the experiment was sufficiently encouraging to induce Fulton and Livingston to order an engine from Boulton & Watt, directing it to be sent to America, where Livingston returned, and in 1806 Fulton followed, arriving in December.
Work was begun that fall upon a hull by Charles Brownne, an East River shipbuilder, in New York, and in August, 1807, Clermont was launched, being 130 feet length, 16 feet beam, and 7 feet depth of hull. The engine had a cylinder 24 inches in diameter and 4 feet length of stroke, with paddle-wheels 15 feet in diameter. The boiler was of low-pressure type, 20 feet long, 7 feet deep and 8 feet broad, whose great weight and masonry setting affected the flotation of the vessel.
 The Clermont A reproduction |
The first trip of Clermont to Albany was made in thirty-two hours and the return trip down the Hudson in thirty hours. The sails with which the boat was equipped were not used. This was the first voyage of considerable length to be made by a steamboat, if we except Morey's claim, and immediately afterward Clermont began regular trips.
The hull design of Clermont followed sailing-ship practice and the rudder was found to be too small to permit the ship to be handled quickly. It became the prey of other river craft, whose practice it was to collide with it as often as possible and to do as much damage as the law would wink at. This led to the rebuilding of Clermont, when it was lengthened to 150 feet and the interior rearranged. Clermont went into service the next year as North River.
Subsequently Fulton designed larger boats to ply the waters of New York State and Connecticut. Demologos or Fulton the First, built in 1814-15, was 2,475 tons, the first steam naval ship, being built for the United States Navy and carrying, for the times, a formidable battery.
Fulton and Livingston early recognized the importance of Hudson River and Long Island Sound opportunities. They saw, too, the very great opportunities that were open in navigation of the western rivers and lakes. In 1810 Nicholas J. Roosevelt, with Fulton and Livingston, organized a shipyard at Pittsburgh, and built an experimental boat, the first steamboat ever floated upon the western rivers. It was equipped with a stern wheel and carried two masts, as Fulton believed that sail-power could not be dispensed with.
This boat was named New Orleans and was 116 feet length, 20 feet beam, and the engine had a cylinder 34 inches diameter. The cost was $38,000. New Orleans started upon its first voyage in September, 1811. She had an exciting trip, but reached her destination safely, and afterward operated regularly between New Orleans and Natchez.
That Fulton realized the importance of the great river waterways and the part they were to play in the upbuilding of the Middle West is equally creditable with his part in the invention of the steamboat itself. In 1816, when a splendid service had been inaugurated, the fleet of passenger and freight steamboats on the Mississippi River and its tributaries totaled 326,443 tons, supplying economical and fast transportation, and a service which was very largely responsible for the opening of great new territories.
Robert Fulton died in February, 1815, the result of exposure, and his death was mourned as a national calamity.
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