FULTON
FULTON
when he established the Centennial Baptist
church, Brooklyn, and became editor of The
Watch Toicer. He resigned the latter pastorate
in 1887 to engage in work for Romanists. As a
lecturer he traversed Europe and Great Britain
and America, and delivered in the Patriotic
coui'ses in Boston 190 lectures between the years
1887 and 1898. The degree of D.D. was conferred
upon him by the University of Rochester in 1870.
He is the author of the following books: The
Eoman Catholic Element in American History
tl8o9); Life of Timothy Gilbert (1804): Woman as
God Made Her (1867): The Way Out (1870); Sam
Hobart, Railroad Engineer (1873) ; Show Toitr
Colors (1881); Borne in America (1884); Why
Friests Should Wed (1887); Spurgeon Our Ally
(1893); How to Win Romanists (1893); The Fiijht
With Rome; and Washington in the Lap of Rome
(1894) ; besides many pamphlets. He died in
Somerville, Mass., April 16, 1901.
FULTON, Robert, engineer, was born in Little Britain. Lancaster count}', Pa., in 1765: the son of an Iiish emigrant who came from Kilkenny and settled in Lancaster county, Pa., about 1730. When thirteen years old Robert made toy boats propelled by paddle wheels and afterward became a painter of miniature portraits and land- scapes in Philadel- pliia where he re- sided, 1782-85. lie went to London in 1786 with a letter of introduction to Ben- jamin West, and studied art with him, residing with his family in London for several years. He then made an itiner- ary through the larger estates of Devonshire, England, where his letters of introduction from West procured for him the patronage of the nobility, who employed him in pamting miniature portraits and landscapes. While tlius engaged he made the acquaintance of the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Stanhope, who were interested in the subjects of internal water communication by means of canals, of printing, and of general mechanics and engi- neering. Fulton had many original ideas on these subjects and thus he gained their confi- dence and was advised by them to study civil engineering, which he did. In 1793 he actively engaged as a civil engineer and in 1794 devised a double inclined plane for raising and lowering boats from different levels in the canal, which he patented. In 1794 he also patented an aji- pliance for sawing marble and in 1796 he planned
cast-iron aqueducts used subsequently in carry-
ing water across the river Dee. Bridges were
also built upon his plans. During his residence
in Birmingham he proposed to the Earl of Stan-
hope the use of paddle wheels in applying steam
to the jiropulsion of vessels in 1793, and assisted
James Watt in constructing steam engines. In
1794 he became an inmate of the family of Joel
Barlow, author of " Columbiad, " wlio had gone to
Paris to escape the displeasure of the British
government. While there Fulton painted a pan-
orama, the first exhibited in Paris. In 1797 he
made experiments in the river Seine with a sub-
marine torpedo boat and in 1801 continued his
experiments off the French coast at Brest under
patronage of the government. His efforts to
blow up passing English ships proved abortive
and the French government became disinter-
ested ; but through the offices of Lord Stanhope,
Fulton was permitted to continue his experi-
ments in England and he went to London in
May, 1804. His submarine boat was pronounced
to be impracticable by a board of British experts,
but his torpedo was given a new trial against
the French fleet at Boulogne, where it proved
harmless. In October, 1805, however, with an
improved torpedo, he destroyed a brig of 200 tons
provided by the British government for the pur-
pose. Wher. the government exacted a condition
that the invention should be communicated to
no other nation. Fulton refused to comply and as
he had already arranged with Robert R. Living-
ston to go to the United States and build a
steamboat, he sailed in 1S0.5. Wlule in Paris in
1801 he liad made the acquaintance of Livingston.
U.S. ambassador to France and a friend of Joel
Barlow with whom Fulton was then stopping.
Barlow had in his possession certain plans and
specifications left in his cai-e by John Fitcli who
had gone to England in the interest of steam
navigation, having failed to obtain aid from the
Fi'ench government. Livingston became inter-
ested in the subject and Fulton narrated to him
the plans of Earl Stanhope which had been dis-
cussed in 1793, when he proposed to the earl the
substitution of a paddle wheel for his contem-
plated paddle after the design of a duck's web-
foot. Under the patronage of Livingston, Fulton
made experiments at Plombiers in 1802. In 1803
he made a working model of his boat whicli he
deposited with a commission of French savants,
and in the meantime built a boat sixty feet in
length and eight feet in breadtli, sujjplied with a
steam engine and propelled by a paddle wheel in
the stern, wliich was moderately successful on
its trial. Livingston then determined to transfer
the future experiments to the Hudson river at
New York. John Stevens of Hoboken, N.J., lia<l
begun to make experuuents in applying steam to
