![]() ![]() ![]() He invented a machine for making rope and one for spinning flax. Other mechanical problems challenged him. He designed new types of canal boats, and a system of inclined planes to replace canal locks. Fulton's first enthusiasm was for canal development. Fulton ventured into London society after he painted Benjamin Franklin's portrait. His career would take him to Europe - and into the orbit of people with the power to back him politically and financially. As a young man, he set out to make his name as a portrait painter. After 1793, he gave his full attention to this field, and painted only for amusement. But he became increasingly interested in scientific and engineering developments. In London, Fulton made a moderate living as an artist. At age 21, Fulton went to England to study with the fashionable American artist Benjamin West. He soon saved enough money to buy a farm for his mother. In Philadelphia, he began to win fame as a painter of miniatures and portraits. Fulton went to Philadelphia at the age of 17, and was apprenticed to a jeweler.Īrtist. He also built a rifle that had sight and bore of original design. Fulton developed a hand-operated paddle wheel for use on a rowboat. He turned out lead pencils, household utensils for his mother, and skyrockets for a town celebration. He spent his boyhood in Lancaster, and showed inventive talent at an early age. 14, 1765, Fulton was born on a farm near Little Britain in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In addition to his work with steamboats, Fulton was an inventor, mechanical and civil engineer, and artist who made many important contributions to the development of naval warfare, the submarine, the technology of mine warfare, the design and construction of the first steam-powered warship, and to canal transportation.Įarly years. Fulton, Robert (1765-1815) is best known for designing and building the first commercially successful steamboat, the Clermont which ushered in a new era in the history of transportation. ![]()
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