robert fulton

     

Matthew Perry commanded an early steam warship that was named for this inventor

Trivia about robert fulton

  • He called his steamboat launched August 17, 1807 "The Steamboat", not "The Clermont"
  • Before designing the first successful steamboat, he worked as a portrait painter
  • Several U.S. cities & counties are named for this builder of the first successful steamboat
  • Erroneously called the "Clermont", his ship is also often erroneously called the 1st steamboat
  • His company's monopoly of steamship navigation on the Hudson River was broken by an 1824 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court
  • He experimented with submarines before building the first commercially successful steamboat
  • "The Father of the Steamboat"
  • In 1807 he wrote, "The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved"
  • He designed & constructed the Demologus, the first steam-powered warship; it was launched in 1814
  • In 1802 this U.S. inventor launched a steam-driven paddle-wheel boat on the Seine
  • After steamboat success, he was urged to work on submarine-launched torpedoes by Pres. Jefferson
  • In 1800, this inventor let off some steam building a copper-covered sub called the Nautilus