While Robert Fulton was still abroad, John Fitch and Oliver Evans were pursuing a similar course of experiment, as were his contemporaries on the other side the Atlantic, and with more success. Fitch had made a number of fairly successful ventures, and had shown beyond question that the project of applying steam to ship propulsion was a promising one; and he had only failed through lack of financial backing, and inability to appreciate the amount of power that must be employed to give his boats any considerable speed. Evans had made his "Oruktor Amphibolis," - a flat-bottomed vessel which he built at his works in Philadelphia, and impelled by its own engines, on wheels, to the bank of the Schuylkill, and then afloat, down the stream to its berth, by paddle-wheels driven by the same engines. Other inventors were working on both sides the ocean with apparently good reason to hope for success, and the times evidently were ripe for the man who should best combine all the requirements in a single experiment. The man to do this was Fulton.

Immediately on his arrival, in the winter of 1806-7, Fulton started on his boat, selecting Charles Brown as the builder, a well known ship-builder of that time, and the builder of many of Fulton's later steam-vessels. The hull of this steamer, which was the first to establish a regular route and regular transportation of passengers and merchandise in America, - Fulton's first boat in his native country, - was 133 feet long, 18 feet beam, and 7 feet depth of hold. The engine was of 24 inches diameter of cylinder, 4 feet stroke of piston; and its boiler was 20 feet long, 7 feet high, and 8 feet wide. The tonnage was computed at 160. After its first season, its operation having satisfied all concerned of the promise of the venture, its hull was lengthened to 140 feet, and widened to 16.5 feet, thus being completely rebuilt; while its engines were altered in a number of details, Fulton furnishing the drawings for the alterations. Two more boats, the "Raritan" and the "Car of Neptune" were added to form the fleet of 1807, and steam navigation was at last fairly begun in America, some years in advance of its establishment in Europe. The Legislature were so much impressed with this result that they promptly extended the monopoly previously given Fulton and Livingston, adding five years for every boat to be built and set in operation, up to a maximum not to exceed a total of thirty years.

The "Clermont," as Robert Fulton called this first boat, was begun in the winter of 1806-7, and launched in the spring; the machinery was at once put on board, and in August, 1807, the craft was ready for the trial trip. The boat was promptly started on her proposed trip to Albany and made the run with perfect success. Fulton's own account is as follows:

"Sir, - I arrived this afternoon at four o'clock, in the steamboat from Albany. As the success of my experiment gives me great hopes that such boats may be rendered of great importance to my country, to prevent erroneous opinions and give some satisfaction to my friends of useful improvements you will have the goodness to publish the following statement of facts:

I left New York on Monday at one o'clock, and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Livingston, at one o'clock on Tuesday time, twenty-four hours; distance, one hundred and ten miles. On Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor's at nine in the morning, and arrived at Albany at five in the afternoon: distance, forty miles; time, eight hours. The sum is one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two hours, - equal to near five miles an hour.

On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at six in the evening. I started from thence at seven, and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon: time, thirty hours; space run through, one hundred and fifty miles, equal to five miles an hour. Throughout my whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead. No advantage could be derived from my sails. The whole has therefore been performed by the power of the steamengines.

I am, Sir your obedient servant - Robert Fulton"

"My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has turned out rather more favorably than I had calculated. The distance from New York to Albany is one hundred and fifty miles. I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty. I had a light breeze against me the whole way, both going and coming, and the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the steamengines. I overtook many sloops and schooners beating to windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor."

"The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York, there were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat would ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility; and while we were putting off from the wharf; which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way in which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers and projectors. "Having employed much time, money, and zeal in accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure to see it answer my expectations. It will give a cheap and quick conveyance to the merchandise on the Mississippi, Missouri, and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treasures to the enterprise of our countrymen; and, although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantage my country will derive from the invention," etc.

"She was very unlike any of her successors, and very dissimilar from the shape in which she appeared a few months afterward. With a model resembling a Long Island skiff, she was decked for a short distance at stem and stern. The engine was open to view, and from the engine aft a house like that of a canal boat was raised to cover the boiler and the apartment for the officers. There were no wheel guards. The rudder was of the shape used in sailing vessels, and moved by a tiller. The boiler was of the form then used in Watt's engines, and was set in masonry. The condenser was of the size used habitually in land engines, and stood, as was the practice in them, in a large cold water cistern. The weight of the masonry and the great capacity of the cold water cistern diminished very materially the buoyancy of the vessel. The rudder had so little power that she could hardly be managed. The skippers of the river craft, who at once saw that their business was doomed, took advantage of the unwieldiness of the vessel to run foul of her as soon as they thought they had the law on their side. Thus, in several instances, the steamer reached one or the other termini of the route with but a single wheel."

Above Work Selected Extracts From:
"Robert Fulton - His Life and Its Results"
Robert H. Thurston
Dodd, Mead, and Company Publishers
New York
1891

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American inventor and engineer, who brought steamboating to commercial success.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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