Biography of Robert Fulton, Inventor of the Steamboat

On September 4, 1807, Robert Fulton began operating his steamboat between New York and Albany. An excerpt from the article:

"Designing the Steamboat
In 1801, Fulton met then-U.S. ambassador to France Robert R. Livingston, a member of the committee that had drafted the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Before Livingston had come to France, his home state of New York had granted him the exclusive right to operate and profit from steamboat navigation on rivers within the state for a period of 20 years. Fulton and Livingston agreed to partner up in order to build a steamboat.

On August 9, 1803, the 66-foot-long boat that Fulton designed was tested on the River Seine in Paris. Although the French-designed eight-horsepower steam engine broke the hull, Fulton and Livingston were encouraged that the boat had reached a speed of 4 miles per hour against the current. Fulton started designing a stronger hull and ordered parts for a 24-horsepower engine. Livingston also negotiated an extension of his New York steamboat navigation monopoly.

In 1804, Fulton returned to London, where he tried to interest the British government on his design for a semi-submersible, steam-powered warship. However, after British Admiral Nelson’s decisive defeat of the French fleet at Trafalgar in 1805, the British government decided it could maintain its then undisputed mastery of the seas without Fulton’s unconventional and unproven steamships. At this point, Fulton was close to poverty, having spent so much of his own money on the Nautilus and his early steamboats. He decided to return to the United States.

The Steamboat Clermont
In December 1806, Fulton and Robert Livingston reunited in New York to resume work on their steamboat. By early August 1807, the boat was ready for its maiden voyage. The 142-foot-long, 18-foot-wide steamboat used Fulton’s innovative a one-cylinder, 19-horsepower condensing steam engine to drive two 15-foot-diameter paddlewheels, one on each side of the boat.

On August 17, 1807, Fulton and Livingston’s North River Steamboat—later known as the Clermont—began its trial voyage up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany. A crowd gathered to watch the event, but the onlookers expected the steamboat to fail. They jeered at the ship, which they called "Fulton's Folly." The ship stalled at first, leaving Fulton and his crew scrambling for a solution. A half-hour later, the steamboat's paddlewheels were turning again, moving the ship steadily forward against the Hudson’s current. Averaging nearly 5 miles per hour, the steamboat completed the 150-mile trip in just 32 hours, compared to the four days required by conventional sailing ships. The downstream return trip was completed in just 30 hours.

In a letter to a friend, Fulton wrote of the historic event, “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 steam engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners, beating to the windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor. The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved.”

With the addition of additional sleeping berths and other improvements, Fulton’s North River Steamboat began scheduled service on September 4, 1807, carrying passengers and light freight between New York and Albany on the Hudson River. During its initial season of service, the North River Steamboat suffered repeated mechanical problems, caused mainly by the captains of rival sail-powered boats who "accidentally” rammed its exposed paddlewheels."