Fulton

“ With the lapse of time facts assume naturally their true perspective. Fulton, instead of being represented, according to the English point of view, as a charlatan and even as a traitor, or from the Americans as a universal genius, is cleared from these charges, and his pretensions critically examined, with the result that he appears as a cosmopolitan, an earnest student, a painstaking experimenter and an enterprising engineer. ”

“ True it was that he possessed unusual genius. We know that every one cannot be a Fulton, yet how few there are who would have exercised the stick-to-it-ive-ness that he was obliged to do before success came. How few would have passed through the trials and withstood the sneers that Robert Fulton passed through. On the 24th of February, 1815, he died, when the honor of first crossing the ocean by steam power was being contemplated by him, but his fame was established, and need naught to enhance it. ”

“ He rose and moved quickly toward the door, as though to escape from Fulton’s renewed thanks for his kind offices in disposing of the verses.
“Don’t work yourself to death,” he warned Fulton in the hall. “I’m glad Marian’s influence is so beneficent. When your proof comes, hold it a day or two: there’s always the chance of bettering a thing.”
[169]
IX
As September waned, Fulton heard disquieting news touching Redfield. It was whispered in business circles that the broker had, the previous year, sold stock in a local industrial venture that had already come to grief. ”

“ If we had time to trace all the events in Fulton’s life during these busy years, they would tell us that the way to fame is by slow plodding. When we read about great men we ought to remember that they did not rise like rockets from the darkness but by slow, patient effort climbed into the light of fame.
During the year 1797 Fulton was encouraged, by the acceptance of his plan to build a canal from Paris to Dieppe and Cambrai, to move from England to France. ”

“ I heard such expressions as "And the new mid-iron" ... "The jasmine will be in full bloom in a week." "As we were going to Black Jack" (this is the eighth hole at Aiken, where the holes are all so good that they are spoken of by name instead of by number) . "Mr. Mannering is the nicest person to ride with," etc., etc.
Then Fulton remembered my existence. "You'll not go without a drink!" he said.
Mrs. Fulton's eyes confirmed the invitation, so I chucked the reins over my pony's head to make him think that he was tied to a hitching-post, and went into the house with them. ”

“ The trial boat, of thirty tons’ burden, built by the Chancellor’s orders by an Englishman named Nesbit, near Tivoli on the Hudson, failed to run! When the Chancellor met Robert Fulton, this clean-cut, energetic young countryman who had built a much-talked-of submarine torpedo-boat recognized by Napoleon, he thought, “Here is the clever man whom I am seeking!” It is characteristic of great men to notice the mental worth of others and enlist it in their cause, whatever it may be. And Livingston quickly learned the rare capacity of Fulton. ”

“ It did not occur to Fulton till many years later to make boat-building his profession. Even as a boy he determined that he would be an artist. He spent four years in Philadelphia working and studying; there he succeeded so well that he went abroad. In England he was welcomed by Benjamin West, a popular American painter. Through his courtesy and kindness, his young countryman met many interesting English people, men of affairs and scientists as well as artists. ”

“ Chief Greenleaf and I are anxious to get some information about the Fulton family. As you know, we people here, being invalids, live pretty much to ourselves. We don't have the strength for much social life, and we don't know much about each other. What can you tell us?"
"Miss Fulton and Mrs. Withers are—were sisters," Morley responded. "Their father, William T. Fulton, is a real estate man in Washington. By the way, Mar—Miss Fulton expects him here this afternoon. She told me so yesterday. ”

“ He went out in his diving-boat and fastened a torpedo under a vessel, and when the torpedo exploded, the vessel, as he said, went up like a "bag of feathers," flying in all directions.
The English people paid Fulton seventy-five thousand dollars for showing them what he could do in this way. Then they offered to give him a great deal more—in fact, to make him a very rich man—if he would promise never to let any other country know just how he blew vessels up. But Fulton said, 'I am an American; and if America should ever want to use my diving-boat in war, she shall have it first of all.' ”

“ The thirteen-year-old boy was Robert Fulton, who became the inventor of steam navigation.
It is good to carry the story further in imagination. That group of boys who gathered in the town during the twilight of Independence Day, 1778, saw a few spluttering rockets shoot skyward from the hand of a lad determined to carry the good news of freedom to a higher horizon than that of the home windows of Lancaster. ”

“ And now Fulton began to build his submarine torpedo-boat and named it Nautilus, meaning a sea-shell. He wrote a letter to the French Directory and offered to submit his plan and explain his engine to Napoleon, whom he had heard was “a good engineer.”
The emperor was at the height of his power. With France and England at war, disturbed conditions prevailed throughout Europe and the unrest hindered all progress. Fulton offered to the French nation, through its governing body, his original weapon to secure their supremacy upon the seas throughout the world. ”

“ Before we take up the story of the submarine torpedo-boat work,—as difficult as that of his later invention of steam navigation,—let us recall another venture which Fulton made, along quite another line. Upon his arrival in Paris he had noticed the gayety and joyousness of the French and he decided to appeal to these happy people with a new form of amusement, a painted panorama.
[70]
It is only necessary to remind ourselves of the astounding popularity, in our day, of moving-pictures, to realize how fortunate Fulton was in his plan to amuse the people of Paris. ”

“ For some moments a deathly hush obtained, that was but intensified by the slow and stertorous breathing of the patient on the slab.
Dr. Fulton's expression was strained and passionately anxious. It formed a curious contrast to Sir Charles Venner's stolid immobility. The others watched him, not the patient. That is to say, all but Marion. She had slipped an arm about George Cavanagh, and she was tenderly supporting him, oblivious of everything else.
"Well?" asked Sir Charles at last.
I gasped with relief to hear his voice.
"Weaker; curse it!" replied Dr. Fulton. ”

“ Robert Fulton afterward became acquainted with Dr. Benjamin Franklin and learned much from the kind old inventor. When Fulton was a young man he went to London and studied painting with Benjamin West, the greatest American painter up to that time. He went also to France to study art. Meantime he kept on inventing things. The French were at war with many of the countries of Europe at that time. Fulton had always been interested in boats; and we have seen that he knew how to use gunpowder. He planned a new kind of boat, which he thought would help the French in their war. ”

“ Public appreciation failed to crown it with approval; but as an example of loyal and generous affection between friends it will always command interest.
We now come to an interesting turn in the tide of Fulton’s affairs. He had proved that the steamboat would run upon the waters of the Seine; he had entered into a partnership with Chancellor Livingston to go to New York to build a boat for traffic on the Hudson River between New York and Albany; but the agreement, you remember, included Fulton’s return to England to order a suitable engine. ”

“ As soon as he reached America in December, 1806, Fulton started work on his boat. He engaged Charles Brownne, a ship-builder on the East River, to lay down the hull. He decided to name the vessel the Clermont, the name of Chancellor Livingston’s country-place on the Hudson, where Fulton had been a guest. The engine duly arrived from Birmingham and was carried to the shipyard. As a number of loafers and hangers-on about the docks threatened injury to “Fulton’s Folly,” as the building boat was called, he had to engage watchmen to guard his property. ”

“ From that time, March 28th, 1801, to May, Fulton was busy with the novel enterprise. The Nautilus was overhauled and conveyed to Brest, mounted on a long cart drawn by horses. How the boys and girls of the villages through which the queer boat passed must have gazed and wondered! Finally it reached the dockyard at Brest, and after two months of fitting Fulton was ready to attempt an attack on the enemy. But again [81] the English seamen were too wary to be surprised. Fulton spent an anxious summer but could find no vessel within reach of possible attack. ”

“ N. of the present city of Fulton, a British force of about 300 under Captain John Bradstreet (1711–1774) defeated an attacking force of French and Indians (numbering about 700) under De Villiers. Soon after this, Bradstreet built a fort within the present limits of Fulton. The first civilian settler came in 1793, and the first survey (which included only a part of the subsequent village) was made in 1815. Fulton was incorporated as a village in 1835, and in April 1902 was combined with the village of Oswego Falls (pop. in 1900, 2925) and was chartered as a city. ”

“ Again Fulton wrote to Napoleon and to other great men describing the invention,—in fact, the emperor was to hear much of the American inventor from this time on.
No sooner was he settled in Mr. Barlow’s home than Fulton commenced the study of the French language, and later German and Italian. As his need arose, in the development of his inventions, he also studied higher mathematics, chemistry, [67] perspective drawing and physics. He was twenty-nine years of age at this time but was wise enough to know that “one is never too old to learn.” ”

“ Approval by the king was the highest honor England could bestow, and in time West was elected president of the Royal Academy. If young Fulton had profited by his personal intercourse with Dr. Franklin and other men of genius in America, we may readily believe that he gained even greater mental stimulus from West, who, like himself, was a Pennsylvania farm-bred boy. ”

“ Her power of keeping abreast of the times is felt in the Fulton poem, where she rounds out her eulogy of Fulton’s invention of the steamboat with a tribute to Peary. Only a few days before the news of our latest arctic triumph had flashed round the world, her world, whose business was her business as long as she lived in it; so into the fabric of the poem in honor of Fulton, she weaves an allusion to this new victory.
On her ninety-first birthday a reporter from a Boston paper asked her for a motto for the women of America. ”

“ Sir Charles Venner returned towards the house, and the two men met at the very angle of the path, within six feet of my nose. I hugged the tree-trunk, and waited, hardly daring to breathe.
"Could you strain a point, Venner, and operate to-morrow night?" asked Dr. Fulton in a pleading voice.
"No, old chap, I can't. You know my rule. I must give myself three days between each, for the sake of my nerve."
"Just for once!"
"Impossible, Fulton. I wonder that you ask me. I have myself to consider as well as the cause. We may succeed or we may not. ”

“ It is to be hoped that these literary productions brought some money to Fulton’s pocket, for he was so interested in his canal project that he had not touched his painting for two years. He was on a fearless quest for new methods to solve world-wide problems. He dared to be original. Many a man who dared less has failed to bring valuable aid to humanity.
And so Fulton changed his career from art to invention, a turn in the tide of his thought which brought much good to the world. But he retained his love for beauty and his hand never lost its cunning ”

“ Because of a monopoly of the Hudson, which the New York Legislature had granted to Livingston and Fulton, Stevens was compelled to send his ship to the Delaware. Hence the trip out into the waters of the Atlantic, a journey that was not undertaken without trepidation. But, despite the fact that a great storm arose, the Phoenix made the trip in safety; and continued for many years thereafter to ply the Delaware between Philadelphia and Trenton.
Robert Fulton, like many and many another great inventor, from Leonardo da Vinci down to the present time, was also an artist. ”

“ I'm to meet the Russian in New York shortly."
"Why the Russian? The Baron saw you first."
"The Russian had better manners," said Fulton simply. "I think he liked me, and I know I liked him!"
Fulton asked me to dinner, but I refused, and so it was nearly four days before I saw Lucy again. In the meanwhile Harry Colemain told me more about the Palm Beach trip. The ammunition inquiries had, it seemed, strengthened Fulton's nerves; there had been no repetition of the hysterics.
"A man," Harry said, "must be even more down and out than Fulton not to be braced by a prospect of good business. ”

“ Captain Fulton, whose indomitable energy had won the admiration of all in his duties as engineer, and whose kindness of manner had rendered him a general favourite, was struck by a cannon-ball which took his head completely off. Brigadier Inglis felt this loss sensitively, for Fulton had been to him an invaluable aid in all his trials and difficulties. Fulton, who was especially marked by his skill and promptness in countermining, had succeeded Major Anderson as chief-engineer, and was himself now succeeded by Captain Anderson. ”