Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-01-18
ROBERT FTL TON.

LII tile History Oh Ine C1ty OF New
York, y just published, Mr.. w. l.. Stone
disposes pretty etlectually of Fultons
claims to the invention of the steamboat.
He says:
Probably no person has received so
much praise, and deserved it so little, as
Robert Fulton. A man of no practical
ingenuity-of no power of conceiving,
much less of executin, an original me-
chanical idea-his friend Golden has
succeeded in persuading the public that
to him alone is due the successful navi
CATION of our rivers by steam. The
facts, however, as | gathered them from
the late Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania,
who in turn received them from Chan
cellor Livingston himself, are as follows:
Thirteen years before Fitch expert
mented with his steamboat upon the
! Collect in New York, he had, as is well
known, run little steamer on the Della
ware, between Philadelphia and Borden
town, with great success. During that
period he had experimental with various
kinds of propelling power-the screw,
the side-wheel, and the sweeps, or long
oars. The most primitive thing about
his vessel was the boiler, which con
sisted simply of two potash kettles riv
eted together. Mr.. Livingston, who WIS
greatly interested in the success of
/ Eit,l,'. saiuo1 tbn
trmity, when Minister to France, to visit
the workshops of Watt and Bolton, in
England, where, for the first time, he
saw n properly constructed steam boiler.
But how was he to introduce it into the
United States, unles (Which was then i'm
possible) he went there himself?
At this crisis he thought of Robert
Fulton, who originally an artist i'll Phil
adelphia, was then exhibiting pano-
rama in Paris. His panorama, however,
failing to pay, was attached, and himself
arrested for debt and thrown into prison.
Livingston also, at this time, had in his
possession the plans, models, and draw
ings of what was afterward the success
| full steamboat, which obtained from the
American Consul, then residing at Havre,
who, in turn, had purchased them of
Fitch, when the latter, completely dis
couraged, and stranger in France, ut
terly destitute, had given up in despair.
Livingston falling into the error SO com
mon to many, of believing that because
an artist can draw cleverly he must neces-
sarily succeed equally well in mechanical
conception and execution, paid off Full
tons debts, and sent him over to New
York with one of James Watts boilers
Fulton, however, thoroughly incompe-
tent and untrustworthy, failed to rise
to the OCCASION; and when Livings-
ton returned, year after, he found his
pet project precisely where he had left
it several years before. He, therefore,
at once took hold of it himself, and by
his energy and perseverance finally
brought his ideas to successful issue
Fulton, whom he could not entirely
Sllihe Oh, aCtlIS 'tS IL hilu VI Sclitldi
superintendent
These facts, moreover, are confirmed
not only by the late President William
A. Duer, in his Ncr Yorkcr Letter
7th), but by Mr.. Ransom Cook, now
0S7D living at Saratoga Springs, N. Y.
Mr.. Cook inforsm us that in the sum-
mer of 1887 he was in the city of New
York, engaged upon his electromagnetic
machinery. Among his workmen were
two who had been employed by Livings-
ton and Fulton while those gentlemen
were perfecting their steamboat. They
surprised him greatly by stating that
Fulton was Il capital draughtsman, and
that was all. They added that he was
so deficient in a knowledge of the laws
of mechanics as to furnish daily mirth
for the workmen, and that it was Il long
time before Livingston could convince
him that the "starting- bar" of an engine
should be made larger at the fulcrum
end than at the handle.