The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-30
,,PLANS TO HONOR
ROBERT FULTON
sMemoriaI for the Father of
Steam Navigation
MAN OF MANY ACTIVITIES
. He Built a Submarine Boat and Pro-
posed the Building of the Erie
CanaI-His Predictions
Came True.

Robert Fulton Memorial association,
body comprising about a hundred of the
most influential men in the metropolis,
has undertaken to raise 100000 for the
purpose of erecting suitable memorial
to the father of steam navigation and
inland waterways. Curiously enough the
prime mover in this undertaking is a de-
scendant of the famous Commodore Van
derbilt who, by means of his early adop-
ton of the steamboat in connection with
his ferry from New York to New Bruins
wick, on the Jersey shore, laid the foun-
dation of his colossal fortune
Fulton lies buried in an almost
known grave in Trinity churchyard, and
his four grand children now living have
given the association permission to re-
move his body to whatever point may be
decided upon as the site of the proposed
monument. The association is endeavor-
ing to have a combined tomb and statue
completed next year in time for the hun
dredth anniversary of the launching OF
FuIton's first steamboat. 1t has also been
suggested that it would be appropriate to
place a statue of Fulton at one end of
the Hudson Memorial Bridge, over the
Harlem which will cost $3,0O0,000, and
which will be opened In 1909 during the
ter-centennial celebration of the discovery
of the Hudson river.
Although Fulton is best known as the
inventor of the first successful steamboat,
1t was as an advocate of inland naviga-
ton that he first attracted public notice.
While in England, whittier he went in
1856, at the age of q, he made the &C
uuaintance of the Duke of Brid8ewater,
who had constructed a profitable water
way connecting the Trent and Mersey,
and as the result of this acquaintance,
| Fulton, in 1896, published a treatise ON
I the Improvement of canal navigation in
| which he forecasted the great develop
| ment of American waterways. Fulton
| sent a copy of this treatise to President
| Washington. who acknowledged its re-
cept in a fiattering note.
Great Year in His Career.
The year 1907 was the greatest in all
Fulton's career. The launching of the
Clermont and her successful passage
from New York up the Hudson to AL
bany and back was sufficient to make
his name immortal but in addition to
this achievement he at this time pro-
POSED the building of the big Erie canal.
The proposition was contained in let
ter which Fulton wrote to Albert Gala
tin then secretary of the treasury who
had applied to the inventor for informa-
ton intended as a supplement to report
| to Congress on the matter of public roads
| end canals Three years later the New
3 York legislature appointed commission
to look into Fulton's proposal and report
| upon it's feasibility. The following year
, | Fulton himself was made a member of
, | the commission, and In the course of his
! work he addressed a letter to the pres
ident of the body, Gouverneur Morris, in
= | which he said:
, sIad It pleased the Author of the Uni
!, verse to have drawn Hudsons river from
, | Lake Erie, a calm and gentle stream of
| ten feet water, the rejecting mind would
contemplate with gratitude the Divine
= | munificence; and he who feels that l6o
| miles of navigation on Hudsons river
, | would be a blessing TO this state, would
compare the successful range of extended
benefits, and draw exact estimates of
national wealth from 100 miles of easy
| communication to the western extremity
| of Lake Superior For If Hudson's river,
collecting freight from its surrounding
| country and an interior not more distant
| than Cayuga or Ontario, now bears on
E. its waters nearly 100000 tons per annum.
< | where shall the mind be arrested; on
3 what number of tons shall it dwell? when
| coming from the population of the next
twenty years and the countries which
surround Lakes Superior Michigan, HUI
ron and the canal of 300 miles through a
/ fertile territory? Compared with the
{ | trade now on Hudson's river, 1t cannot
| be less than a million of tons each year.
1t is interesting to compare this esti-
I | mate with the statistics of the present
: time, when the volume of commerce an
nually passing through the Erie canal
q | amounts to nearly 900 tons. Yet this
, | is only small fraction OF. the torrent
, | Of trade moving through the chain of
| Great Lakes, whose commercial develop
ment Fulton was one of the earliest to
, foresee. During the present year, up to
: | November l. the domestic shipments on
the Great Lakes aggregated 64'5so'I6S tons,
an increase of 100000 over the corre-
, spending movement last year, and of 22,-
. 600 900 over that of the first ten months
, of 1904. OF this mighty volume of COM
, | merce a large percentage-51 626,029 net
tons passed through the Detroit river,
and further to emphasize the fulfilling
of Fulton's prediction regarding the de-
velopment of waterway trade, no less
than 39,130337 tons of freight passed
, through the 800" canal. between the
opening of the lake season and the first
, of last month.
Studied Waterways.
Although Fulton was originator OF the
Erie canal project and the particular ad-
vocate of the plan to develop the COM
mercial possibilities of the Great Lake re-
eion. at the same time he gave his atten-
| ton to American waterways in general
in much the same manner as the present
National Rivers and Harbors Congress IS
doing To show the extent of waterways
DEVELOPMENT in the United States during
the last century. the $40 100000 which Full
ton estimated would be the cost of the
Erie canal may be compared with the
$50 100000 which the Rivers and Harbors
| Congress and many commercial organi-
cations throughout the country are urg-
ing the government to appropriate an
| nually for the maintenance and improve
ment of the national waterways.
Time has softened much of the criti-
cism which followed the building of the
Clermont. and today Fulton is universally
| acknowledged as the father of steam nav
igation. Steamboats, We're heard of as
far back as the middle of the sixteenth
| century when a Spaniard, Blasco de
Gary. is reported to have propelled ves-
sci by steam in the horlsSr of Barcelona.
Writers on steam navigation. however.
are inclined to give the honor of the first
attempt at steamboating to Papin. who
published his ideas in 1890, giving rude
plan of paddle steamer. and who IN
1907 experimental with a steamboat upon
the river Fulda in Germany.
About thirty years later Jonathan Hull
built a steam towboat equipped with
single wheel at the stern. which was ex-
hibited at London. and in 1863 an Amer-
can William Henry of Chester county.
PENNSYLVANIA, tried experiments with u
steamboat on the Conestoga. This hap
pened Just two years before Fulton was
born at Little Britain tnow Fulton). in
the neighboring county of Lancaster. and
perhaps in his boyhood Robert was told
of thisa experiment