New-York tribune., 1909-09-25
FULTON, BOY INVENTOR
BEGAN rs IN -fRTIST.
Refused Re7card from English for
buppreSSiRg Torpedo Derice.

4
To DaraPhrase homcly expression, Robert
Fulton |as in way jack of all trades and
master OF them all Fate decreed that his name
should descend 10 posterity chiefly in connection
with the development Of steam navigation Had
Fulton not succeeded with the Clerrnont he
would still be worthy honorable and enduring
chapter IN the chronicles Of his times as q man
OF profound and practical inventive genius and
an artist OF No ordinary attainments. His
genius was not confined TO circumscribed chan
neis- An active ani sell cultivated intellect
made him pioneer inventor in tine field of ma
rine science as applied 70 war and IN successful
experimentation with submarine boats, torpedoes
and various other methods of naval offence and
defence
by birth Fulton Hls Irish When he vas born,
in 1865. his parents resided IL Little Britain,
now Fulton Township Lancaster county Penn.
His education was not extensive, but such rudi-
ments as he acquired were in later life added
20 an5 developed until Fulton became in certain
lines. The peer Of any Of mis- contemporaries His
natural acuteness OF perception ana ability TO
grasp and to hold eaat he applied his mind 10
enabled him 20 60 further than many men Of
more thorough and systematic mental training
A a boy he manifested a pronounced talent
for drawing and mathematics. Manufacturers in
Lancaster employed him 10 make drawings OF
guns aud 10 calcuIate the force size. bore ana
range of firearms and artillery.
HIS FIRST INVENTION
A. fourteen years OF age the boy displayed a
facility for invention He and another boy.
Christopher Gumpf. were companions upon fire.
quent fishing excursions during which Fulton
complained Of the labor required 10 pole and row
their boat Upon returning from trip made
more than usually fatiguing for this reason
Fulton secluded himself for week. lie then
appeared with a model of a boat fitted ~ith
paddleNheels worked by hand
Wren ne was seventeen he went from Ian
caster 90 philadelphia. by advice OF his friend
BENJAMIN West the portrait painter, 10 perfect
himself in landscape and portrait painting and
mechanical drawing Gradually his earning ca
Esscity became such that ne enabled to pur-
chase a home Gn Washington County for his
mother who had become widow.
Having ErOyided his mother with q home and
a competency he was eft free 10 carry out his
long cherished ambition Of going abroad 70 study
art under West THIS move was rendered ad-
visatie for another reason. Fulton's health had
become impaired He was threatened with con-
sumption. and physicians urgently advised a
change u climate
Fulton was not singh minded ia hl~ Devotion Il
art for there il eyid-lce 70 show that soon after
ventiye flclllties full play extent that sub
ordinat.d his artistic attainments He busted
himself industriously "a perfectlns a plan foi
fmDrDvine inland navigation. In 1873 he eX-
piained IN a letter - Lord StanhOpe the prln-
ciples Of On invention re-pecting the propulsion
Of ships bv steam which ne announced he had
discovered.
GIVEN BRITISH PAT.;NT
I, the following year he was granted patent
by th. British government for a double inclined
plane for transportation purposes To LorC
Stanhope in 1895 he submitted drawings Of an
soDaratus for steam navigation, and during th'
next year his name appears the author of {
treatise On The Improvement Of Canal Nayiga
ton =" In this he advocated the use Of inclined
nlanes and the weight Of water TO raise cana
boats and vessels plying inland waters from ont
Ievel 20 another The system of planes fOrTnerl!
,,aea on the now abandoned Morris and Essel
canal through New Jersey for eleyating boats
from lower TO an upper level was based upor
Fulton's ideas
Frton's artistic endeav0rs were creditable. a!
showo bv specimens from his brush which arr
stln extant. and Il is probable that he derived
the rna ior source Of his income while abroad bI
mis- facility AZ putting paint upon canvas Full
tons portrait painted by himself. which hang'
fn tb. rooms Of the American Society Of Me
ehauical Engineers Is excellent from an artists
r,out Of view He went to Paris in 1791 and paint
ed the first panorama that the French capita
had eyer seen Relics OF this accomplishment
still remain ln Paris IN the names of the Rue de-
Esanoratnas and the Passage des Panoramaa
which date from the times OF the furOr created
there s,y the exhibition OF Fulton's panorama