Fulton
Fulton names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Fulton ROBERT, an American inventor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ROBERT, an American inventor, celebrated as being the introducer of steam navigation; born of Irish decent, in Little Britain, Lancaster co., Pa., in 1765. Early in life he manifested a taste for painting, and repaired to England to study under Benjamin West. In that country, however, he became acquainted with the Duke of Bridgewater, the founder of the canal system of Great Britain, who induced Fulton to abandon art and study mechanical science. This nobleman was at the time engaged in a scheme of steam navigation, which he imparted to Fulton. The latter visiting Birmingham was brought into communication with James Watt, who had just succeeded in his great improvement of the steam engine, with the construction of which Fulton made him self thoroughly familiar. About this time he invented a machine for spinning flax, and another for making ropes, for which he obtained patents in England. In 1796 he published a treatise on the improvement of canal navigation. From 1797 to 1804 he resided in Paris with Mr. Joel Barlow, the American representative at the French court. During this period he invented a submarine or plunging boat, called a "Torpedo," designed to be used in naval warfare. He invited the attention of the French Government to his invention, and Bonaparte, then First Consul, appointed a commission to examine it. Several experiments were made in 1801 in the harbor of Brest. He could easily descend to any depth, or rise to the surface; and where there was no strong current, the boat was quite obedient to her helm while under water. But the motion of the boat while submerged , and it was clearly unequal was very slow to the stemming of a strong current. The French Government declined to patronize the project, and Fulton accepted an inviministry, who tation from the English also appointed a commission to test the ROBERT FULTON merits of his torpedo. He appears, however, to have received but little encouragement, and in 1806 he returned to the United States. Having been supplied with the necessary funds by Robert Livingston, who had been American ambassador at Paris, Fulton had the satisfaction of proving, in 1807, that steam could be applied to the propulsion of vessels with entire success. His first steamboat, called "The Clermont" (of 140 feet keel and 16½ feet beam), made a progress on the Hudson of 5 miles an hour. His second large boat on the Hudson was the "Car of Neptune," and was built in 1807. He afterward built other steam vessels, one of them a frigate which bore his name. His reputation became established, and his fortune was rapidly increasing, when his patent for steam vessels was disputed, and his opponents were in a considerable degree successful. The lawsuits about his patent rights, together with his enthusiasm, which led him to expose himself too much while directing his workmen, impaired his constitution, and he died in New York City, Feb. 24, 1815. In 1909 the centenary of the "Clemont" was celebrated in conjunction with the tercentenary of the discovery of the Hudson by Hendrik Hudson.
Fulton a city of Missouri
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Missouri, the county-seat of Callaway co. It is on the Chicago and Alton railroad. The city is the center of an important agricultural and stock-raising region and of coal and fire clay deposits. Its industries include the manufacture of flour, fire brick, and overalls. It is the seat of the State School for the Deaf, State Hospital No. 1, an insane asylum, Westminster College, Synodical College, Conservatory of Music, and William Woods College. Pop. (1910) 5,228; (1920) 5,595.
Fulton a city of New York
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of New York, in Oswego co. It is on the Oswego river, the Oswego canal, and the New York Central, the Lackawanna, and the New York, Ontario, and Western railroads. The city has an important trade in milk and tobacco, and has manufactures of chocolate, flour, woolen goods, paper, pulp, cutlery, paper-mill machinery, motor boats, etc. It has a public library and other public buildings. Pop. (1910) 10,480; (1920) 13,043.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 credits Robert Fulton as "the introducer of steam navigation"; historians now stress that he was a brilliant promoter rather than the first inventor, since John Fitch had run a steamboat on the Delaware in 1787 and William Symington's Charlotte Dundas towed barges in 1803. The patent quarrels that Collier's says "impaired his constitution" ended nine years after his death, when the Supreme Court struck down the Livingston-Fulton monopoly on New York waters in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). Of the two towns, Fulton, Missouri, gained a fame Collier's could not guess at: Westminster College, listed there as one local school, was where Winston Churchill delivered the "Iron Curtain" speech in March 1946. Fulton, New York, has lost rather than gained — its "manufactures of chocolate" meant the Nestlé plant, closed in 2003, and the city's population is now below its 1920 figure of 13,043.
Written for this edition, 2026.