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Robert Fulton
(1765-1815)
Robert Fulton |
Robert
Fulton, American engineer and inventor, is known primarily for
building the first commercially successful steamboat to sail
America’s waters. A mechanical genius with many talents,
Fulton designed many other devices such as submarines and steam
warships, and he also engineered canal systems. He was
called upon to devise a canal transport system that would
operate with little water and in hilly terrain. His response is
explained in his Treatise on the Improvement of Canal
Navigation (1796), which includes a history of the canal and
its use and construction. |
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| Boats
two to five feet wide, suitable for use on small canals. (Plate
1, Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation )
|
Mechanism
for dragging a boat across land up a small hill and then
returning it to the canal. (Plate
4, Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation)
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| Mechanism
for lifting a boat vertically up a break in the landscape, to a
higher canal. (Plates
11 and 12, Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation)
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| An
iron aquaduct for extending a canal across a large river.
(Plate 13, Treatise
on the Improvement of Canal Navigation)
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Fulton in the History of
Hydraulics Collection:
- A Treatise on the
Improvement of Canal Navigation (original copy), published in
London, 1796. (Call number: TC 744 F97)
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