- Robert Fulton was involved in many different projects, including inventing various tools and working with the U.S. Navy on the creation of the torpedo.
- Robert Fulton worked with Robert Livingston (who had financial and political influence) to design and assemble a steamboat.
- He named it "The North River Steamboat”, but it was later called the "Clermont."
- The boat left New York City, and went up the Hudson River to Albany in 32 hours. It became the first permanent commercial route on the Hudson River in history and the steamboat was Fulton’s biggest project.
- When he was 49, he developed pneumonia which killed him. He died in his home area which is now known as Battery Place in lower Manhattan. His body was kept there until he was moved to the historic Trinity Church (where his funeral took place). His service was attended by representatives from both the National and State governments as well as high officials of the City of New York.
- The vault where he was buried became weather beaten and Fulton's name was never added to the list of the people in the chamber, so his burial place was never well known at all. On the top of the vault was a brownstone slab, and the writing on the slab were completely destroyed. In 1901, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers wanted to resolve what happened by placing a cenotaph marker. It's located a short distance from the burial vault. The memorial is a column that has a bronze medallion portrait on one side of it.
- In 1909, the Postal Service created the Two Cent Hudson-Fulton Celebration stamp. The stamp commemorated the first demonstration of a sustainable steamship: "The Clermont."
Burial: Trinity Churchyard in Manhattan, NY.
Plot: Northern Section, Livingston family vault 1815-3B
Dodge, Russ. Robert Fulton. Mar. 2008. Find a Grave. N.p., 5 Apr. 2008. Web. 4 Oct. 2011.
Greyfield, Donald. “Robert Fulton.” Find a Grave. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2011.
Robert Fulton. N.d. Wikispaces. Tangient, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2011.
Trinity Church Graveyard. N.d. Public Domain Clip Art. N.p., 9 Oct. 2010. Web. 3 Oct. 2011.
This may or may not be a stretch: Robert Fulton was the Steve Jobs of his time. (Invented technology that changed people's lives and transformed the economy)
ReplyDelete^ I actually agree with that statement. Robert Fulton basically was the Steve Jobs of his time because he didn't really create the steamboat, but he improved it a lot to the point where it became New York's first permanent commercial route. Like this, Steve Jobs didn't create the first smart phone, but created a very advanced smart phone in the prime of his life (just like Fulton did).
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