Fulton did not forget his promise to build a steamboat for America, even though he was so occupied in trying to induce the English people to use his submarine torpedoes. As soon as he arrived in London, free from the entanglements of French warfare, he renewed his order for the engine and tried to gain permission for its shipment to America.

The permit was finally obtained, the engine built, and in March, 1805, Fulton notes in his account-book that he paid the fee at the Treasury “on receiving permission to ship the engine for America.” In January he had paid five hundred and forty-eight pounds for the cylinder and parts of the engine, and in March four hundred and seventy-six pounds, eleven shillings, sixpence for the copper boiler.

Some years ago, a story “went the rounds” of the newspapers that the boiler for Fulton’s American boat was made from melted copper pennies. Coins of 1799 to 1804 were rare and this fiction was invented to explain the scarcity, but Fulton’s notebook contradicts it. Copper was hard to get, and expensive, but Fulton found it and paid for it,—full value too, one would say!

The engine preceded Fulton across the water by a year, for Fulton stayed in England until the autumn of 1806. It lay at the Custom House for six months, and was then carted to a storage-house on South Street until the boat was built to receive it.

To this period of Fulton’s life belong two interesting letters: they prove that he was ever mindful of his brother and sisters in far-away Pennsylvania, even while he was debating anxiously with English statesmen and planning a novel boat for American waters.

The first letter was written to his brother-in-law, David Morris, and is full of intimate and wholesome advice for he evidently realized the shortcomings in his own early education. Written in London, October 25th, 1805, it says in part:

It is certain that Fulton had practised what he here preaches to his nephews and nieces. During his study of the great men of the day, Franklin, Washington, and Rittenhouse, he had caught the illuminative spark of their genius, struck out upon life’s anvil by their hard blows of untiring work. The secret of their power was constant self-culture, and Fulton applied himself to gain this foundation of strength by the application of his mature mind to the education which circumstances had deprived him of in his youth.

Let us hope that the nephews and nieces gladly received these gift-books from their famous uncle whom they had never seen, welcomed the big dictionaries and arithmetics with joy, and studied hard during the winter evenings, as he suggested.

About the same time he also wrote the following letter to Mr. Hoge, the first settler in Washington, Pennsylvania, from whom he had received an inquiry in regard to the four lots he had purchased. It shows Fulton’s unfailing generosity to his brother and sisters:

“I thank you kindly for your friendly letter of the first of June; it is so many years since I had any communication with you, or accurate account of my relations, together with many copies of my letters being lost in my travels, and considering my property in your country of value only in as much as it was of use to my relatives, I had forgot the grants I formerly made of the three lots. I find however that one of them has been transferred to Mr. Morris, one to Mrs. Cook, and one was left by my mother to Peggy Scott.

“I now desire that those grants may be considered permanent and resigning all claims to them, from this time I shall not reckon them in my calculations.”

In his will, drawn in 1814, Fulton left a legacy of money also to each of his sisters and his brother.

Before we approach the story of the Clermont, it is fair and just to give credit to several men who worked very hard to try to build a “first” steamboat. There were so many attempts to produce the needed invention that it is hard to say which man should have the honor of being placed first.

Perhaps the earliest was Dr. John Allen, of England, who in 1730 wrote a scientific paper, entitled “Navigation in a Calm,” suggesting that a “fire engine with its furniture” could be put on board a ship and drive it twelve or fourteen miles an hour.

Probably most of those who read his pamphlet smiled at his absurd idea, but six years later, in 1736, Jonathan Hulls took out a patent for a tug-boat to be moved by wheels at the stern by the power of an atmospheric engine.

In America, where there are many deep rivers, it is not surprising to find that there were many experimenters: James Rumsey, of Virginia, built a boat for trial on the Potomac River and in 1787 had it working so well that he journeyed to England to try to advance his invention. There he persuaded a rich American to forward funds to build another boat for a trial on the Thames, but Rumsey died before his vessel was an established success. His system was not very practical and failed to work well.

Captain Samuel Morey, in 1793, built a tiny craft, “scarce big enough to carry himself,” it was said, and tried it upon the Connecticut River, but the first attempt failed to establish a claim to consideration and his plan was given up.

In 1792 another Connecticut man, Elijah Ormsbee, a clever carpenter, moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and built a boat in which his friend, David Wilkinson of Pawtucket, fitted “flutter wheels” and a “goose-foot propeller.” They made the boat run several times from Pawtucket to Providence, but that was the last heard of it. The piston was turned by atmospheric pressure, not by the direct use of steam.

Nicholas J. Roosevelt, who afterward became Fulton’s and Livingston’s representative in Ohio River navigation, also had a “try” at inventing a boat; so had William Henry of Pennsylvania and Edward West; both left records of their attempts.

There were others, too, a long list of worthies, who labored well, but neither well enough nor long enough to convince doubting humanity that they had “found a way upon the waters.” Chief among them should forever stand the name of John Fitch, who had so sure yet faint a grasp upon the new science. In 1786, he built a boat thirty-four feet long, and launched it upon the Delaware River where it proved its worth. He organized a stock company to finance and direct the enterprise. The boat ran for a short time between Philadelphia and Bordentown, but the machinery was cumbersome, the service scanty, and the company lost money. In the autumn the boat was set aside and never used again. After a visit to France, where Fitch obtained a patent but failed to secure funds for a new boat, he returned to America as a deck-hand after his fruitless task. A few years later he died, a disappointed and discouraged man. To his mechanical genius there was linked an erratic character and an unsettled disposition. Had he been able to set aside the belittling influences of his life, there is no doubt that he would have been a great man.

As in “Prize Contests” of the present day, honorable mention is made of those whose work was excellent although it failed to win the highest award; so may we unhesitatingly yield honorable mention to John Fitch for his years of study. He did build a boat; he did make it run; but he failed to establish steam navigation as a practical system of transportation and a commercial success.

In addition to these Americans there were men of science in other lands who busied themselves with the same problem. Earl Stanhope of England, whose attempt has been noted; Patrick Miller of Scotland; the Messrs. Hunter and Dickinson; William Symington, who tried a tug on the Forth and Clyde Canal; M. des Blanc, of France, who essayed to build a boat for the Rhone; all are recorded in history as having made honest attempts to prove that the power of steam could be applied to boats. But how? That was the question. And it should be noted that Robert Fulton did not accept the theory of any previous experimenter, nor did he merely happen upon his successful plan. He worked long and patiently, with varying degrees of success, until he discovered the proper tables of proportion,—the size and shape of the boat and its paddles, the weight and power of the engine, the strength of tide and currents, and all the many contributing forces which united to form the practical and successful boat he finally produced.

Several interesting descriptions of Fulton’s experiments are in existence: one, dated Paris, Jan. 9th, 1803, is entitled “Experiments on the Model of a Boat to be Moved by a Steam Engine.” It describes six different methods by which he propelled a model of a boat three feet long and eight inches wide. From the knowledge he gained in these experiments, he compiled a “table of comparisons” showing the different distances covered by the use of varying sized paddles. He concluded: “Propelling a boat through water is the act of separating two bodies,—the boat from its oars or paddles, or whatever else is applied,—and this is governed by laws reducible to simple calculation.”

It was this science of calculation which gave Fulton the mastery of the situation, and his title, Inventor of Steam Navigation. He did not build a boat by guess-work, but built many boats by actual calculation of their power and speed; these he introduced upon several waterways and established each as a commercial success. Other men had produced the “flower of invention.” Fulton produced the more perfect flower and matured it to actual fruitage.