Robert Fulton – Ingliando

On this day, the American engineer and inventor, Robert Fulton, was granted a patent for his steamboat invention. After a period in Paris trying unsuccessfully to convince Napoleon to invest in his submarine and torpedo projects, Fulton returned to America and started to build his first steamboat with a steam engine midship and two large paddle wheels on each side of the boat. Onlookers at the time referred to it as ‘Fulton’s Folly’, but in August 1807 the Clermont, made her first successful voyage on the Hudson River from New York City to Albany in just 32 hours. Although the steamboat idea was not new at the time, the Clermont is generally considered to be the first practical and commercially viable steamboat to have been built. Its success changed the entire trade and transportation outlook for the American heartland.