Robert Fulton

Hello! My name is Robert Fulton, and I have always loved to build things. I was born on a farm in Pennsylvania on November 14th, 1765. Even as a boy, I was more interested in tinkering in my dad's workshop than doing farm chores. I loved watching things work and figuring out how to make them better. I even designed a new kind of paddle wheel for my fishing boat so I wouldn't have to row so much!

When I grew up, I first became an artist and moved to Europe to paint pictures. But my mind was always buzzing with ideas for inventions. I drew plans for all sorts of amazing machines. Around the year 1800, I even designed a special boat that could travel underwater—I called it the Nautilus! My biggest dream, though, was to build a boat that could be powered by a steam engine instead of sails or oars.

Back in America, I got to work on my big idea. I met a man named Robert Livingston who believed in my dream and helped me. Together, we built a long, skinny boat with a tall smokestack. Many people laughed and called it 'Fulton's Folly,' because they didn't think a boat powered by a puffing, clanking steam engine could ever work. But I did not give up. On August 17th, 1807, my steamboat, the Clermont, chugged its way up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany. It worked! We had proved that steam power was the future of water travel.

My steamboat changed everything. Soon, steamboats were carrying people and goods up and down rivers all over the country, making travel much faster and easier. I continued to design new boats, including the world's first steam-powered warship. I lived to be 49 years old. Today, when people think of me, they remember the inventor who used the power of steam to change the way we travel on water, connecting the world in a brand new way.