Robert Fulton (engineer)
Robert Fulton (born November 14, 1765 in Little Britain , Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) , † February 24, 1815 in New York ) was an American engineer ; he built the first usable steamships and the Nautilus submarine .
The Nautilus , designed by Fulton in 1801 and tested in Brest in 1805 , had a hand crank drive that turned a screw, rudders for rudder and depth control and a compressed air system to supply the three-person crew with breathing air. The ship caught Napoleon's attention , but was ultimately considered to be too slow for military use.
His paddle steamer Clermont , which on October 7, 1807 for the first time covered the 240 km stretch from New York to Albany upstream in about 32 hours, was still equipped with sails. Based on a modified version of the steam engine developed by James Watt , the ship reached a speed of 4.5 knots (8.3 km / h) and was then used in the liner service between New York and Albany. On February 11, 1809, Robert Fulton patented a modified design of the first steamship built by the French Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans in 1783.
In 1814, Fulton introduced the Demologos, the first steam-powered warship . He died a year later in New York. His final resting place is Trinity Church in New York City.
In 1983, a marble statue of Robert Fulton by Howard Roberts was placed in the National Statuary Hall Collection .
A descendant of Fulton was the American baseball player Cory Lidle , who was killed on October 11, 2006 in a plane crash.
Numerous counties and cities in the United States are named after Fulton.
Web links
- Literature by and about Robert Fulton in the catalog of the German National Library
- Robert Fulton Website about Robert Fulton
- Klaus J. Hennig: A man makes steam. Above and under water: How the American technology pioneer Robert Fulton revolutionized shipbuilding 200 years ago. In: The time . No. 33, August 9, 2007, p. 68.
- Klaus Schmitt: Robert Fulton's first steamship. On technology from the time of the French Revolution. In: Erwin Kiel, Gernot Tromnau (Hrsg.): Live or die free! The French Revolution and its reflection on the Lower Rhine . Exhibition 13. Duisburger Akzente . Accompanying document. Niederrheinisches Museum, Duisburg 1989, DNB 900495464 , pp. 124–130.
Remarks
- ↑ The year of birth 1767 is mentioned in other sources.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fulton, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 14, 1765 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Little Britain |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 24, 1815 |
| Place of death | New York City , New York |