and went to
Philadelphia to devote his time to painting portraits and miniatures.
Being a tireless worker, he earned enough here to support himself and send
something to his mother.

At the age of twenty-one his interest in art led him to go to London,
where he studied for several years under Benjamin West. This famous master
took young Fulton into his household and was very friendly to him.

After leaving West's studio Fulton still remained in England, and although
continuing to paint he gave much thought also to the development of canal
systems. His love for invention was getting the better of his love for art
and was leading him on to the work which made him famous. He was about
thirty when he finally gave up painting altogether and turned his whole
attention to inventing.

He went from England to Paris, where he lived in the family of Joel
Barlow, an American poet and public man. Here he made successful
experiments with a diving boat which he had designed to carry cases of
gunpowder under water. This was one of the stages in the development of
our modern torpedo-boat.

Although this invention alone would give Fulton a place in history, it was
not one which would affect so many people as the later one, the steamboat,
with which his name is more often associated.

Even before he had begun to experiment with the torpedo-boat Fulton had
been deeply interested in steam navigation, and while in Paris he
constructed a steamboat. In this undertaking he was greatly aided by
Robert R. Livingston, American minister at the French court, who had
himself done some experimenting in that line. Livingston, therefore, was
glad to furnish the money which Fulton needed in order to build the boat.

It was finished by the spring of 1803. But just as they were getting ready
for a trial trip, early one morning the boat broke in two parts and sank
to the bottom of the River Seine. The frame had been too weak to support
the weight of the heavy machinery.

Having discovered just what was wrong in this first attempt, Fulton built
another steamboat soon after his return to America, in 1806. This boat was
one hundred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, with mast and sail,
and had on each side a wheel fifteen feet across.

On the morning of the day in August, 1807, set for the trial of the
Clermont--as Fulton called his boat--an expectant throng of curious
onlookers gathered on the banks of the North, or Hudson, River, at New
York.