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Today in Entrepreneurial History: February 24

By on February 24, 2012 in Books / History

Clermont Illustration Robert Fulton Project Gutenberg e Text 15161

On this date in 1815, Robert Fulton, the American inventor and and engineer widely credited with inventing the first commercially success steamboat, died.

Fulton was born in 1765 into a poor family on the Pennsylvania frontier. From an early age, Fulton showed an aptitude for working with machinery of all kinds, as well as an all-consuming drive to avoid his father’s poverty.

As a young man he contrived useful inventions at an astonishing rate, a marble-cutting saw here, a canal-digging engine there; he also cultivated friendships and connections with influential men on both sides of the Atlantic, and soon he was doing business with the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte (to whom he sold a prototype submarine, the Nautilus).

Fulton’s most lasting accomplishment, however, may have been to develop a steamboat fleet that dependably plied the waters in and around New York and eventually extended to rivers in the western interior, providing “a tool by which the dominant commercial interests could extend their reach and power, by which the reigning political forces could communicate and consolidate their influence, by which a restless people could penetrate new lands and develop new industries.”

If you’d like to know more about Robert Fulton, I recommend the book The Fire of His Genius: Robert Fulton and the American Dream.

robert fulton

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

Another Idea: How to Start a Genealogical (Family History Writer) Business

  • http://merchantofnewyorkcity.com Christopher

    Great find! I like the last part “providing a tool” … sure he gave war machines to the empire nations BUT I think the focus is that he enabled and paved ways for the “dominant commercial interest” … that includes our own. Who knows if he would have known that in the end, it’s the people’s interest that dominate the seas of commerce :D

  • http://n.a. Cindy Hawkins

    Also, sounds as if he was a pretty savvy guy about both networking and, keeping his mind actively perking on new ideas. Two invaluable ingredients for becoming successful.!

  • http://www.fetise.com Sachin

    very true Cindy these are really important ingredients for becoming successful.!

  • http://merchantofnewyorkcity.com Christopher

    A man after my own vision of gold. Important in his own rite. Beneficial in others’. Responsible to none.

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