Robert Fulton – 1765-1815

Fulton’s first ambition was to become a painter, but failing to win critical and commercial success, he turned to engineering and invention instead. He designed a system of inland waterways and canals, a practical submarine, a steam warship, and, most famously, in 1808, a sidewheel steamboat called the North River Steamboat of Clermont—but popularly dubbed the Clermont—which plied the Hudson as the first practical steam-powered vessel.