In the meanwhile, however, the inventor became disgusted with the struggle and began manufacturing firearms for the government. This proved profitable, and he greatly improved the methods of making arms. But from the cotton gin he received little revenue.
His last years were the happiest. In 1817 he married Henrietta Edwards, the youngest daughter of Judge Pierpont Edwards of Connecticut. They had four children, a son and three daughters. Whitney died in New Haven on January 8, 1825.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 29, SERIAL No. 29
Robert Fulton was not the inventor of the steamboat. He was, however, the first man to apply the power of the steam engine to the propulsion of boats in a practical and effective manner. Born of poor parents at Little Britain, now Fulton, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765, he received only the scantiest education; but early showed promise of becoming an excellent artist. At the age of seventeen he took up painting seriously, and supported himself thus in Philadelphia until he was twenty-one.
Then he bought a farm in Washington County; but soon after was strongly advised to go to England for the purpose of studying art under the American, Benjamin West. There he met Earl Stanhope, Duke of Bridgewater, who interested him in engineering. In 1794 he took out an English patent for superseding canal locks by inclined planes. He also invented about this time a new method for sawing marble, a machine for spinning flax, and another for making ropes.
Soon after this he went to Paris, and built a submarine, the _Nautilus_. This boat was tried in Brest Harbor in 1801, before a commission appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte, and Fulton succeeded in blowing up a small vessel anchored there for that purpose. Two years later, at Paris, he was also successful in propelling a boat by steam power.
Fulton returned to America, and in partnership with Robert Livingston constructed the first American steamboat, the _Clermont_. This was launched in the spring of 1807, and its success caused a great sensation. The principle of propelling boats by steam was now proved. The _Clermont_ was soon established as a regular passenger boat between New York and Albany.