Lloyd Saylor, age 15, of Baton Rouge, La., for his question:
WHY IS THE STEAMBOAT 'CLERMONT' IMPORTANT?
The steamboat named Clermont was designed and built by an American inventor, civil engineer and artist named Robert Fulton. The Clermont was not the first steamboat to be built but it was the first to become a practical and financial success. For this reason it is important.
Fulton directed the building of the steamboat in New York City in 1807. At first it was called the North River Steamboat, but it became famous as the Clermont.
On Aug. 17, 1807, the Clermont began its first successful trip up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany. After some alterations, the boat sailed in regular passenger service on the Hudson.
This first commercially successful steamboat was 142 feet long and 14 feet wide. An English built engine, from the British firm of Boulton and Watt, drove the Clermont's side paddle wheels.
The steamboat was dismantled just eight years later, in 1815.
After the financial and mechanical success of his first boat, Fulton became occupied with building and operating others, and with expanding his activities to other parts of the country. He built two steamboats similar to the Clermont and two ferries for service in the New York harbor.
Fulton designed and built a steam warship, Fulton the First, for the defense of New York harbor in the War of 1812, but he died in 1815 before the craft was completed. Congress authorized the construction of this vessel in 1814 after an investigation by naval experts.
Part of Fulton's success with the Clermont was his concern for passenger comfort. A brochure reporting on the ship's services explained that "dinner will be served at exactly 2 o'clock" and that supper would be served each evening at exactly 8.
Fulton was born in 1765 on a farm near Little Britain in Lancaster County, Pa. Before he became an inventor and boat builder, he had made a fine reputation for himself as an artist.
Fulton had been interested for many years in the idea of steam propulsion for a boat. But his first efforts were in the direction of canal development. He designed new types of canal boats and a system of inclined planes to replace canal locks.
Many other mechanical problems challenged Fulton and his inventive ways were put to the test. He invented a machine for making rope and another one for spinning flax. Later he made a labor saving device for cutting marble and he also invented a dredging machine for cutting canal channels.
In 1797 Fulton turned his attention to the submarine. He worked on this project until 1806, when the Clermont project took over.
Fulton built experimental submarines that were able to dive and surface. But he never satisfactorily solved the problem of propulsion under water. His ideas interested both Napoleon Bonaparte and the British Admiralty, but neither ever adopted them wholeheartedly.