The first commercially successful steamboat was Robert Fulton's Clermont of 1807. A contemporary of William Symington, Robert Fulton 1765-1815 was an American innovator and entrepreneur. During the course of 1801, Fulton paid a visit to William Symington. He closely examined Symington’s steamboat and may have borrowed from his ideas. Fulton never acknowledged his visit to Symington and Fulton’s early biographers, Cadwallader D. Colden, and Alice Clary Sutcliffe (Fulton’s great-granddaughter), made no mention of their meeting.
There had been a trial of Lord Dundas’s steamboat on June 1801 which was reported in several newspapers, in which the vessel travelled several miles on the Forth and Clyde canal, from Carronshore to Grangemouth. Fulton may have decided to visit Symington after receiving news of that trial.
In his petition to parliament, William Symington wrote that it was in July 1801 when Fulton approached him and he allowed Fulton to examine his steamboat. However, Symington may have mistaken the date. The engineering historian and biographer, Henry Winram Dickinson, expressed doubt that Fulton had visited Scotland at that time. For the greater part of July 1801, Fulton was known to have been in Brest, where he was conducting trials of his submarine or “plunging boat”; he was on board that vessel on 3 July and 26 July. (Cadwallader Colden) In his Memorial, written shortly before the Petition, William Symington was less precise, stating that Fulton had paid his visit “one day during the period that your Memorialist was employed in conducting the experiments under the patronage of Lord Dundas”. William Symington’s claim is supported by the petition of Robert Weir, who was employed as the fireman on that voyage. The steamboat was then stationed at Lock Sixteen of the Forth and Clyde canal. Fulton was taken on a journey of about eight miles on the canal.
The vessel which Fulton inspected must have been the first steamboat built for Lord Dundas. The hull of the Charlotte Dundas was not built until the following year. Before the reported trial in June 1801, a new cylinder had been installed in the hull of the original steamboat. To what extent Fulton’s observations may have influenced the design of his Clermont is unknown. The engine of Fulton’s Clermont was notably similar to the engine William Symington built for the Charlotte Dundas: it was a double acting Watt engine; the dimensions of the cylinders were identical, with a bore of 22 inches and stroke of four feet.
However, as early as 1798, Fulton’s business partner, Robert Livingstone, had made a preliminary approach to Boulton and Watt in relation to providing an engine for the propulsion of boats, and in which he specified a 22 inch bore and four-foot stroke.
The cylinder of the Clermont was vertical, whereas the cylinder of the final form of the Charlotte Dundas was in a horizontal position. The vessel which Fulton inspected was the first boat built for Lord Dundas and in this phase of William Symington’s experimentation, the cylinder may have been vertical.
It has been claimed that the Duke of Bridgewater employed Fulton to construct an “inclined plane” for the duke’s canal at Walkden, but Dickinson felt this was based on hearsay. It was also claimed that Fulton contributed to the construction of Bridgewater’s steamboat but Bridgewater’s experiments are not mentioned by Dickinson or by Fulton’s early biographers and any claims linking Fulton with Bridgewater’s steamboat experiments have never been confirmed from original documentation.
However, Fulton did correspond with Charles, Third Earl of Stanhope, on the subject of moving ships by steam. On 4 November 1793 he informed Stanhope of his experiments with paddles and sought Stanhope’s opinion. (Text of the letter reproduced in Colden, Cadwallader D., The Life of Robert Fulton New York 1817 and Sutcliffe, Alice Clary, Robert Fulton and the Clermont New York 1909)
In Paris, Fulton contracted to have a steam boat built and a trial of that vessel on the river Seine took place on 9 August 1802. That same month Fulton ordered a Watt engine which was to power the Clermont. Writing to Boulton and Watt from Paris on 6 August 1803, he placed an order for the cylinder and other engine parts, including the piston, piston rod, valves and the movements for operating the valves, the air pump and its piston and piston rod, the condenser, with its communications to the cylinder and air pump, etc. Fulton requested “a cylinder of 24 horse power double effect, the piston making a four-foot stroke...” The engine components were to be shipped to him in New York and were ultimately installed in the Clermont.
References
Colden, Cadwallader D., The Life of Robert Fulton New York 1817
Dickinson, H.W., Robert Fulton Engineer and Artist 1908
Sutcliffe, Alice Clary, Robert Fulton and the Clermont New York 1909