. Lloyd's steamboat directory, and disasters on the western waters . uired money enough to purchase a small farm in WashingtonCounty, where he provided his widowed mother with a comfortablehome, while he made preparations for a voyage to England, accordingto the advice of some of his friends, for the purpose of exhibiting someof his paintings to his countryman, Benjamin West. Mr. West, atthis time, enjoyed the favor and patronage of the British government,and his reputation as one of the first painters of the age was alreadyestablished. He received young Fulton with much kindness, gavehim all
. Lloyd's steamboat directory, and disasters on the western waters . uired money enough to purchase a small farm in WashingtonCounty, where he provided his widowed mother with a comfortablehome, while he made preparations for a voyage to England, accordingto the advice of some of his friends, for the purpose of exhibiting someof his paintings to his countryman, Benjamin West. Mr. West, atthis time, enjoyed the favor and patronage of the British government,and his reputation as one of the first painters of the age was alreadyestablished. He received young Fulton with much kindness, gavehim all possible encouragement, and ofiered him a home in his ownhouse, where he remained for two years. At the end of that time travelled through different parts of England, and becameacquainted with several distinguished men of science. It is supposed that, at this period of his life, he began to devote hisattention exclusively to mechanical inventions. In his 25th year,(a. d. 1793,) he was actively engaged in a project to improve inland (26) 26 ROBERT EOBERT FULTON. navigation, and one year later he obtained from the British govern-ment a patent for a double inclined plane, to be used for have no particular accoUnt of his transactions during several yearsfollowing, though in 1794 he submitted to the British Society for thepromotion of Arts and Commerce, an improvement in his invention ofmills for sawing marble. His patents for two machines, one for spinningflax, and the other for making ropes, are dated 1795. In the nextyear he published at London his treatise on the Improvement of CanalNavigation. In this work he expresses his preference for small canals,and boats of light burden, and contends for the use of inclined planesinstead of locks. His plans were highly approved by the British Boardof Agriculture. Mr. Fulton was now engaged in the profession of a civil engineer,and employed the pencil merely to execute plans and draughts ofmachinery in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1856
