atively poor; occupied an elevated social
position, and was a person of great influence. He obtained a grant
of the monopoly of steam-navigation from the State of New York.
Fulton took out two patents for his invention; but unfortunately
they were not adequate to his protection, for they covered only the
application of the steam-engine to the turning of a crank in
producing the rotary motion of the paddle-wheels.

While in England Fulton had contracted with Watt for the building of
such an engine as he desired, without stating the purpose for which
it was to be used. This engine reached New York at about the same
time as the inventor. He made his plans for the construction of the
boat, which was to be of different form and proportions from
ordinary vessels, and it was completed and fitted out with its
engine during the year following his return. Not long before this
event, when he found the sum of money Mr. Livingston had provided to
complete the steamboat was nearly exhausted, Fulton attempted to
sell an interest in his exclusive grant in order to raise funds to
supply the deficiency; but so little faith existed in the success of
his enterprise that he could find no one who had the courage to
purchase it. But the vessel was finished, and a trial trip was made
in her, to which gentlemen of science and general intelligence were
invited, most of them, like the rest of the world, sceptics and
unbelievers. A few minutes served to satisfy these men that the
steamboat was a success, and that the problem of steam-navigation
had been solved in its favor. It was the hour of Fulton's triumph.

The strange craft, to which the name of Clermont had been given,
soon made a trip to Albany, accomplishing the distance in thirty-two
hours, or one-third of the average time of the sloops, and making
the return in thirty. Doubters and cavillers were silenced, and
regular trips were made till the ice closed the river for the
season. During the winter the Clermont was lengthened to one hundred
and forty feet, improved in many respects, gaudily painted, and
looked upon as a "floating palace." Another steamboat, called the
Car of Neptune, was built, and soon a contract for five more was
placed. The practical triumph had been achieved, and from that small
beginning has come forth the mighty steam-marine of the present
time.

Fulton was married to Miss Harriet Livingston, a niece of the
Chancellor, and was the father of four children. His bus