Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/537

 FULTON 525 carriages and wagons, 2 of woollen goods, 1 of boots and shoes, 6 flour mills, and 14 saw mills. Capital, Bochester. VIII. A W. county of Illinois, bounded S. E. by the Illinois river, and drained by Spoon river; area, 870 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 38,291. The Illinois river, which is here navigable, is the channel of a large ex- port trade. Spoon river is valuable for water power, and nearly all the streams are bordered by a good growth of timber. The soil of the county is rich, and the surface undulating, oc- cupied partly by prairies and partly by wood- lands. Coal is found in abundance. The To- ledo, Peoria, and Warsaw railroad, and a branch of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy rail- road pass through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 417,599 bushels of wheat, 131,- 711 of rye, 1,508,763 of Indian corn, 261,- 390 of oats, 96,207 of potatoes, 27,545 tons of hay, 458,873 Ibs. of butter, and 105,259 of wool. There were 12,825 horses, 8,510 milch cows, 15,949 other cattle, 2,078 sheep, and 57,965 swine; 3 manufactories of agri- cultural implements, 15 of carriages and wag- ons, 3 of boots and shoes, 6 of furniture, 2 of hubs and wagon material, 11 of saddlery and harness, 3 of woollen goods, 10 saw mills, and 12 flour mills. Capital, Lewistown. FULTON. I. A village of Oswego co., New York, on the E. bank of the Oswego river, about 10 m. S. S. E. of Oswego, and on the Oswego canal, and the Oswego and Syracuse and New York and Oswego Midland railroads; pop. in 1870, 3,507. It is chiefly noted for its manufactures. The principal establishments are machine shops, iron founderies, a planing mill, flour mills, woollen mills, and manufactories of pails, tubs, paper, boats, sashes, doors, and blinds, bedsteads, lime, potash, edge tools, &c. There are marble yards, many fine stores, two national banks, and two weekly newspapers. The Falley academy (Presbyterian) in 1872 had 5 instructors and 82 pupils. II. A town and the capital of Callaway co., Missouri, on a branch of the Chicago and Alton railroad, 12 m. from the Missouri river, and 20 m. N. E. of Jefferson City ; pop. in 1870, 1,585, of whom 430 were colored. It is the seat of the state asylum for the deaf and dumb, and of the state lunatic asylum, which occupies a beau- tiful edifice, five stories high and 210 ft. long, on a plot of 460 acres. Westminster college (Presbyterian) in 1872 had 12 professors and instructors, 101 students, and a library of 2,500 volumes. The town contains a national bank, three weekly newspapers, and manufactories of earthenware. FULTON, Robert, an American inventor, born at Little Britain, Lancaster co., Pa., in 1765, died in New York, Feb. 24, 1815. When about three years old he lost his father. He received a common school education, went to Philadelphia at the age of 17, and became a miniature painter. Mechanical pursuits, how- ever, mingled with those of the artist. Before attaining his majority he had laid by a sum sufficient to buy a small farm, upon which he placed his mother, and soon afterward went to London to study under West, with whom he remained several years. Afterward he be- came acquainted with the duke of Bridgewa- ter, at whose instance he adopted the profes- sion of civil engineer. He had in the mean time become acquainted with Earl Stanhope, who was engaged on a scheme of steam navi- gation. In 1793 Fulton wrote to him, sug- gesting some of the views which he afterward reduced to practice on the Hudson. At Bir- mingham he was brought into communication with Watt, who had just succeeded in his great improvement of the steam engine, with the structure of which Fulton made himself fa- miliar. During his residence here he devised an improved mill for sawing marble, for which he received a vote of thanks and an honorary medal from the British society for the promo- tion of arts and commerce. To this period also are referred his patented machines for spinning flax and for making ropes, and the invention of an excavator for scooping out the channels of canals and aqueducts. In 1796 he published in London his treatise on the improvement of canal navigation. Having obtained a patent in England for canal improvements, Fulton went to France with the view of introducing them there, but his attention was soon diverted to other objects. In 1797 he took up his resi- dence at Paris, where he resided for seven years with Joel Barlow, and superintended the illustration of his " Columbiad." At this time he devised the submarine boat, afterward styled a nautilus, connected with which were sub- marine bombs, afterward known as torpedoes. This invention he offered several times to the French government, and once to the Dutch ambassador at Paris, without exciting their fa- vorable attention. Negotiations were subse- quently opened with him by the British gov- ernment, which induced him to visit London in May, 1804. A commission, at the head of which was Sir Joseph Banks, reported that the submarine boat was impracticable. In Oc- tober, 1805, he was permitted to experiment on a brig of 200 tons burden with a carcass of 170 Ibs. of powder. In 15 minutes from the application of the carcass the explosion took place ; the brig, according to Fulton's account, made no more resistance than a bag of feathers, and went to pieces like a shattered egg shell. Notwithstanding this success Fulton was dis- appointed in his hopes of government patron- age, and at length embarked for his native country. He reached New York in December, 1806, and in the following month went to Washington, where his models and drawings made a favorable impression, and a sum was appropriated to defray the cost of experiments with the torpedoes. The probability of a rup- ture with England, consequent on the affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake, made the sum- mer of 1807 propitious to his project, and July 20 he decomposed a large hulk brig m the