Reigart, J. Franklin “Robert Fulton’s First Experiment with Paddle Wheels in the Summer of 1779 - on the Conestoga” [Lancaster County]

J. Franklin Reigart.  “Robert Fulton’s First Experiment with Paddle Wheels in the Summer of 1779 - on the Conestoga.”  [Lancaster County]. 

From The Life of Robert Fulton.  Philadelphia: C.C, Henderson & Co., 1856.   Ca. 4 ½ x 7 ¾.  Lithographed by Sherwin.  Tinted lithograph printed by Rosenthal.  Very good condition.  

A native son of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Robert Fulton is one of the most significant early designers of steam powered ships, and one of few that successfully put these designs into practice. Initially, Fulton pursued a life as a painter and went to Paris to study. His commissions were few, and he turned to engineering and inventions. In Paris, Fulton designed an experimental submarine, which caught the eye of Robert Livingston, then the wealthy American ambassador to France. Livingston convinced Fulton to return to the United States and concentrate on steamboat design. Fulton's first boat, the Clermont, was famously tested and used as a ferry service on the Hudson River using a steam engine brought over from England.

These plates, from a biography of Fulton, written forty years after his death in 1815, show many of his designs, some from his original illustrations and other scenes significant to his legacy in the development of steamship propulsion.