Fulton, Robert (1765-1815) to Mr. Philips
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02480.08 Author/Creator: Fulton, Robert (1765-1815) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 2 July 1805 Pagination: 1 p. : address ; 19.5 x 24.5 cm. Order a Copy
Encloses his remarks [not present] on a book by Richard Parkinson (1748-1815), which he has read at the request of Sir John Sinclair. Fulton explains that his remarks are written in the form of a letter to Sinclair. He also encloses "a Sketch of Philadelphia which maybe of use" [not present]. Fulton was then residing in England.
Parkinson's 1805 book "Tour in America in 1798, 1799, and 1800: Exhibiting Sketches of Society and Manners, and a Particular Account of the American System of Agriculture, with Its Recent Improvements" was highly critical of American society and its "widely disseminated principles of a fallacious equality." Parkinson had written it to discourage his countrymen from emigrating to the United States. Sir John Sinclair was the founder and first president of the British Board of Agriculture. Fulton had previously submitted his own "Treatise on Canal Navigation" to Sinclair and obtained the recommendation of the board. Philips was evidently the editor of an English magazine.
Robert Fulton was an engineer and entrepreneur, often credited with inventing the steamboat. While Fulton did not invent any of the individual components of the steamboat, he did combine the ideas of many other men to make the most successful steamboat. He was an expert on combining numerous ideas of other men into one product, a process he used in numerous other engineering ventures throughout his life.
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