Robert Fulton

Robert Fulton was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. As a young man he worked in Philadelphia as a painter of miniature portraits, and in 1787 he went to London to study painting. There he became interested in canals and engineering. In France he designed one of the first working submarines, the Nautilus, which he offered to Napoleon's government and then to Britain. In Paris he met Robert Livingston, the American minister to France, who held rights to steam navigation on New York's rivers, and they became partners. Back in New York, Fulton built a steamboat using an engine from Boulton and Watt in England. In August 1807 his boat, known as the Clermont, steamed up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany, about 150 miles, in thirty-two hours, while sailing sloops took days. Regular passenger service began soon after, and steamboats spread across America's rivers. Fulton went on to design a steam warship for the defense of New York harbor during the War of 1812. He died of illness in 1815.

Faith: Faith not well documented; he is buried in the cemetery of Trinity Church (Episcopal) in New York. Source: Wikipedia