Robert Fulton
18th Century inventor Robert Fulton was one of the first people to make steamboats commercially viable. Supported by the Livingston family, his first steamboat was named The North River (later referred to as the Clermont). He later went on to oversee a virtual monopoly on steamboat manufacture and travel, before the Supreme Court heard the case Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) which declared that state-regulated monopolies (as Fulton and Livingston had arranged with New York State) could not trump federal commerce laws. After this landmark case, Fulton and Livingston's monopoly on steamboat travel ended.
These public domain biographies of Robert Fulton are arranged by date of publication, so the texts can be put in historical context.
These public domain biographies of Robert Fulton are arranged by date of publication, so the texts can be put in historical context.