The Washwoman.
The earliest known drawing by Robert Fulton. Owned by the Estate of Joseph Bringhurst.
He stayed in Devonshire nearly two years, although he returned to London for occasional visits. From Devonshire he went to Birmingham, a town of industrial importance, where he studied the method of the Duke of Bridgewater for building canals from that point to the seaports of England. From that time on his mind was concerned with plans for better means of transport. The years 1792 to 1796 were filled with new activities, new plans, new friends, new places of residence. He visited France, he toured Devonshire, he went to Birmingham and Manchester, the most important manufacturing centers in England where machinery of the highest type then known was in use.
By 1794 Fulton had invented an inclined plane for use in canals, by means of which boats could be lifted by upright hoists or rails to different levels of water; his hope was to avoid the complicated system of locks. He patented it in London, and described himself “Robert Fulton, late of the City of Exeter, but now of the City of London, Gentleman,” which indicates that he had laid aside his former titles, “miniature painter,” and “painter.”
During his stay in Manchester Fulton met young Robert Owen, the manager of Drinkwater’s Mill, the first mill to use steam power. Owen was a fellow of fine intelligence and the two young men found many interests in common.
With other well-chosen comrades they formed a club which met on winter evenings to debate all sorts of subjects,—chemistry, science and religion. They called themselves “philosophers”; and so interesting were their meetings that they were very popular and well attended.
One of the members was John Dalton, who later became a noted chemist, and another was the fine poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, then a student at Cambridge, so he could only come during vacation times.
In 1794 Fulton and Owen formed a partnership for Inclined Planes and Canal Excavations. Owen promised to advance the money and Fulton “to apply his whole time and exertions to the said business.” But the following spring, after a disappointment through the postponement of digging a canal at Gloucester, the two men dissolved the partnership by mutual consent. An unbroken friendship continued between them, and in old age Owen referred with pleasure to the fact that he had been able to advance Fulton in a career which later was of such benefit to the world.
In 1796 Fulton wrote to Owen that he had made an improvement in the “tanning business” and that it promised to pay well. This goes to show how many plans he carried in his fertile brain, but at this time he was chiefly concerned in canal work.