Robert Fulton's Torpedoes

Cutcliffe and Fabbri feature Robert Fulton, usually remembered as the American inventor of the steamboat and designer of other technical systems, such as a canal system that used inclined planes instead of locks to raise and lower canal boats, and an early submarine that he originally called a plunging boat. A dedicated innovator, Fulton hoped to make his fortune by offering his torpedo system to the highest bidder, and he tried in earnest to sell it to at least three national government--the French, the British, and the US. Furthermore, he considered his torpedo system more important than the steamboat, but history proved otherwise.