Robert Fulton was unique among inventors of his time, since he was born in America, apprenticed in Europe and returned to his native country to perfect his greatest invention, the steamboat. Fulton was born in 1765 of a respectable family in Little Britain, Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County. Unlike many inventors, he was not motivated by paternal leadership since he grew up fatherless after the age of three. His mother is credited for his soaring interest in the world of painting. Despite, or perhaps because of, the loss of his father, Robert's free time was spent with local mechanics or alone with his drawing pencil. By age seventeen, he was accomplished enough as a landscape and portrait artist that he earned income from it in the city of Philadelphia for four years. He earned enough to build a home for his mother in Washington County before...