Fulton’s Folly

Quick answer: Did Robert Fulton invent the steamboat?

No. John Fitch ran a steamboat on the Delaware in 1787, twenty years earlier. Robert Fulton's achievement, on August 17, 1807, was making one work as a system: after his boat stalled at the New York wharf, he fixed the engine and steamed 150 miles to Albany against the current in about thirty-two hours.

The crowd on the New York wharf came to watch a spectacle fail. They'd been calling Robert Fulton's boat “Fulton's Folly” for weeks. On August 17, 1807, the paddle wheels bit, the boat pulled away, and not far out it simply stopped. Aboard, guests said aloud what the shore was yelling: it's a foolish scheme. Fulton asked for thirty minutes, went below into the hot dark, found a “slight maladjustment,” and fixed it. The boat ran through the night and reached Albany, 150 miles upstream against the current, in about thirty-two hours. Then he ran it home again. But John Fitch had already built a working steamboat on the Delaware in 1787, while the Constitution was being argued a few streets away. Fitch lies in Bardstown, Kentucky, largely forgotten. Within twenty years, hundreds of steamboats carried a coastal country inland. John's lesson: the world remembers the one who won't quit until the whole system runs, not the one who saw it first.

Why it matters for leaders: Vision gets you started, but leaders are remembered for doing the unglamorous work of making the thing run.

Q: What happened when Fulton's boat stopped?

A: He asked doubtful guests for thirty minutes, went below, fixed what he called a slight maladjustment, and the boat ran on through the night.

Q: What came after Fulton's run?

A: Within twenty years hundreds of steamboats ran the western rivers, carrying a coastal country inland.

Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/fultons-folly

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation