FULMINATION 



2348 



FULTON 



FULMINA'TION, in chemistry, a word de- 

 scribing an explosion of certain compounds by 

 percussion or heat. Fulminates, or explosive 

 compounds consisting of fulminic acid and 

 mercury, gold, silver or platinum, are used as 

 priming in percussion caps to cause the ex- 

 plosion of gunpowder in cartridges and shells. 

 Fulminate of mercury, most commonly used, 

 is obtained by dissolving mercury in nitric 

 acid and then adding alcohol to the solution. 

 The fulminating, or explosive, mercury is de- 

 posited in crystals ; the process is attended with 

 danger, as when dry the crystals explode if 

 struck even lightly by any hard substance. 



FUL'TON, N. Y., a center for the cheese 

 trade of the northern part of the state, is sit- 

 uated in Oswego County, on the east bank of 

 the Oswego River and on the Oswego Canal, 

 a branch of the New York State Barge Canal 

 (which see). The city of Oswego is twelve 

 miles northwest and Syracuse is twenty-six 

 miles southeast. The New York, Ontario & 

 Western, the New York Central and the Dela- 

 ware, Lackawanna & Western railways serve 

 the city. Electric lines connect with points 

 north and south, and water transportation is 

 had with Lake Ontario through the canal. 

 In 1791 the first settlement was made, in 1835 

 it was incorporated as a village, and in 1902 

 the villages of Fulton and Oswego Falls con- 

 solidated and were incorporated as the city of 

 Fulton. A Federal estimate in 1916 indicated 

 a population of 11,908, an increase of 1,428 

 since 1910. The area of the city is a little 

 more than three square miles. 



Fulton has a considerable trade in milk and 

 tobacco. Its principal industrial plants include 

 paper mills, canneries, flour mills and manu- 

 factories of infants' food, chocolate, firearms, 

 woolen goods and paper-mill machinery. About 

 2,800 people are employed in the factory of 

 one woolen company. Fulton is also actively 

 engaged in the building of motor boats, canoes 

 and yachts. A post office, erected in 1915, a 

 city hall and a public library are the most 

 notable buildings. City Park, Schenck Park 

 and Fultonian Park are attractive recreation 

 and amusement spots. D.S.H. 



FULTON, ROBERT (1765-1815), an American 

 engineer, inventor of the first successful steam- 

 boat and of the first steam-propelled war ves- 

 sel. Though he hit upon the idea of steam 

 navigation independently, he was not the first 

 to try it; but this by no means detracts from 

 the glory of his achievement (see FITCH, 

 JOHN). He was born at Little Britain, Pa., a 



ROBERT FULTON 



town which has since been rechristened Fulton, 

 and because of the poverty of his parents he 

 was in school only long enough to learn to read 

 and write. While working for a jeweler he took 

 up portrait and 

 landscape paint- 

 ing with such suc- 

 cess that he was 

 able to buy a 

 farm and in 1787 

 to go to London 

 to study painting 

 with his noted fel- 

 low-country man, 

 Benjamin West. 

 Acquaintances 

 whom he made 

 there discovered 

 in him the me- 

 chanical genius which he himself seems not to 

 have felt, and .induced him to devote himself 

 to engineering. A patent for a double-inclined 

 plane to be used instead of canal locks, patents 

 for flax-spinning and rope-making machines and 

 for a marble-cutting mill these were evidences 

 that his genius was of the practical and usable 

 kind. 



In 1796 he went to Paris and there worked 

 diligently upon one of his great ideas a sub- 

 marine torpedo boat. Though he demon- 

 strated the value of his invention, neither the 

 French nor the English nor the American gov- 

 ernment was interested in it, and he turned 

 his serious attention to the making of a steam- 

 boat. The first successful one was launched 

 on the Seine in 1803, but the French govern- 

 ment refused to take up this invention also, 

 and Fulton returned in 1806 to the United 

 States, having first revisited England and sent 

 home an engine. In 1807 he launched upon 

 the Hudson the famous Clermont, which puffed 

 slowly up the river to the amazement of the 

 thousands of spectators who had gathered to 

 watch the wonder. Five miles an hour was 

 its average speed, but an increase in that 

 proved a comparatively easy matter when 

 once he had established the principle. Later 

 Fulton constructed for the United States gov- 

 ernment various engineering works and the 

 steam frigate Fulton, launched in 1815, and 

 was engaged on an improvement of his sub- 

 marine torpedo when he died. Great honor 

 was paid him in his latter years, and he h#d 

 the happiness of knowing that his work was 

 appreciated. He might have been wealthy, 

 but lawsuits over the infringement of his 



