Q 01/05

Robert Fulton fell fatally ill in 1815 after rescuing his lawyer friend from which accident?

A) A capsized rowboat

B) A runaway carriage

C) A fall through ice

D) A warehouse fire

Answer · why

C) A fall through ice

A fall through ice on the frozen river nearly drowned his friend Thomas Addis Emmet. Fulton hauled him out, got soaked, and died soon afterwards at 49...

Q 02/05

Robert Fulton named his floating bombs torpedoes, a word that first meant which sea creature?

A) Electric ray

B) Hammerhead shark

C) Moray eel

D) Swordfish

Answer · why

A) Electric ray

Electric ray was the original meaning of torpedo, from the Latin for sluggishness. Fulton borrowed it for his mines and titled an 1810 book Torpedo Wa...

Q 03/05

Before he became an engineer, Robert Fulton earned his living in London in which profession?

A) Clockmaker

B) Portrait painter

C) Newspaper printer

D) Land surveyor

Answer · why

B) Portrait painter

Portrait painter was Fulton's first career, and Benjamin Franklin was among his sitters. His London pictures won so little notice that he gave up art ...

Q 04/05

Besides its steam engine, Robert Fulton's 1807 steamboat carried which older means of propulsion?

A) Oars

B) Poles

C) Horses

D) Sails

Answer · why

D) Sails

Sails could be unfurled on a short mast at each end of the boat. Fulton boasted that the first trip was made wholly by steam, against a light headwind...

Q 05/05

Which French ruler branded Robert Fulton a swindler after he scrapped his leaky submarine?

A) Napoleon

B) Louis XVI

C) Robespierre

D) Louis XVIII

Answer · why

A) Napoleon

Napoleon asked to see the submarine in 1801, only to learn Fulton had already broken it up. The French navy thought such a weapon suicidal for its cre...