Robert Fulton

Sutcliffe, Alice CraryProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 246K words
Chapters: 25

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Robert Fulton by Alice Crary SutcliffeAuthor: Sutcliffe, Alice Crary,Language: English, Class: VM: Naval science: Naval architecture, Shipbuilding, Marine engineering, Release Date: Aug 22, 2018

Editor's review

Robert Fulton is a biography by Alice Crary Sutcliffe; the English edition is included in Project Gutenberg and freely available. Fulton is known for making the steamboat practical; this book follows his life and engineering practice and belongs, under the categories of naval science, shipbuilding and marine engineering, to popular biography. For readers who want to understand the development of early steam-powered vessels, the book offers a person-centered perspective: how technical ideas moved through repeated trials toward practical application, and how an individual advanced inventions under the conditions and resource limits of his time. The language is plain and the narrative emphasizes factual organization; it serves well as supplementary reading in the history of technology and navigation. Note that the book was written long ago and its narrative carries the marks of its era; readers should treat its judgments as historical material rather than settled conclusions. As a public-domain ebook it has no modern notes or illustrations; read it alongside reliable works on the history of technology for cross-checking.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in the history of steamships and navigation technology
Middle school students and popular-science fans who need biographical material
Readers studying the history of early engineering who want to see a popular narrative approach
Learners with English reading ability who prefer free public-domain books

Not a good fit for

Professional marine engineers seeking deep technical analysis and engineering drawings
Beginners who find English hard and need a Chinese translation
Readers seeking the latest Fulton research and a survey of scholarly debates

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and chapter titles first to sort out the timeline of Fulton's life, then go into details.
As you read, consult a timeline of navigation and steam engine development to understand the technological context.
Skip early transliterations or old-fashioned expressions for now and follow the overall narrative.
After finishing, look up modern works on the history of technology to supplement and correct the book's judgments.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is in English and is a public-domain ebook. There is no Chinese translation, so some English foundation is needed to read it.

What aspects of Fulton does this book mainly cover?

It is a biography centered on Fulton's life, classified under naval science and shipbuilding, focusing on his engineering practice and steamboat-related experiences rather than systematically explaining ship design principles.

Is the technical content in the book professional?

As a biography for general readers, it emphasizes facts and personal experience; the technical analysis is not deep, and there are no engineering drawings. Professional engineers needing technical details should look for specialized literature.

Can the views in this book be quoted directly?

The book was written long ago and its narrative carries the idiom of its time. It can be used as historical material, but for evaluations and conclusions it is better to compare with modern research on the history of technology rather than quote it as settled fact.

Comments

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About the author

Sutcliffe, Alice Crary Author

Alice Crary Sutcliffe is an author about whom very little public information is available, and what can be confirmed centers on a single work. She wrote a biographical book titled Robert Fulton, dealing with the life of Robert Fulton, a key figure in the development of the steamboat who is known to the public for helping make steam-powered navigation practical. Sutcliffe's book takes this figure as its subject and belongs to the kind of writing that sits at the intersection of biography and the history of technology. Because only this one work is held in the collection, and no records of birth and death dates, nationality, or educational background exist, it is not possible to assess her overall body of work or writing style. On the available evidence, the book is likely aimed at general readers and presents Fulton's life and inventions in a narrative form. A fuller assessment of this author would require more public information.