Description:

Robert Fulton DS Re: Cordage Machinery & Ex-Business Partner/Mortal Enemy

A 1p document in French boldly signed by American expatriate inventor Robert Fulton (1765-1815) as "Robert Fulton" near right center. Dated "21 Nivose l'an 7e" in the Republican calendar, or January 10, 1799. On a watermarked laid paper fragment hand-stamped at top with an octagonal cartouche abbreviated "Rep. Fra." ["République française."] Docketed at lower left and verso. Expected wear including even toning, flattened paper folds, and uneven right and bottom edges, else near fine and very legible. 7.625" x 5.375." The signed document comes with a print of Robert Fulton after an original portrait by Benjamin West measuring 5" x 6.25." Also accompanied by an old catalog description attributing this piece to a "N.Y. Coll."

Robert Fulton confirmed that (translated): "I the undersigned acknowledge having received from Cit[ize]n Nathaniel Cutting the sum of two thousand francs to apply towards a Contract for Cordage Machines…"

Fulton had lived abroad in Europe since 1786, studying, working, and traveling. In 1797, Fulton went to Paris to study math, chemistry, and modern foreign languages. While in France, he presumably met Nathaniel Cutting (d. 1824), soon-to-be his business partner, and much later, his most implacable mortal enemy. Cutting was a merchant from Cambridge, Massachusetts who lived at Le Havre after 1792. In 1793, Cutting was appointed U.S. Consul at Le Havre by George Washington. Cutting was also an investor and speculator; his particular interest was in rope-making.

Robert Fulton delved into innumerable other areas of design and engineering besides steamships, including rope-making. The world's navies, merchants marine, and private merchants depended on miles and miles of rope for ship's rigging. In France, unlike in England, rope was laboriously hand-twisted. Fulton and Cutting filed a 15-year-long joint patent in France on May 18, 1799 for "machines à fabriquer toutes espèces de cordes, cables et cordages en général" ["machines to make all types of cords, cables and rigging in general."] In a letter dated June 20, 1798 addressed to Cutting, Fulton had written excitedly about the progress he was making developing his "machine for making ropes," adding that he was now "capable of making a rope one inch diameter." Fulton sold a share of his rope-making technology to Cutting (was this the receipt?), and the two co-patented a "mode of manufacturing cordage" in the United States on March 4, 1808.

The Fulton and Cutting rope-making partnership had deteriorated by 1815 for reasons which are unclear. Cutting evidently felt that he had been cheated in their business dealings, and thereafter, he began spreading rumors that Fulton's designs were cribbed from other successful inventors like John Fitch and Edmund Cartwright. In a January 28, 1815 letter to Cutting, Fulton passionately defended himself against the former's allegations of intellectual theft. In that letter, Fulton stated: “I accept the war. I defy you or any living being to stain my character with one unfair, ungenerous or illiberal act… and I will not lose an instant, in making you answerable for a libel on my character as a man of honor.” Fulton died from tuberculosis at the age of 49 less than one month later.

In addition to developing the first commercially successful steamship service in 1807, and patenting a rope-making machine, Fulton also designed submarines, naval torpedoes, and warships, or floating batteries. He also tinkered with dredging technology, mechanized flax-spinning, marble cutting, and canals which operated by incline planes instead of locks.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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