The author has been instrumental in bringing to light a mass of documentary matter relative to Robert Fulton, and has thus been able to present the facts about him in an entirely new light. The interesting but little known episode of his career as an artist is for the first time fully dealt with. His stay in France and his experiments under the Directory and the Empire with the submarine and with the steamboat are elucidated with the aid of documents preserved in the Archives Nationales at Paris. His subsequent withdrawal from France and his employment by the British Cabinet to destroy the Boulogne flotilla that Napoleon had prepared in 1804 to invade England are gone into fully. The latter part of his career in the United States, spent in the introduction of steam navigation and in the construction of the first steam-propelled warship, is of the greatest interest. With the lapse of time facts assume naturally their true perspective. It is believed that practically nothing of moment in Fulton's career has been omitted. The illustrations, which are numerous, are drawn in nearly every case from the original sources. It may confidently be expected therefore, that this book will take its place as the authoritative biography which everyone interested in the subjects enumerated above will require to possess.