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Because they wereso expensive, his steamboats wereunsuccessfu l. The first successfu l steamboatwas the Clermont, which was built byAmerican inventor Robert Fulton in 1807.The Clermont was the combinedeffort of Fulton and Robert Livingston.Fulton was born in Lancaster County,Pennsylvania. By the age of 17, he wasworking as a painter in Philadelphia.
Fulton directed the construction of a steamboat in New York in 1807. Registered as the North River Steam Boat, the ship was generally called the Clermont after the Hudson River home of Robert Livingston.