Robert Fulton's - Sighting mechanism for the "plungiung boat" or submarine
 
 
An historical note and picture, courtesy of Ron Martini.... 
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EYES OF THE NATION 
  A Visual History of the United States 

BY: Vincent Virga 
  Curator of the Library of Congress 

Page 89 

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Robert Fulton. Sighting mechanism for the "plungiung boat" or submarine. Drawing, graphite, ink, and watercolor. [London], 1806. 

French emporer Napoleon Bonaparte subsidized American inventor Robert Fulton's development of the first practical submarine. Successful tests of the 'Nautilus' were carried out at the port of Le Havre in the winter of 1800-01, when Fulton and three mechanics descended to a depth of twenty-five feet. The machine later destroyed a heavy brig in trials for the interested British near Deal, England, in 1804. Fulton returned to the United States in 1806, the same year this drawing was made, and in August of 1807 his commercially viable steamboat 'Clermont' made her famous voyage from New York to Albany, opening new chapters in human transportation, commerce, and warfare.

 
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