A savvy artist-turned-technologist took steamboat inventions and innovated them into the first viable commercial steamboat service.

Although Robert Fulton did not invent the steamboat, as is commonly believed, he was instrumental in making steamboat travel a reality. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1765. As a young man, he set out to make his name as a portrait painter. His career would take him to Europe -- and into the orbit of people with the power to back him politically and financially.

Fulton ventured into London society after he painted Benjamin Franklin's portrait. While abroad, Fulton left the arts for a career in canal and shipbuilding. He was interested in the recently-invented steam engine, and thought it could be used to power ships. Fulton's vision was not original; many others had entered the field, and the unfortunate inventor John Fitch had built a working steamship already. But like Henry Ford, Fulton's genius lay not in invention but in adaptation for the marketplace.

Fulton's innovation left quite a legacy. Steamboat travel was instrumental to the industrial revolution in America, helping manufacturers transport raw materials and finished goods quickly. It also opened up the American continent to exploration, settlement, and exploitation. Fulton died of pneumonia in February 1815, having created the service that carried Americans into a prosperous future.