rom a young age, Fulton showed a great talent for art. After his father died, he moved to Philadelphia and painted portraits and landscapes and provided technical drawings for houses and machinery to provide for his mother and siblings. While in Philadelphia, he met Benjamin Franklin and several businessmen who encouraged him to travel to Europe to further his art training. Fulton arrived in England in 1786 and lived with Benjamin West, who had been friends with his father. While Fulton received several commissions for portraits and landscapes, he liked to experiment with inventions in his free time. This led Fulton to develop his idea for tub-boat canals that used inclined planes instead of locks. He also began researching the use of steam for boats and patented a dredging machine.