194. Fulton goes to England and to France; his iron bridges; his
diving-boat, and what he did with it in France.--Soon after buying
the farm for his mother, young Fulton went to England and then to
France. He staid in those countries twenty years. In England Fulton
built some famous iron bridges, but he was more interested in boats
than in anything else.
While he was in France he made what he called a diving-boat. It would
go under water nearly as well as it would on top, so that wherever
a fish could go, Fulton could follow him. His object in building such
a boat was to make war in a new way. When a swordfish[3] attacks a
whale, he slips round under him and stabs the monster with his sword.
Fulton said, 'If an enemy's war-ship should come into the harbor to
do mischief, I can get into my diving-boat, slip under the ship,
fasten a torpedo[4] to it, and blow the ship "sky high."'
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