Robert Foulis (1796– January 28, 1866) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

inventor, civil engineer and artist noted for his invention of the steam-powered

foghorn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. ...

Early life

Robert Foulis was born May 5, 1796, in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. After training in engineering, he moved to Belfast, where he met his first wife, Elizabeth Leatham. After Elizabeth's death in

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...

in 1817, Foulis determined to move to the United States. Leaving his newborn daughter with a great-aunt (who would later join him), he set sail for the US. Due to a storm, his ship had to put in to

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

, where Scottish friends convinced him to stay. Sources vary on his date of arrival in Halifax, with both 1818 and 1819 possible. In Halifax he taught drawing classes and painted portraits in oil.

Life in Saint John

In 1820 settled in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John () is a port#seaport, seaport city located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is Canada's oldest Municipal corporation, incorporated city, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign ...

, where he was appointed deputy land surveyor in 1822. After he surveyed the upper Saint John River for the feasibility of

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

ping, he became involved with the buildings of several early steamboats and the first Saint John harbour

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

. In 1825, Foulis founded the Saint John Foundry, the province's second

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

. He continued his interest in art, founding a ''School of Arts'' in 1838. In 1852, Foulis invented an apparatus to produce coal gas from the distillation of

albertite Albertite is a variety of Bitumen, asphalt found in the Albert Formation in Albert County, New Brunswick, and in a deposit at Dingwall, in the north-east of Scotland. It is a type of solid hydrocarbon. Albertite has a black colour, a resinous lu ...

; His New Brunswick contemporacy and compatriot,

Abraham Pineo Gesner Abraham Pineo Gesner (May 2, 1797 – April 29, 1864) was a Nova Scotian and New Brunswickan physician and geologist who invented kerosene. Gesner was born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia (now called Chipmans Corner) and lived much of his life ...

, would use albertite to perfect his own distillation technique to produce kerosene, first demonstrated in 1846. The two disputed the primacy of their methods in court, but Foulis lost. his intention was that the gas could be used instead of whale oil when illuminating

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

s. Foulis installed the system in the Partridge island lighthouse in 1853. The invention that would bring Foulis his greatest recognition was the steam-powered foghorn. In 1853, as he was walking towards his house on a foggy night, he heard his daughter playing her piano. Noticing he could only hear the very low notes of the piano, he realized that a device that emitted low frequency sound could be used to warn ships approaching the Saint harbour in the dense

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

. He spent the next six years trying to convince the New Brunswick lighthouse commissioners to allow him to install his foghorn design on the nearby Partridge Island. In 1859 permission for the foghorn to be installed on Partridge Island was granted to the engineer T. T. Vernon Smith, who had obtained Foulis' plans. The foghorn went into service on Partridge island, and a patent dispute between the two men followed. He ultimately failed to obtain any patent rights to his foghorn design, although the provincial legislature recognized him as the rightful inventor. Following business ventures of varying success, Foulis died in poverty.

Notes

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foulis, Robert 1796 births 1866 deaths Canadian inventors Scottish civil engineers Engineers from Glasgow Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation New Brunswick