Robert Foulis (1796– January 28, 1866) was a Canadian inventor, civil engineer and artist noted for his invention of the steam-powered foghorn.
[1] After training in engineering, he moved to Belfast, where he met his first wife, Elizabeth Leatham.
Due to a storm, his ship had to put in to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Scottish friends convinced him to stay.
[12][13] 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.
[14][15] 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.