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John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American engineer and inventor. He was active in England and the United States.
Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive Novelty, which competed in the Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which were won by inventor George Stephenson's (1781–1848), Rocket. Later in North America, he designed the United States Navy's first screw-propelled steam-frigate , in partnership with Captain (later Commodore) Robert F. Stockton (1795–1866) of the U.S. Navy, who unjustly blamed him for a fatal accident on the new vessel in 1844. A new partnership with Cornelius H. DeLamater (1821–1889), of the DeLamater Iron Works in New York City resulted in the first armoured ironclad warship equipped with a rotating gun turret, , which dramatically saved the U.S. (Union Navy) naval blockading squadron from destruction by an ironclad Confederate States naval vessel, , at the famous Battle of Hampton Roads harbor at the southern mouth of the Chesapeake Bay (at the confluence of the James and Elizabeth Rivers) in March 1862, during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
The extraordinary skills of the two Ericsson brothers were discovered by Baltzar von Platen (1766–1829), the architect of Göta Canal. They were dubbed 'cadets of mechanics' of the Swedish Royal Navy, and engaged as trainees at the canal enterprise. At the age of fourteen, John was already working independently as a surveyor. His assistant had to carry a footstool for him to reach the instruments during surveying work. At the age of seventeen he joined the Swedish army in Jämtland, serving in the Jämtland Ranger Regiment, as a Second Lieutenant, but was soon promoted to Lieutenant. He was sent to northern Sweden to do surveying, and in his spare time he constructed a heat engine which used the fumes from the fire instead of steam as a propellant. His skill and interest in mechanics made him resign from the army and move to England in 1826. However, his heat engine was not a success, as his prototype was designed to burn and would not work well with coal (the main fuel used in England).
Notwithstanding the disappointment, he invented several other mechanisms instead based on steam, improving the heating process by incorporating bellows to increase oxygen supply to the fire bed. In 1829 he and English engineer John Braithwaite (1797–1870) built Novelty for the Rainhill Trials arranged by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It was widely praised but suffered recurring boiler problems, and the competition was won by English engineers George and Robert Stephenson with Rocket.
Two further engines were built by Braithwaite and Ericsson, named William IV and Queen Adelaide after the new king and queen. These were generally larger and more robust than Novelty and differed in several details (for example it is thought that a different design of blower was used which was an 'Induced Draught' type, sucking the gases from the fire). The pair ran trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but the railway declined to purchase the new designs.
Their innovative steam fire engine proved an outstanding technical success by helping to quell the memorable Argyll Rooms fire on February 5, 1830 (where it worked for five hours when the other engines were frozen up),Burnett, Constance Buel (1960) Captain John Ericsson: Father of the Monitor, Vanguard Press, New York, p. 107. but was met with resistance from London's established 'Fire Laddies' and municipal authorities. An engine Braithwaite and Ericsson constructed for Sir John Ross's 1829 Arctic expedition failed and was dumped on the shores of Prince Regent Inlet. At this stage of Ericsson's career the most successful and enduring of his inventions was the surface condenser, which allowed a steamer to recover fresh water for its boilers while at sea. His 'deep sea lead,' a pressure-activated fathometer was another minor, but enduring success.
The commercial failure and development costs of some of the machines devised and built by Ericsson during this period put him into debtors' prison for an interval. At this time he also married 19-year-old Amelia Byam, a disastrous match that ended in the couple's separation until Amelia's death.
He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1877.
The ship took about three years to complete and was perhaps the most advanced warship of its time. In addition to steam-powered twin screw propellers, it was originally designed to mount a 12-inch muzzle-loading gun on a revolving pedestal. The gun had also been designed by Ericsson and used hoop gun to pre-tension the breech, adding to its strength and allowing safe use of a larger charge. Other innovations on the warship design included a collapsible smoke funnel and an improved recoil system for the artillery.
The relations between Ericsson and Stockton had grown tense over time and, approaching the completion of the ship, Stockton began working to force Ericsson out of the shipbuilding project. Stockton carefully avoided letting outsiders know that Ericsson was the primary inventor. Stockton attempted to claim as much credit for himself as possible, even designing a second gun to be also mounted on the Princeton. Unfortunately, because Stockton did not totally understand the design of the first gun (originally named "The Orator", renamed "The Oregon" by Stockton), the second gun was fatally flawed.
When launched, the USS Princeton was an enormous success. On October 20, 1843, she won a speed trial against the huge passenger liner, paddle steamer , until then considered the fastest steamer afloat. Unfortunately, during a firing demonstration of Capt. Stockton's gun, the breech ruptured and exploded, killing visiting onboard observers of U.S. Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and the Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Walker Gilmer (of the Presidential Cabinet of 10th President John Tyler, 1790-1862, served 1841-1845), as well as six others accompanying them. Stockton attempted to deflect the blame onto Ericsson, with moderate success, despite the fact Ericsson's gun was sound and it was instead Stockton's second gun that had failed. Stockton also refused to pay Ericsson, and by using his political connections, Stockton blocked the U.S. Navy bureaucracy from paying him.
The Iron Witch was next constructed, the first iron steamboat. The first hot-air invention of Capt Ericsson was first introduced in the ship Ericsson, built entirely by DeLamater. The DeLamater Iron Works also launched the first submarine boat, first self-propelled torpedo, and first torpedo boat. When DeLamater died on February 2, 1889, Ericsson could not be consoled. Ericsson's own death only one month later in March 1889, was not surprising to his close friends and acquaintances."
In 1830, Ericsson patented his second engine, that can work either with steam, air or water. This rotative engine objective is to reduce the engine within more convenient limits without any corresponding loss of power.
By 1833, Capt. Ericsson built his third engine, a hot air engine (or caloric engine) that is exhibited in London: "the engine will prove the most important mechanical invention ever conceived by the human mind, and one that will confer greater benefits on civilized life than any that has ever preceded it" (John O. Sargent). This engine included a regenerator that would inspire many other hot air engine inventors.
The caloric ship, powered by the fourth Ericsson engine was built in 1852.
A group of New York merchants and financiers headed by John B Kitching, Edward Dunham, President of the Corn Exchange Bank, and G.B. Lamar, president of the Bank of the Republic, backed the project and in April, 1852, the keel of the ship was laid at the yard of Perine, Patterson, and Stack in Williamsburgh. At about the same time the construction of the engine was commenced by Messrs Hogg and Delamater. Hull and machinery were built in the greatest possible secrecy, both Ericsson and his financial backers being convinced that their ship would revolutionize ocean transport by its economy and safety, and that competitors would if possible copy the design of at least the engine. On September 15, 1852, the ship was launched and in November the engine was turned over at the dock under its own power. It will be a failure. Smaller experimental engines based on the same patent design and built before the caloric ship will prove to be working efficiently.
In his later years, the caloric engine would render Ericsson comfortably wealthy, as its boilerless design made it a much safer and more practical means of power for small industry than steam engines. Ericsson's incorporation of a 'regenerator' heat sink for his engine made it tremendously fuel-efficient. Apparently in the post Civil War era some time before or around 1882, from the publishing date, a ship was purchased by a Captain Charles L. Dingley called the Ericsson with a weight of 1,645 tons that was built by John Ericsson (Although the above section on John Ericsson's Friendship with Cornelius H. DeLamater says that the ship known as the Ericsson was built by the DeLamater Iron Works) to try out the hot air engine as a motive power in open ocean navigation.
Decades later, in 1883 John Ericsson built a solar air engine of 1 HP. The leading feature of the sun motor is that of concentrating the radiant heat by means of a rectangular trough having a curved bottom lined on the inside with polished plates, so arranged that they reflect the sun's rays toward a cylindrical heater placed longitudinally above the trough. This heater, it is scarcely necessary to state, contains the acting medium, steam or air, employed to transfer the solar energy to the motor; the transfer being effected by means of cylinders provided' with pistons and valves resembling those of motive engines of the ordinary type. Practical engineers, as well as scientists, have demonstrated that solar energy cannot be rendered available for producing motive power, in consequence of the feebleness of solar radiation.
On March 8, the former heavy steam frigate USS Merrimack, rechristened as the , for the new Confederate States Navy, was wreaking havoc on the wooden Union Navy Blockading Squadron in the lower / southern Chesapeake Bay of Virginia, sinking and and damaging / running aground the USS Minnesota off-shore of the northside peninsula from Newport News. The new Monitor appeared the next day, initiating the first battle between ironclad warships on March 9, 1862, at the Hampton Roads harbor of southeastern Virginia. The battle ended in a tactical stalemate between the two ironclad warships, neither of which appeared capable of sinking the other, only causing minor damage on its opponent, but strategically saved the remaining Federal fleet from losing any more now obsolete wooden warships and defeat. After this, numerous monitors were built for the Union's United States Navy, including additional twin turret versions, and contributed greatly to the further continued success of the blockade of Southern coasts and port cities with naval victory of the Union over the rebellious states. Despite their low draft and subsequent problems in navigating in high seas, plus frequent engine break-downs, many basic design elements of the Monitor class were copied in future warships by other designers and navies around the world. The rotating gun turret in particular is considered one of the greatest technological advances in naval history, still found on modern warships today.
His final resting place is at Filipstad in Värmland, Sweden.
Monuments in honor of John Ericsson have been erected at:
Ships named in his honor:
Organizations:
Mount Ericsson, a mountain summit located in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, is named in his honor.
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