Steam Navigation and Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United States

by James Croil

I. CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON.

The name and fame of the inventor of the screw propeller are less widely known in Britain than in America, and in neither country, perhaps, has full justice been done to his memory. As a mechanical genius, he was one of the most remarkable men of his time, and did much to promote the development of steam navigation.

Ericsson was born in the Province of Vermeland, in Sweden, in the year 1803. Coming to England in 1826, he entered into partnership with Braithwaite, a noted mechanician, in London, and there and then entered upon his remarkable career as an inventor. In 1836 he married Amelia, daughter of Mr. John Byam, second son of Sir John Byam. Accompanied by his wife, he came to the United States, arriving at New York, in the British Queen, November 2nd, 1839. His wife, however, soon afterwards returned to England, and during the rest of their lives, “by an amicable arrangement,” the Atlantic rolled between.

Before leaving England, Ericsson had already patented a number of his inventions. One of the first of these was a machine for compressing air, a discovery which has since proved valuable in the construction of long tunnels and in many other ways. The introduction of his system of artificial draught was the key-note of the principle on which rapid locomotion chiefly depends. He electrified London with his steam fire-engine, but the conservative authorities would not countenance “a machine that consumed so much water!” In 1829 he entered into competition with Robert Stephenson, when a prize of £500 was offered for the best locomotive. He came off second-best, but it was a feather in his cap that his locomotive, the Novelty, glided smoothly over the track at the amazing speed of thirty miles an hour! His experiments with hot air occupied much of his time, and not without valuable results. His forte, however, was in the construction of steam-engines, of which he designed a large number, introducing many new principles, some of which were destined to survive.

Ericsson’s first stroke of business in the United States made him famous. The Princeton war-ship ([see page 69]), built at the Philadelphia navy-yard under his direction, and fitted with his screw propeller, proved a great success, and gained him the favour and patronage of the government officials. Soon after the completion of the Princeton, he embarked in what he then accounted the greatest enterprise of his life—

THE CALORIC SHIP “ERICSSON.”

With the financial assistance of several wealthy friends in New York, Ericsson proceeded to build a large sea-going vessel, to be propelled by means of hot air. It was a costly experiment, involving an outlay of $500,000, the engines alone costing $130,000. The cylinders were 168 inches in diameter, with six-feet stroke. The machinery was in motion within seven months of the laying of the vessel’s keel. On her trial trip the Ericsson attained a speed of eight miles an hour, and subsequently as much as eleven miles an hour. The Ericsson was at once a success and a failure. She sustained the inventor’s theory as to the power of heated air, but so excessive was the temperature of the air required to develop the power, the cylinders were warped out of shape and some of the fittings were burned to a crisp. The costly experiment was consequently abandoned. The caloric engine was replaced by an ordinary steam-engine, and thus transformed the Ericsson earned her living for many years.

THE “MONITOR.”

This further product of Ericsson’s fertile brain is in the form of an armour-protected, semi-submerged steam vessel for war purposes, and first came prominently into notice in connection with the memorable contest which took place in Hampton Roads on the 9th of March, 1862, between the Merrimac and Monitor. The former was an old wooden vessel refitted by the Confederate Government at Norfolk navy-yard, and covered with protective armour to the water-line. The Monitor was a flat iron boat resembling a scow, with nothing visible above water save the flush deck, from the centre of which rose a massive iron tower containing two guns of heavy calibre. The “cheese-box,” as the Monitor was contemptuously styled, held her own against the Merrimac, which carried eleven guns. It was a drawn battle, but a victory for Ericsson, and resulted in many other steam vessels of this description being built for harbour and coast defence under his supervision.

John Ericsson died in New York on the 8th of March, 1889. Vide “Ericsson and His Inventions,” in Atlantic Monthly for July, 1862, and “John Ericsson, the Engineer,” in Scribner’s Magazine for March, 1890.