United States or Åland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
While he slept a pixie came to him and whispered in his ear that in time to come a house should be built on that part of farmer Ericsson's land, and that two boys should be born there who should make the name of Ericsson known round the world. The shepherd was much excited by the news, and as soon as he reached the Ericsson house he told the fairy's prophecy.
During the winter of 1816-17 and at the age of thirteen, John Ericsson received regular instruction from some of his officers in Algebra, Chemistry, Field Drawing, and Geometry, and the English language. Ericsson's education previous to this seems to have consisted chiefly in lessons at home or from tutors, after the manner of the time.
On her trial trip in 1815 this first steam man-of-war, the U. S. S. Fulton, carried 26 guns and made over 6 knots, but she was then laid up and was destroyed a few years later by fire. Ericsson's successful application of the screw propeller in 1837 made steam propulsion more feasible for battleships by clearing the decks and eliminating the clumsy and exposed side-wheels.
In much the same way that the appearance of the Merrimac had brought destruction to the wooden fleet until she was herself forced to flee before Ericsson's Monitor at Hampton Roads, so now at Port Townsend on May seventh a new weapon was made to stand the crucial test. Only this time we were not the pathfinders of the new era.
Ericsson's lasting imprint on engineering practice, curious as it may seem, was made in his earlier and middle life, rather than in his later years, and we have even more in the way of permanent acquisition from his earlier than from his middle years.
While these negotiations were under way, in 1838, he built for Captain Stockton a screw-steamer named the "Robert F. Stockton," the trials of which attracted much attention from the public at large and from engineers of the time. At about the same period Ericsson's propeller was fitted to a canal-boat called the "Novelty," plying between Manchester and London.
Distinguished engineers predicted that she would never float; and many attended the launch expecting to see the vessel plunge from the ways to the bottom of the river, like a turtle from a log. So general was this opinion, that boats were in readiness to rescue her passengers if she went down. But Capt. Ericsson's plans were well laid.
This was presumably the first instance of a screw-propeller employed on a vessel actually used for commercial purposes. Finally, in pursuance of Ericsson's plans with Captain Stockton, he left England Nov. 1, 1839, and started for New York in the steamer "Great Western," where he arrived November 23, after a long and stormy passage.
The building of the Monitor for its successful battle with the Merrimac was the most dramatic incident in Ericsson's career as an inventor, but his whole life showed a series of wonderful inventions which for value and wide range can probably only be compared with those of Edison.
The characteristic features of Ericsson's life up to this time, when he had reached his twenty-third year, are energy, industry, independence, all in most pronounced degree, and combined with a most astonishing insight into mechanical and scientific questions.
Word Of The Day