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Updated: June 10, 2025
In no other way could such astonishing speed in the detailed construction of the "Monitor" and other vessels of her type possibly have been made; and the fact that such speed in construction was obtained, and largely in this manner, is by no means the least impressive of the many evidences of Ericsson's genius as a designer.
Mr. Ericsson's practice, however, is to the contrary; and it may turn out that a low vessel, over which the sea makes a clean breach, can be made sufficiently buoyant on his plan, If high sides are necessary, the plan of Mr.
His mind was quick to see a good point and always open to conviction. He had once patented a device for getting flat boats over shoals himself. His immediate approval of the first model of Ericsson's famous Monitor had led to its adoption in time to meet and destroy the Merrimac in Hampton Roads on the very day the iron terror had sent his big ships to the bottom.
Throughout his entire career the improvement of the steam-engine occupied a large share of Ericsson's attention, and in particular was this the case in connection with his naval designs. From the "Princeton," in 1841, to the "Destroyer," in 1878, there succeeded one long series of types and forms of steam-engine, each in his opinion the best adapted to the circumstances of the case.
Yet in not a few cases the original type was faithfully copied, though it is not always clear to what extent Ericsson himself may have had direct contact with their designs. In 1866 the Swedes were able to test the first of a small fleet of monitors built after Ericsson's plans. This was called the "John Ericsson," and was armed with two 15-inch guns presented to Sweden by Ericsson himself.
This was undoubtedly one of Ericsson's most pronounced professional faults. He did not realize that with all his insight into the laws of mechanics and all his capacity for applying these laws to the solution of the problems under consideration, he might well make some use of the work of his fellow-laborers in the same field.
His characteristics were such that achievement was the very essence of life, and, with the promise and potency as revealed in this first twenty-three years of his life, we may be well prepared for the brilliant record of the remaining sixty-three. With Ericsson's arrival in London began the second important period of his life.
Smith's propeller, while capable of propelling a boat, was the design of an amateur rather than of an engineer, and in comparison with Ericsson's seemed to show a somewhat less accurate appreciation of the underlying principles upon which the propeller operates.
Ericsson's name in the popular mind has been most commonly associated with the "Monitor" and her fight with the "Merrimac" in the Civil War, and next, probably, with the screw-propeller as a means of marine propulsion. It will, therefore, be proper at the present point to refer in some further detail to the circumstances connected with his relation to the introduction of the screw-propeller.
The designs once completed on the drawing-board, however, Ericsson's interest in the work ceased in great measure, and as a rule he paid but little attention to constructive details, and took but slight interest in the completed whole. Thus he is said to have visited his "Destroyer" but once after she was built, and then simply in search of his assistant.
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