John Ericsson

John Ericsson (July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish inventor and mechanical engineer, as was his brother, Nils Ericson. He was born at Långbanshyttan in Wermelandia, Sweden, but did primarily come to be active in the United States.

Early Career

John's and Nils's father Olof Ericsson who worked as the supervisor for a mine in Wermelandia had lost money in speculations and had to move his family from Wermelandia to Forsvik in 1810. There he worked as a 'director of blastings' during the excavation of the Swedish Göta Canal. The extraordinary skills of the two brothers were discovered by Baltzar von Platen, the architect of the Göta Canal. The two brothers 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.

Related Topics:
Mine - Forsvik - 1810 - Göta Canal - Baltzar von Platen - Surveyor - Surveying

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At the age of seventeen he joined the Swedish army in Jemtia, serving in the Jemtia Field 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 no success, as his prototype was designed to use birch as fuel and would not work well with coal, which was the primary propellant used in England.

Related Topics:
Swedish army - Jemtia - Jemtia Field Ranger Regiment - Second Lieutenant - Lieutenant - Heat engine - Fume - England - 1826 - Coal

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Notwithstanding the disappointment, he invented several other mechanisms instead based on steam, improving the heating process by adding fans to increase oxygen supply to the fire bed. In 1829 his steam engine "Novelty" joined the competition arranged by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and was fastest in the competition for seven days, but broke on the eighth and lost the competition to the English engineer George and his son Robert Stephenson. The many machines devised and built by Ericsson during this period put him in a harsh economic situation and at this time he also married 19-year-old Amelia Byam, a marriage that was nothing but a huge disaster.

Related Topics:
Steam - Oxygen - 1829 - "Novelty" - Liverpool and Manchester Railway - George - Robert Stephenson

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