The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1853-02-17

Termination.
| Soon after the young ensign had en-
tered upon his regimental duties, an
affair occurred which threatened to OBJ
scure his hitherto bright prospects. His
colonel, Baron Koskull, had been dis
graced by the king about the time that
he had recommended Ericsson for pro-
motion. This circumstance induced the
king to reject the recommendation. The
colonel was exceedingly annoyed by this
rejection, and having in his possession a
military map made by the expectant
ensign, took it to his royal highncss the
crown prince Oscar, and besought him
to intercede for the young man with the
king. The prince received the map
very kindly, expressing great admiration
Of its beautiful finish and execution, and
presented himself in person with it to
the king, who yielded to the joint per-
suasion of the prince and the map, and
promoted the young ensign to the lieu
tenancy for which he had been recon-
mended.
;, About the time of this promotion, the
government had ordered the northern
part of Sweden to be accurately survey
ed. 1t being the desire Of the king that
officers of the army should be employed
in this service, Ericsson, whose regiment
was stationed in the northern highlands,
proceeded to Stockholm, for the pur-
pose of submitting himself to the severe
examination then requisite to precede
the appointment of government survey
or. The mathematical education which
he had received under Count Platen
now proved very serviceab!o. He passed
the examination with great distinction,
and in the course of it, t. the surprise
of the examiners, showed that he could
repeat Euclid verbatim-not by the ex-
ercise Of the memory, which in Ericsson
lis not remarkably retentive, but from
his perfect mastery of geometrical
science. There is no doubt that it is
this thorough knowledge of geometry to
which he is indebted for his clear con-
ceptions on all mechanical subjects.
Having returned to the highlands, he
entered on his new vocation with great
assiduity (; and, supported by an unusu-
ally stlong constitution, he mapped
larger extent of territory in given
time than any other of the numerous
surveyors employed on the work. There
are yet in the archives of Sweden detail
cd maps of upwards of fifty square miles
made by his hand. Neither the great
labors attending these surveys, nor his
military duties, could give sufficient EN-
ployment to the energies of tho young
officer. He now commenced the ardu-
Gus task Of compiling work on canals,
to be illustrated by sixty-four large
plates, representing various buildings,
machines, and instruments connected
with the construction Of such works
The part assigned to him in this enter
prise was nothing less than that of con-
structing all the drawings, as well as of
engraving the numerous plates and as
the plates were to be executed in what
is called machine engraving, be under
took to construct machine for the pur-
pose, which he successfully accomplish
ed The work he prosecuted with so
much industry in the midst of his other
various labors, that, within the first year
of its commencement, he had executed
eighteen large plates, which were pro-
nounced by judges Of machine-engraving
to be of superior merit. l.s
His associate in this undertaking was
German engineering officer, Major
Pentz, who wrote the text in the Ger
man language in preference to the
Swedish, in order to secure wider
circulation. Other labors prevented the
immediate completion of this work and
so rapid is the improvement in civil en-
cineering, that the lapse of a very few
wears, from the time of the intended
publication, would have rendered it of
but little practical utility.
While thus variously occupied, being
ON a visit to the house of his colonel,
Ericsson on one occasion showed his
host, by very, SIMPLE experiment., how
readily and by what simple means me-
chanical power may be produced, inde-
pendently of steam, by condensing fame.
b. Ills friend, being lover of the sciences,
was much struck BY the beauty and sim.
lplicity of the experiment, and prevailed
upon Ericsson to give more attention to
the principle, which he considered
highly important. The young officer
accordingly made some experiments on
an enlarged scale, and succeeded in the
production of a motive-powcr equal to