The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-01-10
The Caloric Engine.

The Caloric Engine.
We place in another column an article from
the New York Herald, giving detailed ac-
count of the results of the trial excursion of the
pioneer ship in the Caloric line, with minute
description of her internal arrangements. All
the New York journals unite in representing
her success as completely triumphant. We
may now say that Captain ERIcssoN has
realized the hope Of his life and reached the
goal Of his ambition. To invent a substitute
for the steam engine that should operate upon
less enormous consumption of fuel, and less
wholesale destruction of human beings, has
been the great object of his life. To this object
he has devoted his mind and his means, his
time and his resources, for the last five and
twenty years. He has wrought with the en-
thusiastic belief that it was his mission in the
world to, supersede steam as a motive power
by some more manageable and innocuous agent.
He has fulfilled his mission.
The two important points in his invention
are economy and safety. The engine of the
Ericsson is kept in motion by oaaeJffth of the
fuel that would be consumed by steam engine
of the same power. Here at once is a vast
saving in coal, in labor, and in shiproom.
| Then there is no danger from explosion by
recklessness, oversight, ignorance-no dan
ger from fire, or from the thousand and
one accidents to which we are always liable
in steam navigation. We may travel in a
Caloric ship without feeling ourselves per-
petually liable to be boiled, broiled, or blown
up. There is nothing to apprehend from
an incompetent, excited, or rash engineer,
In the management of Caloric engine; for
when 1t is once set in motion it needs no
watching, and will run of itself for hours with
out calling for human aid. The worst that could
happen, were the engine abandoned, would be
for the machinery to stop some time after all
/ the fires were extinguished.
AS this enterprise is exciting more present
interest in the scientific and commercial worl d
than any other subject, we have thought it
might be well to reproduce partial account of
the Galore Engine from a lecture upon ER1es-
SON and some of his inventions delivered before
the Boston Lyceum in December, l843-
pnearly ten years ago-and published in the fol-
lowing May by WILEY and PUTNAM, of New
York. This lecture was reprinted at the time
in the leading scientific journals of ENGLAND,
| and translated into several of the Continental
languages. 1t possesses interest from the fact Of
Its showing the length of time during which
Captain Ericsson has pursued his studies and
experiments in this country, before perfecting
| In hoe hoo,
| his part to amuse the public with an incom-
pete and unfinished work, or to bring it be-
fore the world with insufficient means and in
an inadequate style. Captain Ericsson has
waited, calmly and patiently, till he has seen
| his way clear to demonstrate his success in a
manner and through medium that must com
| mand the attention of the world. 4asat
While this matter apparently rested in ex-
pertinent, we were cautious in expressing san
gulne expectations of complete success. We
now regard the triumph of the inventor as Sc
cure. A new era in the annals of navigation
has commenced. The cage of steam no
longer, the present is destined to be styled
the Age of Caloric. But few years will
elapse before the ocean will be traversed by
Caloric lines. They will shortly divide the
passage money of the world with the steam
companies. and will absorb inevitably the
larger portion of the freights. The combination
OF the Caloric engine with the propeller will
enable ship thus equipped to go round the
world without exhausting her supply of coal.
Commercially, the invention will prove Of in
finite advantage to mankind-but when we
reflect upon the thousand on thousand of hui
man beings who perish miserably every year,
by sea and land, in consequence of the use or
abuse of steam as a motive power, we cannot
over-estimate the blessings which Captain Err
lesson has conferred upon his race by his great
achievement. 1t is not too much to say that
there is no man of any age or country who has
conferred so great boon upon mankind. Cap
tain ERIcssoN is Swede by birth, but the
United States is his adopted country. We are
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