Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-28
JOHN ERICSSON.
Personal Peculiarities of the Eccen.
trio Old Swedish Inventor.
Ellis Daily Routine OF Life. -Curi0us
Traits Of Observation-Disclosures
Appearance.

be bothered by visitors, and he is choleric
enough to be stage father. He has few ac-
quaintances and an infinitesimal number of
intimates. He lives life that is out of all
excitement and is only an endless routine.
He invents, invents and invents. He rests
not satisfied with the achievement of long
and successful life of hard work, but goes
ahead as resolutely and as earnestly and as
enthusiastically as though his career were just
beginning, Why should man work when
he has done enough? To the mind Of lazy
mortal like me there seems no reply. But to
the tireless energy Of John Ericsson, the only
rest is in activity. He was born to harness,
has driven himself to harness for eighty
years, and to harness he will go until at last
he drops dead in the middle of the roadway.
There is no rest for him.
Now in the last Of his long years he rises
from his bed just as regularly at Z in the
morning as he did when boy. He takes his
cold plunge and follows it with his regular
swinging Of clubs and dumb bells, just as he
has done for years and years. Then he gets
into his old-fashioned, starchless shirt, with
limp, standing collar, his broadcloth trousers
and coat and his buff duck vest. A break
fast, which Hanlan would think harsh adj
ton of dressing. 1t consists Of
weak tea, coarse bread and eggs,
or some similar dish. After
that, hard work until 4 in the afternoon.
Then dinner, largely vegetarian in its direc-
ton. From that time until or 10 at night
he sticks closely to his drawing table, outlin-
ing curious pieces of machinery for some new
development of inventive genius. Here fol-
Of
mr. Ericsson's routine. Instead of sitting
down to rest and think, he puts an old Chin
ney pot hat upon his head, seizes his cane,
and goes for long and circuitous walk,
which usually brings him back to his own
front door about midnight. Such has been
and is the daily life of John Ericsson, me-
chanical engineer. No cigars or tobacco, no
cocktails, no brandy and soda, nothing but
exercise, work, midnight prowling, weak
tea, and strong temper.
Ericsson is Swede He was born in q
place with more syllables than inhabit-
ants, the bulk of the people having presrln-
ably been carried off in attempting TO pro-
nounce the name of this sylvan but compli-
Gated retreat. Before the door of miners hut
there stands at this day an eighteen-foot shaft
of native granite, bearing testimony that
here John Ericsson first saw the light in 1868.
The spot is in central Sweden, in the neigh
borhood Of the Langbanslihttan iron mines.
Capt Ericsson seems to have an exceedingly
good name in Sweden, and to have
increased it there by his work in
America; for on the anriVer-
sary of his birthday, month or so
ago. he received a long cablegram from
one of the workingmen's societies Of that
country, in which the best wishes for his
health and continued prosperity were men
toned, together with the prevalent belief in
Sweden that he is the greatest worker OF the
age. He has certainly produced matches
succession of great inventions, and he has
been at it ever since he was q mere young
ster. His father was a mine owner in Sweden
at the place with the big name where the
monument commemorative of Capt. Erics-
sons birth now stands. He was only boy
when his fathers influence got him q place
on the Gotha canal, where he was placed in
charge of a section Of the works. He carried
on operations in Sweden up to his 23d year,
at which time he went to England to extend
his field of labor. And ne has never since re-
turned to his native country.
He was one Of the competitors in the ex-
hibition Of steam engines, in which George
Stephenson's famous locomotive, the Rocket,
had first prize. Capt. Ericsson, with his
customary dogmatic force, declares that his
engine was quite novelty, attained far
greater speed at The exhibition than the one
which took the prize. That was in 1929.
three years after Capt. Ericsson first landed
on English soil. It was seven years
later that he adopted the screw pro-
peller, which made a great, but unfayorable,
sensation in shipping matters all over
the world. The English admiralty are
conservative if they are anything. They still
retain their old fashion of scouting anything
whatever that is new or likely to turn over
the old systems Of shipping. They derided
the screw propeller in the most decisive
terms, and, after Capt. Ericsson had vainly
tried to secure an admission of the value of
his work, his temper got the better Of him
and he left for America. He was so years
old when he arrived in this country, and,
during the next few years of lis life, he had
the satisfaction Of seeing hispropeller scheme
demonstrate its own value in the worlds
navigation. For long time Capt. Ericsson
| devoted his mechanical genius solely TO the
| production of vessels of war, to which his at
tention had been turned by his English
training.
| One Of the curious traits OF Mr.. Ericsson's
character is his total absence of anxiety to
| personally see the workings of any of his ma
| chinery. He has never been on board the
| Destroyer but once since she was completed
although experiments have been going for
ward steadily ever since the preparations
were complete. In fashioning an invention
of this kind, Ericsson works almost entirely
from drawings, and he knows just as well
how every part Of the finished machine looks
or should look, as though he had handled il
thousand times. When / entered Capt
Ericsson's parlor On Beach street the Other
day, found myself surrounded with mod
els of various machines, mostly those ii
use for solar observations. The place was
very plainly furnished, as might have beer
expected of the best room in the house Of c
man such as I have already described
found him a short, thick-set person. not look
ing to be more than so years of age, with
hair slightly touched with gray, and
side whiskers that have hardly passed from
their native color. He talked shortly and
with tinge of abruptness in his voice, and
may add that he seemed intensely relieved
when the ordeal OF facts through which haG
put him had passed. TIN ough the back win
Gows of his residence saw men at work erect
ing in bis rear yard new solar engine, which
is quite IS remarkable in its way as the ma
ehinery Of war which he las thus far de
veloped.