New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-01
JOHN ERICSSON.

BY the unwilling of a new statue IN Battery
Park, in this city, to-day fresh homage Is pald
to a man who cannot be honored too much'
Sweden was his native land America was MS
adopted home and the scene OF his best work.
but his influence was world wide. BY the Ter
tility Of his mind, the clearneSs of his concep-
tons and the far-reaching effect of his CHIEF
Inventions John Ericsson is placed among the
few great engineers Of history.
Those Americans who recall the early DAYS
of the Civil War can never forget the intensely
dramatic scene enacted off Hampton Roads on
March 9, 1862 The federal cause had expert
enced disasters and delays on land which de-
pressed all loyal hearts. At sea similar fate
seemed to await the nation. The sinking of
the Congress and the Cumberland by the Merri-
mac brought dismay to the North. The next
day the tables were turned by the cheese box
Warship. 1t hardly seems an extravagant eSt-
mate of the Monitors victory to say that it
saved the Union. Moreover, naval practice in
this country and all others making any preten-
sion to power was revoIutionized by that event.
The advantages of fighting from turrets and OF
giving a low freeboard to battleships were
quickly recognized Even where the form OF
EricSson's first vessel was not closely followed,
the principles which it embodied dominated de-
sign and construction on both sides of the At
lantic in later years.
In the strict sense of the word perhaps, the
great Swede may not have been the originator
of the screw propeller. He developed 1t,
patented it, and by his indomitable faith and
Tnrseverance secured it's introduction in the
face of powerful prejudices. Thus the worlds
debt for that device is to Ericsson The inVen-
ton created no such popular sensation as the
Monitor, yet competent judges would probably
pronounce it the more valuable of the two. 1t
had a broader application, because it was of
service to the merchant marine well as to
naval vessels. For d time it was noticed that
the screw showed greater ''slp" than paddle
wheels. 1t did not convert into motion quite so
high a percentage of engine power, but that
drawback was more than Offset by eliminating
the resistance to air and sea offered by paddle
boxes. The most conspicuous gain effected,
though, was in the increased frequency of the
revolutions of the shaft thus made practicable
and the higher speed consequently attainable.
Without this innovation ocean greyhounds
would have been impossible.
From a precocious childhood to an excep-
tionally ripe age-Ericsson died when he was
nearly eighty-six years old-his mind was ever
busy with mechanical problems of practical i'm
portance, and the full list OF his inventions is
a long one. He competed with George Stephen
son in locomotive design in 1920, and produced
the faster machine His rival won the prize
for which they strove only because his engine
showed greater power. Ericsson did much to
demonstrate the value of forced draught and
the wisdom of placing a warship's engines below
the waterine. He devised hydrostatic weigh
ing machine, a lock to hold gun in place on
shipboard and an engine in which the expan-
sion Of hot air operates like steam, the vapor
being cooled subsequently and being used over
and over indefinitely. That particular motor is
built in combination with a pump but thou
sands of them are in use to-day. While it will
always be a matter of regret that his solar en-
CINE was never perfected, one cannot but won
der that having developed so many other useful
ideas, he should have even conceived this one.