John Ericsson was born in 1803 in the mining town of Långban in Värmland. He showed early technical talent and already at the age of eleven he worked in the drawing office during t ...
John Ericsson was born in 1803 in the mining town of Långban in Värmland. He showed early technical talent and already at the age of eleven he worked in the drawing office during the construction of the Göta Canal. At the age of twenty, he began experimenting with a hot-air machine that he wanted to replace the steam machines. The idea was to use hot air as propellant, instead of steam. His hot air machine had a heat source that heated the air inside a cylinder. It created a high pressure that set a piston in the cylinder in motion.
About the object
Description
It turned out to be difficult to find financiers in Sweden. Ambitions took John Ericsson to the seething industrial nation of England, where he would soon develop into a world-class inventor. However, there were no major successes. After 13 years in England, the disappointed John Ericsson moved on to the United States, in 1839. ...
It turned out to be difficult to find financiers in Sweden. Ambitions took John Ericsson to the seething industrial nation of England, where he would soon develop into a world-class inventor. However, there were no major successes. After 13 years in England, the disappointed John Ericsson moved on to the United States, in 1839. In his new homeland, he collaborated with mechanical workshops and further developed his ideas with hot air machines. A few years later, John Ericsson became an American citizen.
He took out a patent for his hot air machine in 1856. The patent applied in the USA, France, England and Sweden. Thousands of such machines were then sold worldwide. They were easy to maintain and could be run on several different fuels. However, his hot air machines were not as powerful as steam engines. His last major project was an invention he hoped would avert a future energy crisis – a machine powered by the sun. John Ericsson constructed a hot air machine fitted with a mirror parabola which concentrated the sun's rays towards a space where the air was heated and caused a pressure which drove the machine. The solar machine never became the success he hoped for.
Hänvisning: En stor samling ritningar samt John Ericssons varmluftsmaskin se TM 2.844 (1700). För mer info se: Nilsson, C-G., John Ericsson och hans Caloric- maskiner, i Daedalus 1987. Nilsson, C-G., Varmluftsmotorn- en historisk relik- eller...?, i Teknikens Backspegel, Malmö 1987.
Maskinen lär vara den äldsta i original bevarade varmluftsmaskinen. Konstruktör, John Ericsson. Konstruktionen är från 1855. Inköpt omkring 1910 som skrot till AB Gloriaverken. Använd år 1879 för drift av lerblandare vid Hemlingeby Tegelbruk, Gävle. Eventuellt tillverkad vid Brefvens Bruk, se Daedalus 1932.
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