John Ericsson - Hot Air Engine

Hot Air Engine

Ericsson then proceeded to invent independently the caloric, or hot air engine in the 1820s which used hot air, caloric in the scientific parlance of the day, instead of steam as a propellant. A similar device had been patented in 1816 by the Reverend Robert Stirling, whose technical priority of invention provides the usual term 'Stirling Engine' for the device. Ericsson's engine was not initially successful due to the differences in combustion temperatures between Swedish wood and British coal. In spite of his setbacks, Ericsson was awarded the Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1862 for his invention. In his later years, the caloric engine would render Ericsson comfortably wealthy, as its boilerless design made it a much safer and more practical means of power for small industry than steam engines. Ericsson's incorporation of a 'regenerator' heat sink for his engine made it tremendously fuel-efficient. Apparently in the post Civil War era some time before or around 1882, from the publishing date, a ship was purchased by a Captain CHARLES L DINGLEY called the Ericssan with a weight of 1,645 tons that was built by John Ericssan (Although the above section on John Ericssan's Friendship with Cornelius H. DeLamater says that the ship known as the Ericssan was built by The DeLamater Iron Works) to try out the hot air engine as a motive power in open ocean navigation.