Oliver Evans

Oliver Evans (13 September 1755 – 15 April 1819) was an American inventor. Evans was born in Newport, Delaware to a family of Welsh settlers. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a wheelwright.

Evans' first invention was in 1777, when he designed a machine for making card teeth for carding wool. He went into business with his brothers and produced a number of improvements in the flour milling industry.

Evans devoted a great deal of his time to patents, patent extensions, and enforcement of his patents.

In 1792 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He produced an improved high-pressure steam engine in 1801. For some years he contemplated the idea of applying steam power to wagons. He was granted a patent for a steam-carriage design in 1789, but did not produce a working example of such a machine until over a decade later (see below on his Oruktor Amphibolos). Part of his difficulties was a failure to get financial backing. After lack of support in his native land, in 1794 he sent copies of some his designs to Great Britain in an attempt to interest investors there.

Evans designed a refrigeration machine which ran on vapor in 1805, so he is often called the inventor of the refrigerator, although he never built one. (His design was modified by Jacob Perkins, who obtained the first patent for a refrigerating machine in 1834.)

As noted by Roe, Evans is best known for the system of conveyors and other equipment he developed for his automatic flour mill:

"He practically invented the modern science of handling materials." Joseph Wickham Roe, 1916