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</noinclude><section begin="Ericsson, John" />{{hwe|ed|adopted}} in London for manufacturing purposes,
effecting a great saving of fuel, and dispensing
with the huge smoke stacks; and it was adapted
to railway locomotion on the Liverpool und
Manchester railway in the fall of 1829. The
directors had offered a prize for the best
locomotive engine, and the lightest and fastest
engine exhibited on this occasion was the Novelty,
which, guided by its inventor Ericsson, started
off at the rate of 50 miles an hour. The
principle of artificial draft is still retained in all
locomotive engines; but a different mode of
producing it was accidentally discovered so
soon after the display of the Novelty, that the
original inventor derived no advantage from it.
The lightness and compactness of this boiler
led to many new applications of steam, and
among others to Ericsson's construction of a
steam fire engine, which was entirely successful.
He constructed a similar engine of greater
power for the king of Prussia. For this invention
he received the prize medal of the
mechanics' institute of New York. In 1833 he
reduced to practice his long cherished project
of a caloric engine, and submitted the result
to the scientific world in London. The invention
excited very general interest, lectures were
delivered in explanation and illustration of its
principle by Dr. Lardner and by Professor Faraday,
and it was highly approved by Dr. Andrew
Ure and Sir James Phillips. In 1836 he
successfully applied the propeller to purposes of
navigation; but failing to impress the British
admiralty with the value of his invention, in
1839 he came to New York. In 1841 he was
employed in the construction of the ship of
war Princeton, which was the first steamship
ever built with the propelling machinery under
the water line and out of the reach of shot.
The Princeton was distinguished for numerous
mechanical novelties besides the propeller;
among which were a direct-acting steam
engine of great simplicity, the sliding telescope
chimney, and gun carriages with machinery for
checking the recoil of the gun. In the United
States division of the London industrial
exhibition in 1851, Ericsson exhibited the distance
instrument, for measuring distances at sea; the
hydrostatic gauge for measuring the volume of
fluids under pressure; the reciprocating fluid
meter for measuring the quantity of water
which passes through pipes during definite
periods; the alarm barometer; the pyrometer,
intended as a standard measure of temperature
from the freezing point of water up to the
melting point of iron; a rotary fluid meter,
the principle of which is the measurement of
fluids by the velocity with which they pass
through apertures of definite dimensions; and
a sea lead, contrived for taking soundings at
sea without rounding the vessel to the wind,
and independently of the length of the lead
line. For these he received the prize medal
of the exhibition. In 1852 he brought out a
new form of caloric engine in the ship Ericsson.
It propelled this ship of 2,000 tons from
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New York to Alexandria on the Potomac, in
very rough weather, in the latter part of
February, 1853. On this trip the engines were in
operation for 73 hours without being stopped
for a moment, and without requiring the slightest
adjustment, the consumption of fuel being
only five tons in 24 hours; but her speed was
not great enough, and the caloric engines were
subsequently replaced by steam engines. For
several years Ericsson devoted himself to the
improvement and perfection of the caloric
engine and its application to pumping, printing,
hoisting, grinding, sawing, turning light
machinery of various kinds, working telegraphic
instruments and sewing machines, and
propelling boats. (See {{AmCyc article link|Caloric Engine}}.) At the
commencement of the civil war he entered into
contract with the government for the construction
of iron war vessels with revolving
turrets for the guns, the first practical application
of the principle. The first one, the Monitor,
was completed in 100 days, reached Hampton
Roads on the evening of March 8, 1862, and on
the following day defeated and blockaded the
confederate iron-clad Merrimack. Considerable
improvements were made by him in the
vessels (called monitors from the name of the
first one) subsequently built. He has since
devoted much attention to the construction of
solar engines.{{—}}His brother {{sc|Nils}}, born Jan. 31,
1802, served in the Swedish army, and from
1858 to 1863 in the navy. He was director
of Swedish railways, constructed the canal
between the Saiman and the gulf of Finland, the
docks of Stockholm, and other public works,
and was ennobled. He died in Stockholm
Sept. 8, 1870.}}
<section end="Ericsson, John" /><section begin="Eridanus" />
'''ERIDANUS,''' the Greek name of a large northern
river which Æschylus confounded with
the Rhodanus (Rhône), but which later writers
made identical with the Roman Padus, or modern
Po, the chief river of North Italy. According
to Hesiod and the tragic poets, Phaëthon,
in a futile attempt to guide the chariot of his
father Helios, was struck with a thunderbolt
by Jupiter, and fell into this river. His sisters,
the Heliadæ, were changed into poplar trees,
and their tears into amber, for which this river
was chiefly famous. The name was also given
to a river of Attica, which flowed into the Ilissus
near Athens.
<section end="Eridanus" /><section begin="Erie (county)" />
'''ERIE. I.''' A W. county of New York,
bordering on Lake Erie, bounded N. by the
Tonawanda and S. by the Cattaraugus creek; area,
about 950 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 178,699. It
is drained and supplied with water power by
Buffalo creek and several other small streams.
In the N. part the surface is undulating, and
the soil well adapted to grain; in the S. it is
hilly, and here the land is more suitable for
grazing. Iron ore, limestone, brick clay, and
water cement are found in considerable
quantities. The county is traversed by several
railroads, and by the Erie canal, which
connects with Niagara river at Black Rock, and
has its terminus at Buffalo. The chief {{hws|produc|productions}}<section end="Erie (county)" /><noinclude></div></noinclude>