2o8 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



cutting machine, and various others, to the number of fourteen 

 patented inventions and forty machines, all novel in design." 



Ericsson entered, in 1829, into a competition for a prize of 

 ;^5oo offered by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Com- 

 pany for the best locomotive. George Stephenson's engine, the 

 Rocket, gained the prize. Ericsson's, the Novelty, was the swiftest, 

 running at the speed of thirty miles an-hour, the speed of 

 Stephenson's being only thirteen and a-half miles. Great 

 enthusiasm was manifested over Ericsson's Novelty, but the 

 judges decided in favour of the superior traction power of 

 Stephenson's. The Novelty was planned and executed in the 

 short space of seven weeks. 



He next introduced the use of steam in fire-engines; one 

 which was built for the King of Prussia, was the means of 

 saving some valuable buildings in Berlin. In January, 1840, 

 he won the gold medal of the New York Mechanics Institute 

 for the best steam fire-engine. 



One of his inventions, begun in England and carried on and 

 completed in America, was the construction of the Caloric 

 engine. This engine was fitted into a ship built for the purpose, 

 and named the Ericsson, and of which the engineer himself says, 

 " The ship after completion made a successful trip from New 

 York to Washington and back during the winter season ; but 

 the average speed at sea proving insufficient for commercial 

 purposes, the owners, with regret, acceded to my proposition to 

 remove the costly machinery, although it had proved perfect 

 as a mechanical combination. 



" The resources of modern engineering having been exhausted 

 in producing the motors of the Caloric ship, the important 

 question has for ever been set at rest, Can heated air, as a 

 mechanical motor, compete with steam. 



