ERICSON, LEIF

son of Eric the Red, is said to have furthered the exploration made by his father in Green land by disland or Woodland (Nova Scotia?), and ‘Vinland or New England about 1000 A. Dp. Consult Archibald Williams’ Romance of Early Exploration (Seeley); Justin Winsor’s History of America, Arctic Exploration and Green land, engineer and inventor; Wrmiand province, Sweden; d. New York City. Mechanics attracted him as a boy, especially as related to navigation. He became known as an inventor after serving six years in the Swedish army. Among his inventions were a condensing flame engine, which he devised in England, where he lived from 1826 to 1839. While there he also designed the caloric engine; appliances for improving naval steam engines; the screw propellor for ship propulsion; a self-acting gunlock which enabled naval cannon to be discharged automatically at any elevation regardle of a ship’s rolling; and a high speed locomotive. The priority of his invention of the screw propellor was questioned, and he lacked adequate recognition from the British Admiralty for his devices. His locomotive, called the Novelty, was an unsucce ful competitor of one invented by George Stephen son, named the Rocket, for a prize offered by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway for an efficient train engine. In 1839 he came to the United States, and in the same year furnished the engine and screw to the first steam ve el that cro ed the Atlantic. His next achievement was the screw-propellor of the warship Princeton, 1841, an innovation which signalized the installation of engines and boilers below the water line and which registered an epoch in naval history in that it led the way to modern naval construction and laid the foundation for the world’s steam fleets. In the Civil War he became notable as the builder of the Union ironclad Monitor, whose fight with the Merrimac sealed the fate of wooden navies. His later inventions included the steam fire engine, torpedoes and a torpedo boat, and a solar engine, or a device that could be worked by the sun’s heat. There are statues of Eric on in Battery Park, New York City; Worcester, Ma .; and in Stockholm, Sweden.