Jacob Perkins | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait of Perkins byThomas Edwards (printed byPendleton's Lithography), 1826 | |
| Born | (1766-07-09)July 9, 1766 |
| Died | July 30, 1849(1849-07-30) (aged 83) London, England |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Inventor, mechanical engineer, physicist |
Jacob Perkins (July 9, 1766 – July 30, 1849) was an Americaninventor,mechanical engineer andphysicist based in theUnited Kingdom. Born inNewburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins wasapprenticed to agoldsmith. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical inventions[1] and eventually had twenty-one American and nineteen Englishpatents.Sometimes known as the father of the refrigerator.[2] He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1813 and a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1819.[3][4]
Jacob went to school in Newburyport until he was twelve and then was apprenticed to a goldsmith in Newburyport named Davis. Mr. Davis died three years later and the fifteen-year-old Jacob continued the business of making gold beads and added the manufacture of shoe buckles. When he was twenty-one he was employed by the master of the Massachusetts mint to make a die for striking copper pennies bearing an eagle and an Indian.
In 1790, at the age of 24, in Byfield, he created machines for cutting and headingnails. In 1795, he was granted a patent for his improved nail machines and started a nail manufacturing business on thePowwow River inAmesbury, Massachusetts.
During theWar of 1812 he worked on machinery for boring outcannons.
He worked on water compression and invented abathometer orpiezometer,[1] which can be used to measure the depth of the sea by its pressure.
Perkins created some of the best steel plates (as noted from English Engravers) for engraving, and started a printing business with engraver Gideon Fairman. They began with school books, and also made bank notes that were difficult to counterfeit. In 1809 he bought the stereotype technology (an aid in large-batch printing of bank notes that were difficult to counterfeit) from Asa Spencer, and registered the patent, and then employed Asa Spencer. Perkins made several important innovations in printing technology, including new steel engraving plates. Using these plates he made the first known steel engraved USA books (The Running Hand, school books, 8 pages each). He then made notes for a Boston Bank, and later for the National Bank. In 1816 he set up a printing shop and bid on the printing of currency for theSecond National Bank in Philadelphia.
His quality printing of American bank notes attracted the attention of theRoyal Society who were busy addressing the problem of the widespread forging of English notes. In 1819, with his printing business partner, Gideon Fairman, they employed Asa Spencer and went to England atCharles Heath's urging in an attempt to win the £20,000 reward for "unforgable notes". Sample notes were shown to theRoyal Society president SirJoseph Banks. They set up shop in England, and spent months on example banknotes, but unfortunately for them, Banks thought that the inventor should be English by birth.
Printing English notes ultimately proved a success and was carried out by Perkins in partnership with the English engraver-publisherCharles Heath[1] and his associate Gideon Fairman. Together they formed the partnershipPerkins, Fairman and Heath. Heath and Perkins also had support from their brothers.Perkins, Fairman and Heath was later renamed, when his son-in-law, Joshua Butters Bacon, bought out Charles Heath and the company was then known asPerkins, Bacon.Perkins Bacon provided banknotes for many banks, and foreign countries withpostage stamps.[5] Stamp production started for the British government in 1840 with the1d black and the 2d blue postage stamps,[6]which incorporated an anti-forgery measure in the form of a complicated background produced by means of therose engine.[7]Their stamps were the first known preglued stamps.
Also concurrently, Jacob's brother ran the American printing business, and they made money on important fire safety patents. Charles Heath and Jacob Perkins worked together and independently on some concurrent projects.
Jacob Perkins has patents for Heating and Air Conditioning technology. In 1829–30, he went into partnership with his second sonAngier March Perkins, manufacturing and installingcentral heating systems using hishermetic tube principle. He also investigatedrefrigeration machinery after discovering from his research in heating that liquefiedammonia caused a cooling effect.[citation needed]
In 1816, Jacob Perkins had worked on steam power withOliver Evans inPhiladelphia. In 1822 he made an experimental high pressuresteam engine working at pressures up to 2,000 psi (14 MPa).[8]This was not practical for the manufacturing technology of the time, though his concepts were revived a century later. Perkins' boiler was the first example of aflash boiler and one of the first examples of acontra-flow heat exchanger.[8] Thewater-tube boiler consisted of heavycast iron straight, square-section water-tubes across the firebox, joined by unheated pipes outside it. These tubes were arranged in three layers, with water pumped into the upper layer and steam extracted at the lower, giving that contra-flow arrangement. In 1927, Loftus P. Perkins, a descendant, lectured on these boilers and displayed a1⁄8 in (3.2 mm) copper pipe, apparently from a 40 bhp (30 kW) engine of a type that was in use up until 1918.[8]
Perkins' high-pressure steam technology was also used in another invention, thesteam gun. This was an early fully automaticmachine gun, powered by steam rather than by gunpowder. Although not the first automatic firearm, it was the first to also have a high magazine capacity of more than a handful of rounds. It operated withmusket balls at a cyclic firing rate of 1,000 rounds per minute. It is reported to have been rejected by theDuke of Wellington as 'too destructive'.[8]
In 1827 he became the first person in England to use auniflow steam engine. A locomotive on theSouth Eastern Railway was converted to the Uniflow system in 1849, although it is not known whose idea this was.[9]
Perkins applied his Hermetic tube system tosteam locomotiveboilers and a number of locomotives using this principle were made in 1836 for theLondon and South Western Railway. This was a very early example of ahigh pressure steam locomotive.
In 1832 Perkins established the National Gallery of Practical Science on Adelaide Street,West Strand, London. This was devoted to showing modern inventions. A popular feature was his steam gun, which did not find favour with the military.[10]
Perkins is credited with the first patent for thevapor-compression refrigeration cycle, assigned on August 14, 1834[11] and titled, "Apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids". The idea had come from another American inventor,Oliver Evans, who conceived of the idea in 1805 but never built a refrigerator. The same patent was granted in both Scotland[12]and England separately.[13]
Jacob Perkins and Charles Heath had many business successes, but also had financial difficulties, but usually not at the same time. The accounting records for their printing business shows the two borrowed from the business, and sold shares back and forth when necessary in any and all business ventures, and kept detailed records. This professional relationship ended when Jacob's son-in-law, Joshua Butters Bacon, bought out Charles Heath's share of their shared printing business, which then becamePerkins Bacon. At one point he became involved inlawsuits and had to close his engine factory.
Jacob Perkins has many patents:[14]
Perkins bought some technology, and patented it himself in multiple countries, and employed the true inventors (as was the case with Asa Spencer and Oliver Evans).
Jacob was married on November 11, 1790, to Hannah Greenleaf of Newbury and together they had nine children. His second son,Angier March Perkins (1799–1881), also born at Newburyport, went to England in 1827, and was in partnership with his father (later taking over the business on the latter's death). His grandson,Loftus Perkins (1834–1891), most of whose life was spent in England, experimented with the application to steam engines of steam at very high pressures, constructing in 1880 a yacht, theAnthracite.[1]
He retired in 1843 and died in London on July 30, 1849,[1] at 83 years of age. He was buried inKensal Green Cemetery,London.
{{cite book}}:|author= has generic name (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
