. Bulletin. Science. in the screen-wire packing, lay ready to be picked up by the incoming air charge as it passed from the receiver to the working cylinder. Thus, Ericsson maintained, the caloric could be used over and over again. The furnace was needed only to supply the inevitable losses of caloric by radiation and by the "heat lost by the expansion of the acting ; ^ How simple the idea appeared, and how attractive! Its implications were not clear to Captain Ericsson, but it will be found that the errors into which he fell were not yet plainly marked or easily explained. On
. Bulletin. Science. in the screen-wire packing, lay ready to be picked up by the incoming air charge as it passed from the receiver to the working cylinder. Thus, Ericsson maintained, the caloric could be used over and over again. The furnace was needed only to supply the inevitable losses of caloric by radiation and by the "heat lost by the expansion of the acting ; ^ How simple the idea appeared, and how attractive! Its implications were not clear to Captain Ericsson, but it will be found that the errors into which he fell were not yet plainly marked or easily explained. On the other hand, a substantial number of engineers and others recognized intuitively that he was, in fact, pursuing a will-o'-the-wisp. The Trial of the Ericsson The trial voyage, on Tuesday, January 11, 1853, was expected to supply the definitive answer to the questions and speculations that had been accumu- lating while, over a period of a year or more, the ship and her engine were being built. The information that had been parceled out to the press by Captain Ericsson concerning the caloric engines was accepted for the most part uncritically, and the community at large was prepared to see a revolution in power-plant practice take place in the protected waters of New York Bay. An assemblage of perhaps 60 people was invited to be present. Editors or reporters of all the New York dailies. Freeman Hunt of the Merchants^ Magazine, and, according to the New-York Daily Times, "a few gentlemen whose scientific abilities render them amply qualified to pronounce judginent upon a project fraught with such momentous results" * were taken on board the Ericsson at the Battery. One of the scientific gentlemen, Prof. James J. Mapes, consultant on brewing and agricultural chemistry and good friend of the inventor, was present as speaker at the sumptuous banquet that was to crown the festive occasion. There was, however, one uninvited guest. Orson Munn, the 28-year-old editor of Sci
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Keywords: ., bookauthorunitedstatesdepto, bookcentury1900, booksubjectscience
