86 Facts About Oliver Evans

Oliver Evans was an American inventor, engineer, and businessman born in rural Delaware and later rooted commercially in Philadelphia.

Oliver Evans was one of the first Americans to build steam engines and an advocate of high-pressure steam.

Oliver Evans left behind a long series of accomplishments, most notably designing and building the first fully automated industrial process, the first high-pressure steam engine, first vapor compression refrigeration and the first amphibious vehicle and American automobile.

In doing so Oliver Evans designed a continuous process of manufacturing that required no human labor.

Later in life Oliver Evans turned his attention to steam power and built the first high-pressure steam engine in the United States in 1801, developing his design independently of Richard Trevithick, who built the first in the world a year earlier.

Oliver Evans was a driving force in the development and adoption of high-pressure steam engines in the United States.

Oliver Evans dreamed of building a steam-powered wagon and eventually constructing and running one in 1805.

Oliver Evans was a visionary who produced designs and ideas far ahead of their time.

Oliver Evans was the first to describe vapor-compression refrigeration and propose a design for the first refrigerator in 1805, but it would be three decades until his colleague Jacob Perkins would be able to construct a working example.

Oliver Evans had influential backers and political allies, but lacked social graces and was disliked by many of his peers.

Oliver Evans's father was a cordwainer by trade, though he purchased a large farm to the north of Newport on the Red Clay Creek and moved his family there when Oliver was still in his infancy.

Oliver Evans was the fifth of twelve children; he had four sisters and seven brothers.

Aged 17, Oliver Evans was apprenticed to a wheelwright and wagon-maker in Newport.

Oliver Evans found another way by collecting scraps and shavings of wood from his work during the day to serve as fuel for small fires.

Oliver Evans enlisted in a Delaware militia company but saw no active service during the war.

Oliver Evans wished to go further in mechanizing the production of textile cards by developing a machine that could puncture the leather into which the wire teeth were inserted.

Nevertheless, over the next two decades card manufacturing innovations inspired by Oliver Evans led to the development of automated textile card production, then in great demand due to the growth of the Southern cotton industry.

Oliver Evans began experimenting in this period with steam power and its potential for commercial application.

That same year, aged 27, Oliver Evans married Sarah Tomlinson, daughter of a local farmer, in Old Swedes' Episcopal Church in Wilmington.

Oliver Evans's attention turned to flour milling in the early 1780s, an industry that was booming in rapidly industrializing northern Delaware.

The result, Oliver Evans recognized, was a low-quality product that took too many laborers to make.

In 1783, two of Oliver Evans's brothers began building a mill in Newport on part of the family's farm estate which they purchased from their father, and Oliver Evans was recruited to oversee its construction on the Red Clay Creek.

Oliver Evans's first innovation was a bucket elevator to facilitate this process.

Oliver Evans had seen diagrams of their use for marine applications and realized with some modification and careful engineering they could be used to raise grain, so a series of bucket elevators around a mill could move grain and flour from one process to the next.

Oliver Evans was attempting a radical shift in thinking about the manufacturing process, treating it as a continuous integrated whole rather than a series of isolated processes.

Oliver Evans struggled to find the money to pay the highly skilled carpenters needed to construct his complex machines.

Oliver Evans lacked patience and coupled with a prickly disposition, was prone to display frustration and bewilderment towards those who could not immediately see the value of his ideas.

Oliver Evans recalled when some Brandywine millers happened to visit the Red Clay Creek mill in the early years of its operation after it was fully automated.

Oliver Evans was alone at the mill that day and making hay in a nearby field, and purposely stayed out of sight so his visitors could observe the mill running independently without human supervision.

Oliver Evans then appeared and at great length explained how the feat they witnessed was possible, and was convinced that the chance visit would bring about a breakthrough with the Brandywine millers.

However, he was frustrated at reports that the millers returned to Wilmington and reported that the Oliver Evans mill was "a set of rattletraps, unworthy the notice of any man of sense".

Disinterest continued even after Oliver Evans convinced a Brandywine miller to have his mill converted.

The refits proved a success, and Oliver Evans worked with Jonathan Ellicott to develop a modified form of Archimedean screw that could act as a horizontal conveyor to work alongside the vertically orientated bucket elevators.

Oliver Evans added a rake-drill and conveyor belt to his designs and now possessed a full complement of materials handling machines for just about every possible configuration.

In 1790, Oliver Evans moved from Newport to Wilmington and constructed a working model of his designs in the town.

Oliver Evans's inventions were given a major boost when leading miller Joseph Tatnall converted his mills to the Oliver Evans system, and estimated that in one year the changes saved his operation a small fortune amounting to $37,000.

In 1790, upon introduction of federal patent law, Oliver Evans immediately applied for protection for his milling designs and was granted the third US patent, with his application personally examined and approved by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney-General Edmund Randolph.

In 1793, Oliver Evans sold his share in the Red Clay Creek mill and moved his family from Wilmington to Philadelphia, where he opened a store for milling supplies.

However, Oliver Evans became so engrossed in the project that he ultimately devoted several years to writing a comprehensive book on milling technology that included long chapters on the basic principles of physics, hydraulics, and mechanics; at times neglecting his family's financial security to complete it.

Yet, Oliver Evans insisted that theoretical sections align with observations in the practical sections, and hence often revised standing theories to comport with experiments he conducted and observations he made.

All the while Oliver Evans continued to refine various elements of mill design, including patenting a new process for making millstones and developing a screw mill for grinding plaster of Paris, which was in great demand in Philadelphia for stucco work.

Steam engines appeared in the United States as a source of power in the late 18th century, and living in Delaware and Philadelphia meant Oliver Evans was exposed to early examples of their application there.

Oliver Evans had first begun to consider the potential applications of steam power for transportation while still an apprentice in the 1780s, and had developed rudimentary designs for 'steam carriages' in the 1790s.

In 1801, Oliver Evans definitively began work on making his long-held dream of a steam carriage a reality, although British engineers such as Richard Trevithick had already begun work on such ideas.

Importantly, Oliver Evans became an early proponent, like Trevithick, of 'strong steam' or high-pressure engines, an idea long resisted by Watt and earlier steam pioneers because the necessary iron making and metal working technology was lacking in America.

Oliver Evans recognized that a high-pressure steam engine would be essential to the development of a steam carriage because they could be built far smaller while providing similar or greater power outputs to low-pressure equivalents.

Oliver Evans ignored the potential drawbacks, and developed similarly different designs of engines operating at high-pressure while eliminating Watt's condenser.

Oliver Evans's designs incorporated a grasshopper beam, a double-acting cylinder, and four steam valves, very similar to Trevithick's designs.

Oliver Evans unveiled his engine at his store and put it to work crushing plaster of Paris and, more sensationally, sawing slabs of marble.

Oliver Evans received a patent for his new steam engine in 1804, and set about looking for commercial applications.

Oliver Evans proposed to construct a steam wagon with the capacity to carry 100 barrels of flour between Philadelphia and Lancaster in two days, which by his estimation would greatly increase profits compared to the equivalent five horse wagons, for whom the trip took three days.

The Philadelphia Board of Health was concerned with the problem of dredging and cleaning the city's dockyards and removing sandbars: in 1805 Oliver Evans convinced them to contract him to develop a steam-powered dredge.

Oliver Evans frequently quarrelled with fellow inventors and engineering peers over steam technology in the mid-1800s.

Oliver Evans concludes his book by renouncing inventing and any further work on his designs, complaining of the ingratitude of the public and the unprofitability of the endeavour, although this would prove to be just one of many such assertions by Oliver Evans over the coming years.

Oliver Evans developed a similar suite of tools and tables for potential steam engineers as he had for potential millers, such as tables itemizing the heat and pressure tolerances of various metals, instructions for assembling the basic components of a steam-powered system, and schematics for useful components such as valves and boilers.

Oliver Evans used the book to justify the safety of high-pressure steam engines if properly constructed, despite the fact that by this time Oliver Evans himself had experienced several boiler explosions in his workshop.

Oliver Evans used the opportunity to encourage government sponsorship of research:.

The venture failed and Oliver Evans could find no paying stockholders to launch it, possibly due to Oliver Evans committing the new venture to developing a steam wagon of his own design.

Oliver Evans further observed that a vacuum would have the same effect upon ether, and the resulting cooling should be sufficient to produce ice.

Oliver Evans went on to describe a piston vacuum pump apparatus to produce this effect, and showed that a compression cylinder, or the compression stroke of the vacuum pump, should produce heat in a condenser.

Having, in his view, perfected many of his ideas and designs for steam engines, Oliver Evans turned his attention once more to the commercial propagation of his inventions.

In particular, Oliver Evans soon realized that unlike his milling machines of wood and leather he would need specialist skills, precision tools and a large foundry in order to build steam machines on a commercial basis.

Oliver Evans proved highly innovative in designing steam power solutions for his clients.

In one example where the Mars Works was commissioned to build engines for wool processing factories in Middletown, Connecticut, Oliver Evans designed a network of accompanying pipes with radiators to heat the factory with engine exhaust.

Oliver Evans had long been a believer in the application of steam engines for maritime purposes.

Oliver Evans had long been an acquaintance of John Fitch, the first to build a steamboat in the United States, and the two had worked together on steam projects.

Oliver Evans was deeply distressed by the news, although he defended the safety of high-pressure engines and cited any explosions as an extremely rare occurrences.

Oliver Evans found himself in battles to protect his intellectual property many times throughout his career, but he pursued the cause most doggedly during his latter years.

In January 1808 An Act for the Relief of Oliver Evans was passed and signed by President Jefferson, a long-time admirer of Evans's work.

Furthermore, Oliver Evans significantly raised the license fees for his use of his patented technology, raising claims of extortion from those being asked to pay, and a great many cases ended up in court.

Several major legal cases questioned whether laws to extend private patents in this manner were even constitutional, but Oliver Evans ultimately prevailed in each case.

That sum was deemed unjustifiably high and harsh by many, and Oliver Evans's actions rallied the Baltimore community against him, and when the case was finally heard in 1812 many appeared in support of the defendant.

Oliver Evans's detractors presented evidence and witnesses at the trial to press the argument that Oliver Evans did not truly invent much of what his patents protected.

Ultimately the jury found in favor of Oliver Evans, but it was a pyrrhic victory as Oliver Evans had put most of the milling community offside in the process, and ultimately reduced his claim against Robinson to $1,000.

Oliver Evans declared at the time that inventing had led only to heartache, disappointment and under-appreciation; and committed himself to business and material acquisition for the sake of his family.

Oliver Evans gradually withdrew from the operations of his workshops, with his son George managing operations in Pittsburgh and his sons-in-law James Rush and John Muhlenberg likewise in Philadelphia.

In retirement Oliver Evans became increasingly consumed with pursuing his patent dues from those using his technology, which was now widespread.

Oliver Evans undertook travel to distant areas of the country in order to find offenders.

In one proposal in 1814, as the British Navy threatened Washington, DC during the War of 1812, Oliver Evans ventured to build a steam-powered frigate, but the scheme didn't get far.

Oliver Evans remarried two years later in April 1818 to Hetty Ward, who was many years his junior and the daughter of the New York innkeeper.

In early 1819 Oliver Evans developed an inflammation of the lungs and, after a month of illness, died on April 15,1819.

Oliver Evans was buried at Zion Episcopal Church in Manhattan, but when that church was sold his body was moved several times until finally resting in 1890 in an unmarked common grave at Trinity Cemetery, Broadway at 157th Street, New York City.

However continuous process manufacturing would spread from Oliver Evans's milling designs, first to related industries such as brewing and baking, then eventually to a wide variety of products, as technology and prevailing opinion caught up.

Oliver Evans contributions were later deemed to be so important that eminent industrial historian Sigfried Giedion would conclude that in this respect, Oliver Evans "opens a new chapter in the history of mankind".

Yet once more Oliver Evans was ahead of the curve with many of his ideas, and his death during steam's infancy in the United States meant that it would be some time before many of his ideas would come to fruition.

Oliver Evans was deeply affected by a perceived lack of recognition and appreciation from his peers for his work, and his bouts of depression would lead him to act in the extreme, prematurely ending projects and vowing to give up inventing many times over the course of his life.