| The inventor John Ericsson, listed in the birth records as "Johan", is famous primarily in connection with the propeller and the Monitor. The propeller was indeed not his own idea. The principle was known long before his birth, but he was the first one to construct a propeller that was of any practical use. John Ericsson invented the monitor, an armored and propeller-driven battleship, for use by the Union side in the U.S. Civil War. The ship defeated the Confederate ship Merrimac in an important naval battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862. This victory was a turning point and a very important factor in the final outcome of the war. These two inventions, among many others, made John Ericsson very famous. The Swedish encyclopedia Svensk Uppslagsbok (1932) characterizes John Ericsson as "one of the most ingenious inventors of all times." |