Oliver Evans

Inventor

• Born: September 13, 1755
• Birthplace: Near Newport, Delaware
• Died: April 15, 1819
• Place of death: New York, New York

Summary: Oliver Evans was the inventor of the water grist mill, a factory innovator, and a steam power inventor.

Oliver Evans was born September 13, 1755, at Newport, Delaware, the son of Charles Evans and Ann Stalcop. His father was a cordwainer and farmer; his mother was the daughter of a miller. He was a descendent of Evan Evans, the first Episcopal minister of Philadelphia. The family was struggling with its meager resources, so Oliver was apprenticed to a wheelwright in 1771. Whether he had any formal schooling is not known; however, he could read, and wrote respectable prose. He completed his apprenticeship in 1777. At this time, he invented a device that could cut and install the wire teeth in wool and cotton carding combs. He was able to mechanically insert the wire teeth into the card combs.

In 1783, Evans was attracted to steam power for transportation. He approached the Pennsylvania legislature for a patent for steam locomotion; however, his application was denied because he lacked a working model. Living in Tuckahoe, Maryland, he married Sarah Tomlinson, daughter of a Delaware farmer, with whom he had seven children. He was earning his living with his brother at a small store as he experimented with water-powered grist mill machinery and the organization of the grist mill. His innovation was to connect all the machinery in the mill into an automated system using gears, shafts, and leather pulley belts.

The system, which treated the mill as a machine, brought the grain up an elevator via cups made of leather or wood, which then delivered it to a screw-like rod or “conveyor,” which pushed the grain horizontally, and a “hopper boy” to sift and dry the flour. The hopper boy was an original invention. The other parts of the system were innovations that, together with the hopper boy, delivered cleaner, drier flour with an increase in efficiency in milling that produced one-fifth more flour than milling operations common at the time. The improvements in the quality of the flour increased its longevity, whether in a barrel or bag.

In 1785, Evans and two of his brothers built a mill on Red Clay Creek in the center of Delaware wheat country. The water-powered mill included his latest improvements. He then was awarded patents from the Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire legislatures. Expecting royalties from his mill patents, he sold his interest in the Tuckahoe store; however, he was severely disappointed with the patent revenue. Most millers refused to use his system because it would reduce the number of people working at a mill, many of whom were typically relatives. Other millers simply used his ideas and did not pay. Among the few who did pay Evans for a license was George Washington, who had his Dogue Run mill renovated with the Evans system. In the end, Evans spent about as much money suing for patent infringement as he made from his invention.

In 1792, Evans sold his interest in the Red Clay Creek mill and moved to Philadelphia, where he opened a new business. The new enterprise was a combination of a store and a machine shop. In the 1780s, he had applied for a steam-powered carriage patent in several states, and Maryland finally granted him a patent. From 1800 until the end of his life, Evans worked with high-pressure steam engines. His focus shifted from work performed by energy from water power to work performed by energy from water-into-steam power. James Watt’s low-pressure steam engine was, by 1775, more efficient than the Newcomen atmospheric steam engine (invented in 1712). To develop a high-pressure steam engine required advances in metallurgy and machine grinding tolerances to contain the pressure while translating the steam into mechanical energy for work.

By 1803, Evans was able to design and build a small steam engine that could be used to grind plaster in his shop. He then designed a larger machine by a sawmill. He also sought patent protection for his invention, which pushed the piston both down and up, which was granted by Congress. He unsuccessfully tried to interest a turnpike company in a steam wagon for hauling freight. However, he got a grant from the Philadelphia Board of Health to build a dredging vessel. He called the 15-ton, 30-foot vessel the Orukter Amphibolos. In July 1805, Evans had the vessel mounted on wheels for land transportation and a stern paddle wheel for water transportation. Its locomotion came from its high-pressure steam engine. He drove it from his shop through the middle of Philadelphia to the Schuylkill River in a bold display of its land locomotion. At Central Square, he circled several times, and then drove to the river where the wheels were removed and the vessel was launched. Working well as a harbor steam-dredge, it was soon forgotten.

In 1806, Evans opened the Mars Works in Philadelphia and a small foundry in Pittsburgh. His steam engines and boilers were soon used on steamboats on the Delaware River. Around 1813, an Evans steam engine was installed in a steamboat that traveled the Ohio River to the Mississippi River. Evans was visiting in New York City when he learned that the Mars Works had burned. Ill with a lung infection, he suffered a fatal seizure and died April 5, 1819. Evans published two books: The Young Mill-Wright and Miller’s Guide (1795), which described how to build and operate grist mills, and The Young Steam Engineer’s Guide (1805).

Bibliography

Carnes, Mark, ed. Invisible Giants: Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation but Missed the History Books. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Ferguson, Eugene S. Oliver Evans: Inventive Genius of the American Industrial Revolution. Greenville, DE: Hagley Museum, 1980.

Lienhard, John H. “Oliver Evans.” http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi285.htm.

Roe, Joseph W. English and American Tool Builders. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1916.

Thomson, Ross. Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological Invention in the United States 1790–1865. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.