Daniel French (inventor)
Encyclopedia
Berlin, Connecticut
Berlin is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 19,866 at the 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1785. The geographic center of Connecticut is located in the town. Berlin is residential and industrial, and served by the Amtrak station of the same name...
. From an early age French strove to become a "mechanician," an artisan trained in the theory of mechanics and skilled in the working of metals at increasing levels of precision. His friend Oliver Evans
Oliver Evans
Oliver Evans was an American inventor. Evans was born in Newport, Delaware to a family of Welsh settlers. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a wheelwright....
, an accomplished engineer, described French as an "original and ingenious inventor." French's most significant invention was the horizontally mounted, high-pressure, non-condensing, directly connected steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
for mills, boats, etc. French was awarded a patent for his steam engine in 1809. This type of engine became standard on the western steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
.
In 1807 Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...
placed on the Hudson River the steamboat North River
North River Steamboat
The North River Steam Boat or Clermont was the first commercially successful steamship of the paddle steamer design. It operated on the Hudson River between New York and Albany...
(aka Clermont) which was powered by a low pressure Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
steam engine. The heavy and inherently inefficient engine required an increase in the size, and hence the weight, of the steam cylinder for an increase in power. Mounting the cylinder vertically, Fulton "invented" a complex series of levers and cranks to transmit the power of the piston to each paddle wheel
Paddle wheel
A paddle wheel is a waterwheel in which a number of scoops are set around the periphery of the wheel. It has several usages.* Very low lift water pumping, such as flooding paddy fields at no more than about height above the water source....
crank. Two paddle wheels, one on each side, were mounted midway between the bow and the stern. On the western rivers, Fulton's design was the standard for steamboats until the Enterprise
Enterprise (1814)
The Enterprise, or Enterprize, demonstrated for the first time by her epic 2,200-mile voyage from New Orleans to Pittsburgh that steamboat commerce was practical on America's western rivers.-Early days:...
which was designed by French.
Daniel French's steam engine and drive train were substantially different than Fulton's. By employing Oliver Evans patented (1804) high pressure steam principle, French increased the power of his engine. By omitting the condensing of steam French reduced problems with construction and also reduced the weight of his engine. He also eliminated the flywheel
Flywheel
A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia, and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed...
and thus had an engine of high-efficiency, greater power and lighter in weight, easier to construct and repair than the Boulton and Watt engine. Another important improvement French made was to mount his steam cylinder horizontally, level with the axis of the paddle wheel, and with the piston rod connected directly to the paddle wheel crank
Crank (mechanism)
A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm...
. As the crank rotated by the application of steam, the cylinder, which was mounted on trunnion
Trunnion
A trunnion is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting and/or pivoting point. In a cannon, the trunnions are two projections cast just forward of the centre of mass of the cannon and fixed to a two-wheeled movable gun carriage...
s, oscillated above and below the horizontal. Over the years, French's steam engine and drive train proved to be a significant improvement compared to Fulton's.
French successfully applied his engine to a steam ferry to cross the Hudson River, but was denied the Paulus Hook ferry lease by the legal monopoly of Fulton and Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston (1746-1813)
Robert R Livingston was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat from New York, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor," after the office he held for 25 years....
. French then established a ferry on the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
and Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
. After moving to Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Brownsville is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, officially founded in 1785 located 35 miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River...
, French built, for the shareholders of the Monongahela and Ohio Steam Boat Company, the engine and drive train for the highly successful Enterprise
Enterprise (1814)
The Enterprise, or Enterprize, demonstrated for the first time by her epic 2,200-mile voyage from New Orleans to Pittsburgh that steamboat commerce was practical on America's western rivers.-Early days:...
, the first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers from New Orleans to Louisville.
The steamboat Washington was built by George White at Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
for Henry Shreve
Henry Miller Shreve
Henry Miller Shreve was the American inventor and steamboat captain who opened the Mississippi, Ohio and Red rivers to steamboat navigation. Shreveport, Louisiana, is named in his honor....
and partners. The engine and drive train were constructed by French at Brownsville. To power the 400 ton vessel French cast and bored a steam cylinder larger than the one he used on the smaller Enterprise. The larger cylinder required a larger steam boiler which was placed on the Washington's main deck. Since the steam cylinder was too heavy for French's oscillating type engine, he fixed it in a horizontal position below the main deck immediately forward of the stern paddle wheel. French connected the piston rod directly to the stern paddle wheel crank by means of a "pitman," to adjust for the cranks circular motion. To utilize the increased steam power French increased the width of the paddle wheel from six feet (as on the Enterprise) to twelve feet. With the highly successful Washington, French set a standard for powerful and swift steamboats.