Edwin Ruud (9 June 1854 – 9 December 1932) was a Norwegian-American mechanical engineer and inventor who immigrated to the United States where he designed, sold, and popularized the

tankless water heater Tankless water heaters — also called instantaneous, continuous flow, inline, flash, on-demand, or instant-on water heaters — are water heaters that instantly heat water as it flows through the device, and do not retain any water internally e ...

. He was the founder and President of Ruud Manufacturing Company, now a division of

Rheem Manufacturing Company Rheem Manufacturing Company is an American privately held manufacturer that produces residential and commercial water heaters and boilers, as well as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The company also produces and sell ...

.Ruud.com
/ref>Rheem.com
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Biography

Early life

Edwin Ruud was born in the parish of

Askim Askim () is a town and a former municipality in (from January 1, 2020) Indre Østfold Kommune in the former county of Østfold county (from January 1, 2020 a part of Viken county), Norway. The administrative centre of the Askim municipality wa ...

Østfold Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden ( Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other s ...

, Norway. He was educated in engineering at the Horten Technical School (''Horten tekniske skole'') in

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

The Fuel Gas And Manufacturing Company

In the 1880s, Ruud began working for

George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...

at the Fuel Gas and Manufacturing Company in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Eight years after filing his first US patent, Ruud filed the first of five patents he would assign to Westinghouse's Fuel Gas and Manufacturing company.Patent #US433824
/ref>US Patent #US443797
/ref>US Patent #US451881
/ref>US Patent #US460513
/ref>US Patent #US482320
/ref> In 1889, Ruud engineered a design for an automatic storage tank-type gas water heater that used a bottom gas heater and temperature controlled gas-valve. He later patented the design in 1890. In October 1890, he expanded on his first water heater design, under the Fuel Gas and Manufacturing Company.

Ruud Manufacturing Company

On January 22, 1897, Ruud filed a patent separate from the Fuel Gas and Manufacturing Company for an Automatic Water Heater. His new design consisted of a cast iron shell, enclosing burners, heating surfaces (a coil of copper tubing through which water flows), and thermostat controlling gas-valves. The object of the design improvement was, "to maintain the supply of water at the desired temperature at all times."Patent #US610281
/ref> With this new design, Ruud left the Fuel Gas and Manufacturing Company to start Ruud Manufacturing, his own engineering and manufacturing shop where he began to manufacture and popularize in home, as well as commercial and industrial water heaters. Ruud was issued his patent for the coiled tube Automatic Water Heater on September 6, 1898. Anatomy of the Ruud Instantaneous Water Heater 1915

Anatomy of the Ruud Instantaneous Water Heater 1915

Ruud's business expanded as he popularized and improved on his instant water heater design. In 1908, Ruud Manufacturing acquired two local heating and plumbing firms. James Hay of the James Hay Company, heating and plumbing engineers, closed his business in order to operate as president of the Ruud Manufacturing Company in 1908. and J.H. Folsom of Folsom-Webster Co., heating and plumbing contracting firm, dissolved his partnership in Folsom-Webster Company in 1908 to serve as chief of the Cincinnati branch of the Ruud Manufacturing Company. By 1915, the Ruud Manufacturing Company had offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropoli ...

;

Toronto, Canada Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

; and

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

The Ruud Instantaneous Automatic Water Heater

Ruud-Instantaneous-Water-Heater-Type-F-Size-3

The Thermal Valve Model, Type F, of the Ruud Instantaneous Automatic Water Heater is a design that allows the user to instantaneously heat water for on demand applications while not heating, thus saving fuel, when not in use. The Type F was able to use

LP gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cooking ...

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

, and

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

, requiring only a change of burner spud orifices, and was manufactured in two variations, the "Standard Pressure Heaters," designed to operate in conditions where pressure was at least twenty-five pounds per square inch (1.7 bar), and "Low Pressure Heaters," where operational water pressure could be as low as four pounds per square inch (0.3 bar). Thermal Valve Model, Type F heaters were manufactured in four residential sizes reflective of their output in gallons per minute: 3, 4, 6, 8. In 1915, there were approximately one-hundred-thousand of the Type F installed throughout The United States and Canada.

Ruud Heating and Air Conditioning Equipment

Edwin Ruud died in 1932 and his widow, Minna Kaufmann Ruud died in 1953. In 1959, the water heater arm of the Ruud Manufacturing Company was purchased by

and continued operation as a division of Rheem.

Awards

*1904 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition ( St. Louis World’s Fair) Gold Medal for his automatic water heater *1905-

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

presented him with the Edward Longstreth Medal of Merit for the Ruud Instantaneous Automatic Water Heater. *1927 - Honorary doctorate at

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

*1929 - Appointed Knight of the

Order of St Olav The Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav ( no, Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden; or ''Sanct Olafs Orden'', the old Norwegian name) is a Norwegian order of chivalry instituted by King Oscar I on 21 August 1847. It is named after King Olav II ...

Patents

*Balanced Slid-Valve: July 4, 1882 - US260612 *Stuffing Box: August 5, 1890 - US433824 *Water Heater: December 30, 1890 - US443797 *Fluid Meter: May 5, 1891 - US451881 *Water Heater: September 29, 1891 - US460513 *Automatic Steam Regulator for Gas Producers: September 6, 1892 - US482320 *Automatic Water-Heater: September 6, 1898 - US610281 *Automatic Cut-off For Gas-Service Pipes: September 10, 1901 - US682345 *Storage Water-Heater: May 14, 1907 - US853738 *Thermostatic-Valve-Operating Mechanism: December 31, 1907 - US875217 *Automatic Temperature Control for Self-heating Flat Irons: September 30, 1913 - US1074467 *Water Valve for Instantaneous Water Heaters: February 26, 1918 - US1257932 *Fluid-Mixing Apparatus: April 6, 1920 - USRE14836

References

External links

Ruud official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruud, Edwin 1854 births 1932 deaths People from Østfold Norwegian emigrants to the United States 19th-century American inventors 20th-century American inventors American industrialists American company founders American industrial engineers American business executives Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal Burials at Homewood Cemetery