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Jacob Perkins (9 July 1766 – 30 July 1849) was an American
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
,
mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
and
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
. Born in
Newburyport, Massachusetts Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...
, Perkins was
apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
d to a
goldsmith A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...
. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical inventions and eventually had twenty-one American and nineteen English
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s. He is known as the father of the refrigerator. He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1813 and a member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1819.


Early life

Jacob went to school in Newburyport until he was twelve and then was apprenticed to a goldsmith in Newburyport named Davis. Mr. Davis died three years later and the fifteen-year-old Jacob continued the business of making gold beads and added the manufacture of shoe buckles. When he was twenty-one he was employed by the master of the Massachusetts mint to make a die for striking copper pennies bearing an eagle and an Indian.


Innovations


Nail machines

In 1790, at the age of 24, in Byfield, he created machines for cutting and heading
nail Nail or Nails may refer to: In biology * Nail (anatomy), toughened protective protein-keratin (known as alpha-keratin, also found in hair) at the end of an animal digit, such as fingernail * Nail (beak), a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip ...
s. In 1795, he was granted a patent for his improved nail machines and started a nail manufacturing business on the Powwow River in
Amesbury, Massachusetts Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 17,366 at the 202 ...
.


Cannon borings

During the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...
he worked on machinery for boring out
cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
s.


Hydrostatics

He worked on water compression and invented a
bathometer A bathometer (also bathymeter) is an instrument for measuring water depth. It was previously used mainly in oceanographical studies, but is rarely employed nowadays. The term originates from Greek ''βαθύς'' (''bathys''), "deep" and ''μέ� ...
or piezometer to measure the depth of the sea by its pressure.


Engraving

Perkins created some of the best steel plates (as noted from English Engravers) for engraving, and started a printing business with engraver Gideon Fairman. They began with school books, and also made bank notes that were difficult to counterfeit. In 1809 he bought the stereotype technology (an aid in large-batch printing of bank notes that were difficult to counterfeit) from Asa Spencer, and registered the patent, and then employed Asa Spencer. Perkins made several important innovations in printing technology, including new steel engraving plates. Using these plates he made the first known steel engraved USA books (The Running Hand, school books, 8 pages each). He then made notes for a Boston Bank, and later for the National Bank. In 1816 he set up a printing shop and bid on the printing of currency for the Second National Bank in Philadelphia. His quality printing of American bank notes attracted attention of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
who were busy addressing the problem of massively forged English notes. In 1819, with his printing business partner, Gideon Fairman, they employed Asa Spencer and went to England at
Charles Heath Charles Theodosius Heath (1 March 1785 – 18 November 1848) was a British engraver, currency and stamp printer, book publisher and illustrator. Life and career He was the illegitimate son of James Heath, a successful engraver who enjoyed ...
's urging in an attempt to win the £20,000 reward for "unforgable notes". Sample notes were shown to the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
president Sir
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
. They set up shop in England, and spent months on example banknotes, but unfortunately for them, Banks thought that the inventor should be English by birth. Printing English notes ultimately proved a success and was carried out by Perkins in partnership with the English engraver-publisher
Charles Heath Charles Theodosius Heath (1 March 1785 – 18 November 1848) was a British engraver, currency and stamp printer, book publisher and illustrator. Life and career He was the illegitimate son of James Heath, a successful engraver who enjoyed ...
and his associate Gideon Fairman. Together they formed the partnership ''Perkins, Fairman and Heath''. Heath and Perkins also had support from their brothers. ''Perkins, Fairman and Heath'' was later renamed, when his son-in-law, Joshua Butters Bacon, bought out Charles Heath and the company was then known as Perkins, Bacon.
Perkins Bacon Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840. {{Infobox , above = Details on the mode of preventing the forgery o ...
provided banknotes for many banks, and foreign countries with
postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
s.McConnell (2004) Stamp production started for the British government in 1840 with the 1d black and the 2d blue postage stamps, which incorporated an anti-forgery measure in the form of a complicated background produced by means of the
rose engine A rose engine lathe is a specialized kind of geometric lathe. The head stock rocks back and forth with a rocking motion and/or slides along the spindle axis in a pumping motion. A rosette or cam-like pattern mounted on the spindle is controlled b ...
. Their stamps were the first known preglued stamps. Also concurrently, Jacob's brother ran the American printing business, and they made money on important fire safety patents. Charles Heath and Jacob Perkins worked together and independently on some concurrent projects.


Hermetic tube

Jacob Perkins has patents for Heating and Air Conditioning technology. In 1829–30, he went into partnership with his second son Angier March Perkins, manufacturing and installing
central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...
systems using his hermetic tube principle. He also investigated
refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...
machinery after discovering from his research in heating that liquefied
ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous ...
caused a cooling effect.


Steam power

In 1816, Jacob Perkins had worked on steam power with Oliver Evans in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
. In 1822 he made an experimental high pressure
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...
working at pressures up to . This was not practical for the manufacturing technology of the time, though his concepts were revived a century later. Perkins' boiler was the first example of a
flash boiler A flash boiler is a type of water-tube boiler. The tubes are close together and water is pumped through them. A flash boiler differs from the type of monotube steam generator in which the tube is permanently filled with water. In a flash boiler, ...
and one of the first examples of a contra-flow heat exchanger. The
water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gen ...
consisted of heavy
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...
straight, square-section water-tubes across the firebox, joined by unheated pipes outside it. These tubes were arranged in three layers, with water pumped into the upper layer and steam extracted at the lower, giving that contra-flow arrangement. In 1927, Loftus P. Perkins, a descendant, lectured on these boilers and displayed a copper pipe, apparently from a engine of a type that was in use up until 1918. Perkins' high-pressure steam technology was also used in another invention, the ''steam gun''. This was an early fully automatic
machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...
, powered by steam rather than by gunpowder. Although not the first automatic firearm, it was the first to also have a high magazine capacity of more than a handful of rounds. It operated with musket balls at a cyclic firing rate of 1,000 rounds per minute. It is reported to have been rejected by the
Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister ...
as 'too destructive'. In 1827 he became the first person in England to use a uniflow steam engine. A locomotive on the South Eastern Railway was converted to the Uniflow system in 1849, although it is not known whose idea this was. Perkins applied his Hermetic tube system to
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central ...
s and a number of locomotives using this principle were made in 1836 for the
London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...
. This was a very early example of a
high pressure steam locomotive A high-pressure steam locomotive is a steam locomotive with a boiler that operates at pressures well above what would be considered normal for other locomotives. In the later years of steam, boiler pressures were typically . High-pressure locomotiv ...
.


National Gallery of Practical Science

In 1832 Perkins established the National Gallery of Practical Science on Adelaide Street, West Strand, London. This was devoted to showing modern inventions. A popular feature was his steam gun, which did not find favour with the military.


Refrigeration

Perkins is credited with the first patent for the
vapor-compression refrigeration Vapour-compression refrigeration or vapor-compression refrigeration system (VCRS), in which the refrigerant undergoes phase changes, is one of the many refrigeration cycles and is the most widely used method for air conditioning of buildings ...
cycle, assigned on August 14, 1834 and titled, "Apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids". The idea had come from another American inventor, Oliver Evans, who conceived of the idea in 1805 but never built a refrigerator. The same patent was granted in both Scotland and England separately.


Financial problems detailed

Jacob Perkins and Charles Heath had many business successes, but also had financial difficulties, but usually not at the same time. The accounting records for their printing business shows the two borrowed from the business, and sold shares back and forth when necessary in any and all business ventures, and kept detailed records. This professional relationship ended when Jacob's son-in-law, Joshua Butters Bacon, bought out Charles Heath's share of their shared printing business, which then became
Perkins Bacon Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840. {{Infobox , above = Details on the mode of preventing the forgery o ...
. At one point he became involved in
lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...
s and had to close his engine factory.


Patents

Jacob Perkins has many patents: * GB 4400/1819. Machinery and implements applicable to ornamental turning and engraving, transferring engraved or other work from the surface of one to another piece of metal, and forming metallic dies and matrices; construction of plates and presses for printing bank-notes and other papers; making dies and presses for coining money, stamping medals, and for other purposes. 11 October 1819 * GB 4470/1820 Construction of fixed and portable pumps. 3 June 1820 * GB 4732/1822 Steam-engines. 10 December 1822 * GB 4792/1823. Heating, boiling, or evaporating by the steam of fluids, in pans, boilers, or other vessels. 17 May 1823 * GB 4800/1823 Steam-engines. 5 June 1823 . * GB 4870/1823 Construction of the furnace of steam-boilers and other vessels. 20th Nov. 1823 * GB 4952/1824 Throwing shells and other projectiles. 15 May 1824 * GB 4998/1824 Propelling vessels. 9 August 1824 * GB 5237/1825 Construction of bedsteads, sofas, and other similar articles. 11 August 1825 * GB 5477/1827 Construction of steam-engines. 22 March 1827 * GB 5806/1829 Machinery for propelling steam-vessels. 2 July 1829 * GB 6128/1831 Generating steam. 2 July 1831 * GB 6154/1831 Generating steam;– applicable to evaporating and boiling fluids for certain purposes. 27 August 1831 * GB 6275/1832 Blowing and exhausting air;– applicable to various purposes, 9 June 1832 * GB 6336/1832 Preserving copper in certain cases from the oxydation caused by heat. 20 Nov. 1832 * GB 6662/1835 Apparatus and means for producing ice and in cooling fluids. 14 August 1835 (steamindex incorrectly states 1834) * GB 7059/1836 Steam-engines; generating steam; evaporating and boiling fluids for certain purposes. 12 April 1836 * GB 7114/1836 Apparatus for cooking. 13 June 1836 * GB 7242/1836 Steam-engines, furnaces, and boilers ;- partly applicable to other purposes. 3 December 1836 Perkins bought some technology, and patented it himself in multiple countries, and employed the true inventors (as was the case with Asa Spencer and Oliver Evans).


Family

Jacob was married on November 11, 1790 to Hannah Greenleaf of Newbury and together they had nine children. His second son, Angier March Perkins (1799–1881), also born at Newburyport, went to England in 1827, and was in partnership with his father (later taking over the business on the latter's death). His grandson, Loftus Perkins (1834–1891), most of whose life was spent in England, experimented with the application to steam engines of steam at very high pressures, constructing in 1880 a yacht, the ''Anthracite''.


Death

He retired in 1843 and died in London on 30 July 1849, at 83 years of age. He was buried in
Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.


See also

* Timeline of low-temperature technology


References


Bibliography

*Obituary: **''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
'', 8 September 1849
The Manufacture of Nails in Essex County
by Sidney Perley pages 69–74 in Volume 2 of The Essex Antiquarian published May 1898. * * *McConnell, A. (2004)
Perkins, Angier March (1799–1881)
, ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Oxford University Press, accessed 14 Aug 2007 (subscription required) * *Woolrich, A. P. 002"Perkins, Jacob", in


External links


Mr Perkins' Extraordinary Steam Gun of 1824
Illustrated account of the Perkins steam gun

- also known as The Adelaide Gallery



{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Jacob 1766 births 1849 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Newburyport, Massachusetts Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Scientists from Massachusetts