Simon Ingersoll (March 3, 1818 – July 24, 1894) was an American inventor who created the

steam-powered 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 tra ...

percussion rock drill, which replaced the hand drill and was a major advancement in the

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

industries. The drill vastly increased efficiency. However, despite lower labor costs, there was no recorded upturn in unemployment. Instead, workers were assigned to more meaningful tasks. Ingersoll was born in Stanwich,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. He was a farmer, and in his spare time an inventor. Based on his percussion drill, in 1871 he founded the Ingersoll Rock Drill Company, a predecessor of today's

Ingersoll Rand Ingersoll Rand Inc. is an American multinational company that provides flow creation and industrial products. The company was formed in February 2020 through the spinoff of the industrial segment of Ingersoll-Randplc (now known as Trane Technol ...

. Simon Ingersoll later sold his patents and died destitute in 1894.

References

External links

Bio at National Inventors Hall of Fame
1818 births 1894 deaths 19th-century American inventors Ingersoll Rand people 19th-century American businesspeople Inventors from Connecticut {{US-business-bio-1810s-stub