John Ericsson and the Inventions of the War (The History of the Civil War Series) by Ann Brophy
John Ericsson (1803-1889) Published in 1991 by Silver Burdett Press 118 pages of text. 8 pages of timelines, sources and an index at the end. This book is part of a larger series (The History of the Civil War Series). It is very readable with a good balance of national history versus the biography of Swedish immigrant inventor John Ericsson, with the glaring exception I note below. John Ericsson (1803-1889) was almost the stereotypical nutty professor type inventor - he never properly patented many of his best inventions. Ericsson built a great number of inventions, but unlike Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, he never really built any industries around them. He seemed to have trouble with personal relationships and was happiest when the was building in his laboratory. On the deck of the U.S.S. Monitor Among other things, Ericsson invented a screw propeller, a "caloric" engine and, most importantly, he was the designer of the famed U.S.S. Monito