Ingenious Applications of Steam Power
(Page 2 of 3)
November/December 2003
Dr. Robert T. Rhode
Although born in Vernon, N.J., Winans was a Confederate
sympathizer who was actively involved in Confederate politics. In
May of 1861 Winans shipped his gun south from Baltimore to Harpers
Ferry, Va., but on May 11, 1861, Colonel Edward F. Jones of the 6th
Massachusetts Regiment under Brigadier General Benjamin F. Butler
intercepted Winans' gun. Three days later, Butler captured
Winans in Baltimore. Had Secretary of State William H. Seward not
interceded on behalf of the millionaire prisoner, Winans might have
been hanged for treason. Instead, he was released, a fact that
angered Butler for the rest of his life. Through the remainder of
the war, the gun protected the Baltimore & Ohio Patuxent River
Viaduct.
RELATED CONTENT
THE EBAUGH STEAM CIGAR BOAT
Nicknamed 'Davids' (with reference to the story of David
and Goliath), these partially submerged Confederate cigar boats
carried torpedoes. The moniker 'cigar boat' describes the
shape of the hull.
In 1863, David C. Ebaugh privately manufactured the first of
these crafts at Charleston, S.C. Christened David, it was
appropriated by the Confederate States Navy. On Oct. 5, 1863,
David, steaming under the cloak of night, attacked the
Union ship NewIronsides. Quite unexpectedly,
however, David's exploding torpedo set up a spray that
extinguished the cigar boat's fires, and a piece of shrapnel
jammed David's engine. Through the efforts of the engineer,
however, the injured boat escaped. New Ironsides sustained
damage but survived.
The following year, David saw additional action against
Union vessels, and more 'Davids' were built between 1864
and 1865. Some writers refer to the David-type torpedo boats as
'submarines,' but there was an obvious limit to the depth
that such a steam vessel could submerge.
STEAM-POWERED AIRPLANES
Several of the first experimental airplanes were powered by
steam. These would include Frenchman Felix du Temple's
monoplane of 1874, Russian Aleksandr Mozhaiskii's monoplane of
1876 and American-born Hiram Maxim's biplane of 1894. Two 180
HP steam engines powered the Maxim machine, which was tested in
Kent, England, but the plane broke its upper rails and was badly
damaged.
Arguably the best-known steam aviator is Clement Ader, who built
bat-winged aircraft. These included the Eole, which briefly left
the ground some writers say that it hopped once on Oct. 9, 1890,
and the Avion III, which failed to fly when launches were attempted
on Oct. 12 and Oct. 14, 1897. Ader claimed to have flown on four
occasions, claims that have prompted considerable controversy in
aviation history circles. Like all experimenters in the realm of
steam-powered flight, Ader vainly sought powerful yet lightweight
engines.