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Encyclopedia > Oliver Evans
Oliver Evans
Oliver Evans

Oliver Evans (13 September 175515 April 1819) was a United States inventor. Oliver Evans, pd portrait from uspto. ... Oliver Evans, pd portrait from uspto. ... September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... 1755 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1819 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... An inventor is a person who creates new inventions, typically technical devices such as mechanical, electrical or software devices or methods. ...


Evans was born in Newport, Delaware. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a wheelwright. Newport is a town located in New Castle County, Delaware. ... Wheelwright - a person that repairs and aligns defective wheels of automotive vehicles, such as automobiles, buses, and trucks. ...


Evans' first notable invention was in 1777, when he made a machine for making card teeth for carding wool. He went into business with his brothers and produced a number of improvements in the textile industry as well as other factory equipment, including an elevator and perhaps the first industrial conveyor belt. He also produced improved equipment for flour mills. 1777 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Carding Llama hair Carding is the processing of brushing raw or washed fibers to prepare them as textiles. ... Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool is the fiber derived from the hair of domesticated animals, usually sheep. ... Textile is also a kind of ReStructured Text. ... A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is a large industrial building where workers manufacture goods or products. ... A modern elevator has buttons to allow passengers to select the desired floor. ... Point of contact between a power transmission belt and its pulley A conveyor belt or belt conveyor consists of two end pulleys, with a continuous loop of material that rotates about them. ... An ingredient used in many foods, flour is a fine powder made from grain or other starchy food sources. ... The term mill, when used by itself, can refer to: Mill (factory) - a place of business for making articles of manufacture, e. ...


In 1792 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Independence Hall Philadelphia (sometimes referred to as Philly or the City of Brotherly Love) is the fifth most populous city in the United States and the most populous city in the state of Pennsylvania, occupying all of Philadelphia County. ...


He produced an improved high-pressure steam engine. For some years he contemplated the idea of applying steam power to wagons to produce an automobile. He was granted a patent for a steam-carriage design in 1789, but did not produce a successful working example of such a machine until over a decade later. Part of his difficulties was a failure to get financial backing. After lack of support in his native land, in 1794 he sent copies of some his designs to Great Britain in an attempt to interest investors there. Some writers have said that Richard Trevithick saw Evans' designs, and Trevithick's early steam-carriages owed much to Evans. A steam engine, once known as a fire and air engine, is a heat engine that makes use of the thermal energy that exists in steam, converting it to mechanical work. ... A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and useful. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Richard Trevithick. ...


As Evans designed a refrigeration machine which ran on vapour in 1805, he is often called the inventor of the refrigerator, although he never built one. (His design was modified by Jacob Perkins, who obtained the first patent for a refrigerating machine in 1834.) 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1834 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...


The Oruktor Amphibolos

The device for which Oliver Evans is best-known today is his Oruktor Amphibolos, or "Amphibious Digger", built on commission from the Philadelphia's Board of Health. The Board was concerned with the problem of dredging and cleaning the city's dockyards, and in 1805 Evans convinced them to contract with him for a steam-powered dredge.


No drawings of the device survive, and the only evidence for its design come from Oliver Evans' own descriptions, which are contradictory, and most likely exagerated. He describes the vehicle as a a 30-foot long 15 ton scow, powered by a 5 horse-power steam engine. For a demonstration of his long-held beliefs in the possibility of land steam demonstration, Evans mounted the hull on 4 wheels and may have connected the engine to them, to drive it through Philadelphia streets on the way to the river. The small size of the engine, the large size of the vehicle, and the lack of any contermporary evidence other than Evans' own writings for it make this seem unlikely. Evans claimed that his dredge was the first self-powered amphibious vehicle, as well as the first self-powered land vehicle in the United States (steam powered automobiles had already been used earlier in France and Great Britain). The Oruktor Amphibolos was never a success as a dredge, and after a few years of sitting at the dock was sold for parts. The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... A wheel is a circular object that together with an axle allows low friction motion, e. ... An amphibian or amphibious vehicle, is a vehicle that, like an amphibian, can move on land as well as on water. ...


Oliver Evans wrote up proposals to mechanize stage coach lines, but failed to get backing from investors. In 1812 he published a visionary description of the nation connected by a network of railroad lines with transportation by swift steam locomotives. It should be remembered that at the time the locomotive was little more than a crude curiousity, and no attempts to use it for long distance transport had yet been made; see: History of rail transport. A stagecoach is a type of four-wheeled enclosed passenger and/or mail coach, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, widely used before the introduction of railway transport. ... 1812 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ... Rail transport has a long history, including systems with man or horse power and rails of wood or stone. ...


In 1819 while in New York City Oliver Evans was informed that his workshop in Philadelphia had burned to the ground. Evans suffered from a stroke at the news, and died soon after. Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ... A stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to a part of the brain is suddenly interrupted by occlusion (an ischemic stroke- approximately 90%of strokes) or by hemorrhage (a hemorrhagic stroke - approximately 10% of strokes). ...


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  Results from FactBites:
 
Oliver Evans - Academic Kids (542 words)
Oliver Evans (13 September, 1755 – 15 April, 1819) was a United States inventor.
As Evans designed a refrigeration machine which ran on vapour in 1805, he is often called the inventor of the refrigerator, although he never built one.
Oliver Evans' most famous device was the Oruktor Amphibolos, or "Amphibious Digger", built on commission from the city of Philadelphia who asked Evans to turn his talent to the problem of dredging and cleaning the city's dockyards.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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