George Henry Corliss (1817-1888) was an American engineer and the head of the Corliss Steam Engine Co.
He was born at Easton, Washington County, NY, on June 2nd 1817.
He was 27 years old when he associated himself with John Barstow and E. J. Nightingale, under the name of Corliss, Nightingale and Co.
In 1849 he took out patents to protect his inventions to improve the steam engine.
In 1867 the Corliss engine won first prize at the Paris Exhibition gaining him notoriety amongst his peers.
In 1868-1870 he was in the State Senate.
In 1870 he was awarded the Rumford Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
As a member of the committee at the Centennial Exhibition of 1870, Mr. Corliss showed a 1400 hp engine which turned all the machinery in the building offering him great respect.
In 1873, in the Vienna Exhibition, of the 400 engines exhibited nearly all were of the Corliss type.
In 1876 he was a presidential elector.
In 1878 the institute of France presented him with the Monoyon Medal; the highest honour for mechanical achievement.
In 1886 the King of Belgium made him an Officer of the Order of Leopold.
He was twice married and had a son and a daughter.[1]
He died on February 21st 1888 at age 71.
1888 Obituary [2]
George Henry Corliss, the inventor of the Corliss engine, died at his residence in Providence, R.I., on the 21st of February. Paralysis of the heart caused his death. About a week before he left the engine works, where he was engaged in the preparations for the new Pawtucket pumping engine. The drawings and much of the preliminary work for the new Corliss engine had also been completed, and the great inventor was in the best of spirits. The organisation of the factory was in progress, and had employed several months of his attention. But on the next day, while so much that interested him was on foot, he was attacked with gastric trouble which developed into a fever. This gradually left him only to return on the 19th of the month. He was supposed to be doing well until on Tuesday, the 21st, paralysis made its appearance. His case was then pronounced hopeless. The patient, retaining conscious ness to the last, expired early in the afternoon.
We learn from the Scientific American that he was born in Easton, Washington Co., N.Y., on June 2nd, 1817; his father, Dr. Hiram Corliss, and his mother, were natives of the same village. In 1825 his father moved to Greenwich, in the same county, where he sent his son to school. At the age of fourteen he left the village school and entered an academy at Castleton, Vt. In 1838, he began his active life, leaving the academy and opening a store in Greenwich. A bridge had been carried away by a freshet, when be first gave evidence of his mechanical genius. He devised a plan for its reconstruction which was pronounced impracticable, but which was successfully carried out. He next constructed a machine for stitching leather, which antedates by many years the invention of Howe. He moved to Providence, R.I. , in 1884 (sic), associating himself with John Barstow and E. J. Nightingale under the firm name of Corliss, Nightingale and Co., and in 1846 began to develop and improve the steam engine. It is said that he never saw the inside of a machine shop until he was twenty-five years old , yet his improvements were pushed with such energy that in 1849 they were practically completed, and a patent was procured . In this early machine were embodied the leading features of the world-renowned Corliss engine. The invention has proved revolutionary in its effects upon steam engine practice.
In 1850 the Corliss Steam Engine Co. was incorporated. It grew rapidly , and now covers several acres of ground, while it has supplied many hundreds of engines to steam consumers all over this country and abroad. Mr. Corliss was from the beginning president of this company. Many awards were reserved by from America and Europe. At Paris he received the prize of the 1867 Exposition. On January 11th, 1870, the Rumford medal was presented to him by the late Dr. Asa Gray, then president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the 1873 Exhibition in Vienna he received the grand diploma of honour for the excellence of his system, then extensively adopted by continental engine builders. The Institute of France in 1878 awarded him the Methoyon medal, the highest honour for mechanical achievement. In February, 1880, the King of Belgium made him an officer of the Order of Leopold.
In 1872 he was appointed Centennial Commissioner from Rhode Island. He conceived the idea of driving the machinery of the Centennial Exposition by one great engine, and carried out the plan with well-remembered success. The engine, which was admired by so many as it ceaselessly and noiselessly did its work in Philadelphia in 1876, represented one of the culminations of his life work. M. Bartholdi, in his report to the French Government, said that this engine formed a work of art. He was the object of great regard in his adopted city. He was in the State Senate in 1868-70, and was a presidential elector in 1876. He refused to run for mayor or governor, though often solicited, once declining the gubernatorial nomination after a unanimous choice by the convention. He was one of the commissioners who bad charge of the erection of the new City Hall of Providence. By his death America loses one of her most distinguished sons, and his death will meet with widespread regrets from all the civilised world.
He was twice married; first in 1839 to Phebe F. Frost, of Canterbury, Conn., who died in this city in 1859; and again in 1866 to Emily A. Shaw, of Newburyport, Mass., who survives him. He leaves a daughter and son by his first wife.
1888 Obituary [3]
Hamilton-Corliss
The Hamilton Corliss engine was made by the Hooven Owens Renschler Company of Hamilton, Ohio. These engines were most commonly known as "Hamilton Corliss Engines"[4]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Engineering Journal, 23rd March 1888, Maw and Dredge.
- ↑ The Engineer 1888/03/23
- ↑ Engineering 1888 Jan-Jun: Index: General Index
- ↑ The Corliss Engine [1]