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{{Short description|American inventor (1808–1899)}} |
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[[File:George Escol Sellers 1899.jpg|thumb|upright 1.0|George Escol Sellers, ca. 1899]] |
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''' George Escol Sellers ''' (1808-1899) was an American [[businessman]], [[mechanical engineer]], and [[inventor]]. He is associated with designing [[railroad locomotive]]s and related equipment. |
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{{Infobox person |
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| honorific_prefix = |
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| name = George Escol Sellers |
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| honorific_suffix = |
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| image = George Escol Sellers 1899.jpg |
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| alt = |
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| caption = George Escol Sellers, ca. 1898 |
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| native_name = |
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| native_name_lang = |
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| citizenship = |
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| birth_name = |
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1808|11|26}} |
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| birth_place = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], US |
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| death_date = {{death date and age|1899|01|01|1808|11|26}} |
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| death_place = [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], US |
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| resting_place = |
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| resting_place_coordinates = |
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| education = |
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| module = {{Infobox engineering career |
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| discipline = Mechanical engineering |
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| institutions = |
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| practice_name = Nathan & David Sellers, Globe Rolling Mills |
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| employer = Panama Railway |
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| significant_projects = Lead pipes, railroad locomotives |
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| significant_design = |
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| significant_advance = |
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| significant_awards = |
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}} |
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| signature = |
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| signature_alt = birthplace |
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}} |
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'''George Escol Sellers ''' (November 26, 1808 – January 1, 1899) was an American businessman, mechanical engineer, and inventor. He owned and managed different businesses and patented several inventions. He established a company with his brother Charles where he patented his early invention of a machine that produced lead pipes from hot fluid lead continuously. While working for the [[Panama Railway]] in the 1850s, he received various patents for improvements he made on railroad locomotives, including a railroad engine which could climb steep hills. |
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He was interested in the field of archaeology. He wrote many articles, collected artifacts, and became a skilled arrowhead maker. Some of his arrowheads were displayed at the [[National Museum of the American Indian]]. He was interested in art, and he indulged in arts and spent time with artists throughout his life.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}} A character name in the first edition of [[Mark Twain]] and [[Charles Dudley Warner]]'s ''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today]]'' (1873), "Colonel Eschol Sellers", was similar to Sellers' and had to be changed when he objected to its further use. However, the connection repeated again when the new name, "Colonel Mulberry Sellers", unintentionally referenced the neighborhood where he was born. |
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Sellers was born on November 26, 1808, in [[Philadelphia]].{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}} His birthplace was near the [[Philadelphia Mint]] in a neighborhood known as Mulberry Court. Sellers' parents were Coleman Sellers and Sophonisba. He had one older brother Charles, born in 1806; two younger sisters Elizabeth, born in 1810; and Anna, born in 1824; and two younger brothers Harvey, born in 1813; and [[Coleman Sellers II|Coleman II]], born in 1827. His paternal grandfather Nathan Sellers (wife Elizabeth Coleman) was known for artwork of wire paper molds. He had one older brother Charles, born in 1806; two younger sisters Elizabeth, born in 1810; and Anna, born in 1824; and two younger brothers Harvey, born in 1813; and [[Coleman Sellers II|Coleman II]], born in 1827. His paternal grandfather Nathan Sellers (wife Elizabeth Coleman) was known for wire paper molds of artwork. His father and many ancestors had been engineers; his maternal grandfather was [[Charles Willson Peale]]. He was educated at common schools and studied for five years with Anthony Bolmar<ref>See {{cite web |url=http://robertson.ss.emory.edu/antjr/cfr8-505.htm |title=Anthony Bolar |publisher=[[Emory University]] |accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> at his academy in [[West Chester, Pennsylvania]].{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}} {{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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[[File:231 High Street of Mulberry Court.jpg|thumb|upright 0.5|His birthplace]] |
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George Escol Sellers was born on November 26, 1808, in [[Philadelphia]] to Coleman Sellers and [[Sophonisba Angusciola Peale]].{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} His birthplace was near the [[Philadelphia Mint]] in the neighborhood of Mulberry Court. He had one elder brother Charles (b. 1806), two younger brothers, Harvey (b. 1813) and [[Coleman Sellers II]] (b. 1827), and two younger sisters, Elizabeth (b. 1810) and Anna (b. 1824).{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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His father and many ancestors had been engineers.<ref name="Schmidt" /> His maternal grandfather was [[Charles Willson Peale]], and his paternal grandfather Nathan Sellers was known for artwork of wire paper molds.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} While at school, he worked at Peale's [[Peale's Philadelphia Museum|Philadelphia Museum]] — he would later serve as a member of the museum's board of directors.<ref name="Schmidt" /> Sellers was educated at public schools and studied for five years with tutor Anthony Bolmar at the [[West Chester University|West Chester Academy]] in [[West Chester, Pennsylvania]].{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} In 1832, he went to England to study machines used for production of paper.<ref name="Schmidt" /> |
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== Mid life and career == |
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== Career and inventions == |
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⚫ | Sellers returned to the United States in 1833<ref name="Schmidt" /> and started working at his father and grandfather's firm, Nathan & David Sellers; Charles was employed there as well. The company made machinery for producing wire and paper and was the first in the country to use forged frames to build locomotives.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} They also worked for the [[United States Mint]].{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} When Nathan Sellers died in 1830, the business was reorganized and Coleman Sellers and his two sons then ran the business. As a consequence of the [[Depression of 1837]], the company became insolvent and closed.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} His work at the firm inspired many of his engineering writings.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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Sellers |
After Sellers closed his business in the east he moved with his brother Charles to [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, and they established a factory for making lead pipe. Sellers invented machinery that utilized hot fluid lead for continuous production of lead pipe — he received a patent for his design, number US1908A on December 17, 1840.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1908 |title=Machinery for making pipes continuously from lead |via=[[Google Patents]]|access-date=March 25, 2017|date=December 17, 1840|publisher=[[U.S. Patent Office]]}}</ref> Their business was eventually sold and merged into a company which was a major producer of lead pipe in the country. Sellers partnered with Josiah Lawrence, a Cincinnati businessman, and organized a wire manufacturing company called Globe Rolling Mills.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} He incorporated machinery that he designed in their production process and it proved to be more efficient in producing lead pipe and wire.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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[[File:Patent US7498 A.jpg|thumb|upright 1.01|Railroad locomotive for hill climbing|right]] |
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== Hobbies == |
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He sold his interest in the company by 1850 and undertook manufacturing of railroad locomotives for the [[Panama Railway]] in 1851 having invented a locomotive for inclined planes.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=257}} Sellers took out many patents on improvements he made on railroad locomotives while working there. He invented a railroad engine capable of climbing steep mountains and heavily inclined planes — it was defined as an engine boiler with gearing for working heavy grades and was patented as US7498A on July 9, 1850.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US7498A/en |title=Boiler and gearing of locomotive-engines for working heavy grades |via=Google Patents |access-date=March 25, 2017|date=July 9, 1850|publisher=U.S. Patent Office}}</ref> He was engaged in the manufacturing and sales of railroad equipment for several years in the 1850s.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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During the [[American Civil War]], Sellers moved to southern [[Illinois]] near the [[Ohio River]] and became interested in their mining operations.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}}{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}<ref name="Schmidt" /> He invented a process for making paper-stock from vegetable fiber which was patented as US41101A on January 5, 1864.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US41101 |date=January 5, 1864 |title=Improvement in preparing vegetable fiber for paper-stock|via=Google Patents |access-date=March 25, 2017|publisher=U.S. Patent Office}}</ref> He spent the remainder of his career pursuing mechanical engineering and design.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} In 1888, he took up residence at [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], upon retirement and lived on [[Missionary Ridge|Mission Ridge]].<ref name="Schmidt" /> Sellers died at his home in Chattanooga at the age of 90 on January 1, 1899.<ref name="Obituary1">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Death of George E. Sellers |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9842045// |work=[[The Courier-Journal]] |location=Louisville, Kentucky |date= January 2, 1899 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{open access}} }}</ref> |
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Sellers had a deep interest in [[archaeology]]. He wrote several articles relating to the relics of the [[mound builders]] of Illinois. One published by [[Smithsonian Institution]] was on the aborigines' method of making earthenware salt pans. He also wrote detailed articles on how the local American Indians made the [[arrowhead]]s and stone age tools.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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== Personal life == |
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Sellers married Rachel Brooks Parrish on March 6, 1833. They had five children and adopted an orphaned daughter of his cousin. Parrish died on September 14, 1860, in Illinois and was survived by only one son out of their five children.<ref name="Schmidt" /> |
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He had a deep interest in [[archaeology]]. He wrote several articles on the relics of the [[mound builders]] of Illinois — one published by [[Smithsonian Institution]] was on the aborigines' method of making earthenware salt pans.{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=257}} He also wrote detailed articles on how the local American Indians made [[arrowhead]]s and stone age tools.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} He personally became so skilled at making arrowheads that some specimens of his craft were on display at the [[National Museum of the American Indian]], Washington, D.C.<ref name="Schmidt"> {{cite web |url=http://www.twainquotes.com/ColonelSellers.html |title=Special Feature: "We will Confiscate His Name": The Unfortunate Case of George Escol Sellers |publisher=twainquotes.com |first1=Barbara |last1=Schmidt |access-date=March 25, 2017}} See https://www.jstor.org/stable/44504992 For reliability </ref> He also had a substantial collection of [[pottery]] and implements of the prehistoric tribes of the Ohio valley.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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Upon his retirement, Mr. Sellers removed to [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], where, having secured a home for himself on [[Mission Ridge]], he spent the remainder of his life among congenial and appreciative friends. It was from this Southern home that he contributed his engineering reminiscences to the "American Machinist." Beside his mechanical ability, Mr. Sellers had from his early boyhood a decided taste for art, and possessed no little skill as a painter. This talent was doubtless cultivated and encouraged through close association with his maternal grandfather, Charles Willson Peale, and his uncle, Rembrandt Peale. When he was but sixteen years of age, Thomas Sulley, the artist, recognizing his ability, urged him to adopt portrait painting as a profession, and offered to take him as a pupil. Although his decided tasti for mechanics determined his course of life, h-; always remained in touch with art, and counted among his friends many of the prominent painters, draftsmen and illustrators of the day. Although feeble in body, Mr. Sellers' mental faculties were but little impaired by his advanced age, and he contributed many interesting pages to his personal memoirs until within a very short time of his death.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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His grandfather Charles Wilson Peale and his uncles [[Rembrandt Peale]] and [[Raphaelle Peale]] were notable artists of the time. In Sellers's opinion, Raphaelle was the most talented of Charles's artist children.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/raphaelle-peale-still-lifes.pdf |title=Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes |first1=Nicolai Jr. |last1=Cikovsky |first2=Linda |last2=Bantel |first3=John |last3=Wilmderding |publisher=[[National Gallery of Art]], Washington; [[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]], Philadelphia; Distributed by [[Harry N. Abrams, Inc.]] |location=New York |pages=115–116 |access-date=March 26, 2017}}</ref> Sellers also had recognized artistic talent; [[Thomas Sully]] had urged him at an early age to become a [[portraitist]] and offered to teach him, but he was more interested in pursuing a vocational career.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} Nonetheless, he indulged his taste for arts and the society of artists throughout his life.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}} He patented different art inventions from time to time and coordinated "one of the earliest social organizations of artists in Philadelphia", according to Cope (1904).{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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== Societies == |
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==''The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today''== |
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Sellers had talent as an artist. With others he organized one of the earliest social organizations of artists in Philadelphia. Sellers was deeply interested in archeological research pertaining to the American Indians and developed a collection of pottery and implements of the prehistoric tribes of the Ohio valley.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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The first edition of [[Mark Twain]] and [[Charles Dudley Warner]]'s 1873 novel ''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today]]'' had a fictional character — a satirical exploitative capitalist without redeeming social values — called "Colonel Eschol Sellers".{{failed verification|date=February 2023}}<ref name=Escol>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Personal and Political |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9843166// |work= Humboldt Republican |location=Humboldt, Iowa |date=January 12, 1899 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}} }}</ref> The name "Eschol Sellers" was suggested by Warner,{{failed verification|date=February 2023}}<ref name=Eschol>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title= Col. Mulberry Sellers |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9841600// |work= Independence Daily Reporter|location= Independence, Kansas|date=September 3, 1890 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}} }}</ref> and the use of "Eschol" was a carefully considered decision, with apocryphal descriptions of its antecedents. Warner stated that he had interacted with an "Eschol Sellers" 20 years prior to writing this book, and decided to use the name because of its rarity. He further added that "his name has probably carried him off before this; and if it hasn't, he will never see the book anyhow."<ref name="Schmidt" /> |
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== Inventions and patents == |
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He was an able engineer and mechanic and took out many patents relating to the various arts in which he was from time to time engaged including improvements in locomotives, particularly the type he built for the [[Panama Railway]].{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}} He invented a hill climbing railroad locomotive that was defined as a engine boiler with gearing for working heavy grades, patented as US7498A granted July 9, 1850.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US7498A/en |title=Boiler and gearing of locomotive-engines for working heavy grades |via=[[Google Patents]] |accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> |
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{{cnspan|Dr. J. H. Barton — a common friend of Sellers and Warner — discovered the depiction and urged Warner to not use his friend's name. Warner forwarded a message to Sellers through Barton clarifying that the parallels in the storyline had been unintentional. On January 1, 1874, Sellers replied, threatened to sue them if they did not change the name, and asked them to issue a disclaimer about the usage of his name. Warner agreed and said that the name would be changed in the future copies.|date=February 2023}} Twain mentioned in his 1892 novel ''[[The American Claimant]]'' that "Beriah Sellers" was used instead of "Eschol Sellers", but it had to be changed again when someone else objected to its use.{{sfn|Twain|1898|p=1}} The next editions of the novel used "Colonel Mulberry Sellers" instead. "Mulberry" happened to be the name of the neighborhood where Sellers was born and raised, and this unwanted connection continued to be repeated, even unto Sellers's obituaries.<ref name="Obituary2">{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Atlanta Constitution]] |date=January 2, 1899 |page=3 |title=Death of an Old Engineer: George Sellers Dies at His Home on Mission Ridge}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Atlanta Constitution]] |date=September 8, 1901 |page=A1 |title=The Original Col. Mulberry Sellers |first1=Henry M. |last1=Wiltse}}</ref> |
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Sellers invented processes for making paper from vegetable fiber. He designed machinery for the manufacture of pipes continuously from molten lead and was given patent number US1908 A on December 17, 1840, for the machinery.{{sfn|Cope|Ashmead|1904|p=198}}{{sfn|McGraw-Hill|1899|p=256}} |
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==Publications== |
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*[https://books.google.com/books?id=gSpWAAAAcAAJ Improvements in Locomotive Engines, and Railways] |
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*[https://books.google.com/books?id=uYDFxwEACAAJ Early Engineering Reminiscences (1815-40) of George Escol Sellers] |
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==See also== |
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Coincidentally [[Mark Twain]] in his novel ''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today|The Gilded Age]]'' has a fictional character called Colonel Mulberry Sellers. The first edition of that book actually used the name "Eschol Sellers." The names were further transmutated when the work became a play. This is explained further at the beginning of Twain's later novel ''[[The American Claimant]]'' as being Sellers of Philadelphia, who sued to have his name removed from the novel. While the next editions of Twain's novel removed the name "George Eschol" he ultimately put in the name "Mulberry Sellers" {{ndash}} which just happens to be the neighborhood where Sellers was raised in Philadelphia.{{sfn|Twain|1898|p=1}}<ref name="Schmidt">{{cite web |url=http://www.twainquotes.com/ColonelSellers.html |title=Special Feature: "We will Confiscate His Name": The Unfortunate Case of George Escol Sellers |publisher=twainquotes.com |first1=Barbara |last1=Schmidt |quote=Copies of first editions of The Gilded Age contained the name of Colonel Eschol Sellers. Later editions contained the name Colonel Beriah Sellers. And the name Beriah mutated into Colonel Mulberry Sellers in the stage productions. Mark Twain first offered an explanation of the name change to his readers some years later in his book Life on the Mississippi |accessdate=March 25, 2017}}</ref> In fact, this unwanted connection continued to be repeated, even unto Sellers's obituaries.<ref name="Schmidt"/><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Atlanta Constitution]] |date=January 2, 1899 |page=3 |title=Death of an Old Engineer: George Sellers Dies at His Home on Mission Ridge}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Atlanta Constitution |date=September 8, 1901 |page=A1 |
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*[[Alexander Bonner Latta]]—invented the first practical steam [[fire engine]]. |
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|title=The Original Col. Mulberry Sellers |first1=Henry M. |last1=Wiltse}}</ref> |
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*Anthony Harkness—inventor associated with pioneering the railroad locomotive industry of Cincinnati, Ohio. |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist|group=upper-alpha}} |
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*{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSpWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Improvements in Locomotive Engines, and Railways |first1=George Escol |last1=Sellers |page=1 |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |publisher=Gazette Office; Wright, Fischer & Co., Printers |format=PDF |date=January 1, 1849}} |
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*{{cite journal |title=Early Engineering Reminiscences (1815-40) of George Escol Sellers |first1=George Escol |last1=Sellers |last2=Ferguson |first2=Eugene S., Editor |format=[[PDF]] |origyear=1884-1895 |work=[[Bulletin of the United States National Museum]] |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |doi=10.5479/si.03629236.238.1 |date=1965}} |
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===Citations=== |
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{{reflist}} |
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===Sources=== |
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{{refbegin}} |
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*{{broken citation|date=February 2023}} {{cite book|last=McGraw-Hill|work=[[American Machinist]] |title=George Escol Sellers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMtMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA256|year=1899|publisher=McGraw-Hill|quote=The facilities offered by these works were as to induce the firm to undertake contracts for locomotives, resulting in building the first engines of this kind equipped with forged frames }} |
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{{refend}} |
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{{Charles Willson Peale|state=collapsed}} |
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{{authority control}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellers, George Escol}} |
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*{{cite book|ref=harv|last=McGraw-Hill|first=|work=[[American Machinist]] |title=George Escol Sellers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMtMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA256|date=March 30, 1899|publisher=McGraw-Hill}} |
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[[Category:1808 births]] |
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[[Category:1899 deaths]] |
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[[Category:Engineers from Pennsylvania]] |
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[[Category:19th-century American inventors]] |
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[[Category:American manufacturing businesspeople]] |
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[[Category:American railroad pioneers]] |
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[[Category:Businesspeople from Philadelphia]] |
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[[Category:People from Chattanooga, Tennessee]] |
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[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]] |
Latest revision as of 16:42, 8 June 2024
George Escol Sellers (November 26, 1808 – January 1, 1899) was an American businessman, mechanical engineer, and inventor. He owned and managed different businesses and patented several inventions. He established a company with his brother Charles where he patented his early invention of a machine that produced lead pipes from hot fluid lead continuously. While working for the Panama Railway in the 1850s, he received various patents for improvements he made on railroad locomotives, including a railroad engine which could climb steep hills.
He was interested in the field of archaeology. He wrote many articles, collected artifacts, and became a skilled arrowhead maker. Some of his arrowheads were displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian. He was interested in art, and he indulged in arts and spent time with artists throughout his life.[1] A character name in the first edition of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), "Colonel Eschol Sellers", was similar to Sellers' and had to be changed when he objected to its further use. However, the connection repeated again when the new name, "Colonel Mulberry Sellers", unintentionally referenced the neighborhood where he was born.
Early life
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/231_High_Street_of_Mulberry_Court.jpg/110px-231_High_Street_of_Mulberry_Court.jpg)
George Escol Sellers was born on November 26, 1808, in Philadelphia to Coleman Sellers and Sophonisba Angusciola Peale.[1][2] His birthplace was near the Philadelphia Mint in the neighborhood of Mulberry Court. He had one elder brother Charles (b. 1806), two younger brothers, Harvey (b. 1813) and Coleman Sellers II (b. 1827), and two younger sisters, Elizabeth (b. 1810) and Anna (b. 1824).[2]
His father and many ancestors had been engineers.[3] His maternal grandfather was Charles Willson Peale, and his paternal grandfather Nathan Sellers was known for artwork of wire paper molds.[2] While at school, he worked at Peale's Philadelphia Museum — he would later serve as a member of the museum's board of directors.[3] Sellers was educated at public schools and studied for five years with tutor Anthony Bolmar at the West Chester Academy in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[1][2] In 1832, he went to England to study machines used for production of paper.[3]
Career and inventions
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Patent_1908.jpg/220px-Patent_1908.jpg)
Sellers returned to the United States in 1833[3] and started working at his father and grandfather's firm, Nathan & David Sellers; Charles was employed there as well. The company made machinery for producing wire and paper and was the first in the country to use forged frames to build locomotives.[2] They also worked for the United States Mint.[2] When Nathan Sellers died in 1830, the business was reorganized and Coleman Sellers and his two sons then ran the business. As a consequence of the Depression of 1837, the company became insolvent and closed.[2] His work at the firm inspired many of his engineering writings.[1][2]
After Sellers closed his business in the east he moved with his brother Charles to Cincinnati, Ohio, and they established a factory for making lead pipe. Sellers invented machinery that utilized hot fluid lead for continuous production of lead pipe — he received a patent for his design, number US1908A on December 17, 1840.[1][2][4] Their business was eventually sold and merged into a company which was a major producer of lead pipe in the country. Sellers partnered with Josiah Lawrence, a Cincinnati businessman, and organized a wire manufacturing company called Globe Rolling Mills.[2] He incorporated machinery that he designed in their production process and it proved to be more efficient in producing lead pipe and wire.[1][2]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Patent_US7498_A.jpg/220px-Patent_US7498_A.jpg)
He sold his interest in the company by 1850 and undertook manufacturing of railroad locomotives for the Panama Railway in 1851 having invented a locomotive for inclined planes.[5] Sellers took out many patents on improvements he made on railroad locomotives while working there. He invented a railroad engine capable of climbing steep mountains and heavily inclined planes — it was defined as an engine boiler with gearing for working heavy grades and was patented as US7498A on July 9, 1850.[1][2][6] He was engaged in the manufacturing and sales of railroad equipment for several years in the 1850s.[1][2]
During the American Civil War, Sellers moved to southern Illinois near the Ohio River and became interested in their mining operations.[2][1][3] He invented a process for making paper-stock from vegetable fiber which was patented as US41101A on January 5, 1864.[7] He spent the remainder of his career pursuing mechanical engineering and design.[1][2] In 1888, he took up residence at Chattanooga, Tennessee, upon retirement and lived on Mission Ridge.[3] Sellers died at his home in Chattanooga at the age of 90 on January 1, 1899.[8]
Personal life
Sellers married Rachel Brooks Parrish on March 6, 1833. They had five children and adopted an orphaned daughter of his cousin. Parrish died on September 14, 1860, in Illinois and was survived by only one son out of their five children.[3]
He had a deep interest in archaeology. He wrote several articles on the relics of the mound builders of Illinois — one published by Smithsonian Institution was on the aborigines' method of making earthenware salt pans.[5] He also wrote detailed articles on how the local American Indians made arrowheads and stone age tools.[1][2] He personally became so skilled at making arrowheads that some specimens of his craft were on display at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.[3] He also had a substantial collection of pottery and implements of the prehistoric tribes of the Ohio valley.[1][2]
His grandfather Charles Wilson Peale and his uncles Rembrandt Peale and Raphaelle Peale were notable artists of the time. In Sellers's opinion, Raphaelle was the most talented of Charles's artist children.[9] Sellers also had recognized artistic talent; Thomas Sully had urged him at an early age to become a portraitist and offered to teach him, but he was more interested in pursuing a vocational career.[1][2] Nonetheless, he indulged his taste for arts and the society of artists throughout his life.[1] He patented different art inventions from time to time and coordinated "one of the earliest social organizations of artists in Philadelphia", according to Cope (1904).[1][2]
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
The first edition of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's 1873 novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today had a fictional character — a satirical exploitative capitalist without redeeming social values — called "Colonel Eschol Sellers".[failed verification][10] The name "Eschol Sellers" was suggested by Warner,[failed verification][11] and the use of "Eschol" was a carefully considered decision, with apocryphal descriptions of its antecedents. Warner stated that he had interacted with an "Eschol Sellers" 20 years prior to writing this book, and decided to use the name because of its rarity. He further added that "his name has probably carried him off before this; and if it hasn't, he will never see the book anyhow."[3]
Dr. J. H. Barton — a common friend of Sellers and Warner — discovered the depiction and urged Warner to not use his friend's name. Warner forwarded a message to Sellers through Barton clarifying that the parallels in the storyline had been unintentional. On January 1, 1874, Sellers replied, threatened to sue them if they did not change the name, and asked them to issue a disclaimer about the usage of his name. Warner agreed and said that the name would be changed in the future copies.[citation needed] Twain mentioned in his 1892 novel The American Claimant that "Beriah Sellers" was used instead of "Eschol Sellers", but it had to be changed again when someone else objected to its use.[12] The next editions of the novel used "Colonel Mulberry Sellers" instead. "Mulberry" happened to be the name of the neighborhood where Sellers was born and raised, and this unwanted connection continued to be repeated, even unto Sellers's obituaries.[13][14]
Publications
- Improvements in Locomotive Engines, and Railways
- Early Engineering Reminiscences (1815-40) of George Escol Sellers
See also
- Alexander Bonner Latta—invented the first practical steam fire engine.
- Anthony Harkness—inventor associated with pioneering the railroad locomotive industry of Cincinnati, Ohio.
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cope & Ashmead 1904, p. 198.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s McGraw-Hill 1899, p. 256.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Schmidt, Barbara. "Special Feature: "We will Confiscate His Name": The Unfortunate Case of George Escol Sellers". twainquotes.com. Retrieved March 25, 2017. See https://www.jstor.org/stable/44504992 For reliability
- ^ "Machinery for making pipes continuously from lead". U.S. Patent Office. December 17, 1840. Retrieved March 25, 2017 – via Google Patents.
- ^ a b McGraw-Hill 1899, p. 257.
- ^ "Boiler and gearing of locomotive-engines for working heavy grades". U.S. Patent Office. July 9, 1850. Retrieved March 25, 2017 – via Google Patents.
- ^ "Improvement in preparing vegetable fiber for paper-stock". U.S. Patent Office. January 5, 1864. Retrieved March 25, 2017 – via Google Patents.
- ^ "Death of George E. Sellers". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. January 2, 1899 – via Newspapers.com
.
- ^ Cikovsky, Nicolai Jr.; Bantel, Linda; Wilmderding, John. Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes (PDF). New York: National Gallery of Art, Washington; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. pp. 115–116. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- ^ "Personal and Political". Humboldt Republican. Humboldt, Iowa. January 12, 1899 – via Newspapers.com
.
- ^ "Col. Mulberry Sellers". Independence Daily Reporter. Independence, Kansas. September 3, 1890 – via Newspapers.com
.
- ^ Twain 1898, p. 1.
- ^ "Death of an Old Engineer: George Sellers Dies at His Home on Mission Ridge". The Atlanta Constitution. January 2, 1899. p. 3.
- ^ Wiltse, Henry M. (September 8, 1901). "The Original Col. Mulberry Sellers". The Atlanta Constitution. p. A1.
Sources
- Cope, Gilbert; Ashmead, Henry Graham (1904). Genealogical and Personal Memoirs. Vol. 1. Higginson Book Company.
- [full citation needed] McGraw-Hill (1899). George Escol Sellers. McGraw-Hill.
The facilities offered by these works were as to induce the firm to undertake contracts for locomotives, resulting in building the first engines of this kind equipped with forged frames
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ignored (help) - Twain, Mark (1898). The American Claimant. Harper & Brothers.