June 30, 2025
Kristin Hunt/PhillyVoice
Swedish American inventor John Ericsson developed this solar-powered steam engine model in the late 1880s. The prototype is part of the collection at the American Swedish Museum in FDR Park in South Philly.
When he wasn't designing warships, John Ericsson was dreaming up solar technology.
The Swedish American inventor, credited with the screw propeller and the first ironclad vessel in the U.S. Navy, spent much of his later life tinkering with solar engine models. Ericsson believed the power of the sun's rays could be an alternative energy source to wood and coal and would one day make dry, sunny regions richer than nations hoarding fossil fuels. He developed several devices to demonstrate this potential in 1870s, including a solar-powered steam engine in the collection of the American Swedish Historical Museum.
"It's such a unique piece that kind of speaks to environmentalism before it was really a thing," Brett Peters, the museum's curator, said. "He was a very, very, very bright person. All of his patents kind of defy what I would think, to be honest with you."
Though this solar prototype is not currently on display, Ericsson has a whole room dedicated to his work at the FDR Park institute. Reminiscent of a bygone library or perhaps a posh gentleman's club, the wood-paneled space features other Ericsson inventions, portraits and ephemera.
It was built into museum founder Amandus Johnson's original vision for the building, which Peters describes as "essentially a bunch of mini museums in one larger museum." While the ground floor contains a map room, Pippi Longstocking-themed children's space and recreated stuga (a traditional Swedish cottage), the second level focuses on what Peters calls "Swedish superstars." Rooms spotlight not only Ericsson but the feminist author Fredrika Bremer, the influential architect and designer Josef Frank and Jenny Lind, the Swedish opera singer who toured America on P.T. Barnum's dime.
What made Ericsson an obvious choice for this unofficial Swedish hall of fame? The inventor was a prodigy in his native country, working as a draftsman on the Göta Canal when he was only 12 years old. After a stint in the Swedish army, he moved to England and churned out numerous inventions, including the first steam fire engine. It wasn't until he relocated to New York City in 1839, however, that his career truly took off.
Ericsson already had a patent for a screw propeller when he arrived in America. The device was an improvement on the paddle wheel, which fared poorly in choppy ocean waters, and would eventually replace it. With the help of Robert F. Stockton, he designed the first U.S. Navy ship powered by a screw propeller: the USS Princeton.
Unfortunately for Ericsson, an accident onboard marred his standing with the American military. In 1844, the ship hosted a private party of Washington dignitaries, during which a cannon exploded. The blast killed six people, including Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, and injured about 20. Though the disaster was not Ericsson's fault, his collaborator Stockton, who sustained injuries that day, shifted the blame onto him. The inventor spent several years defending his name in court. He was never paid for his work on the ship, and apparently never forgave Stockton.
"John Ericsson had, not a mean streak, but if you upset him, he wasn't going to forget," Peters said, pointing to a book in the museum's collection. Titled "Contributions to the Centennial Exhibition," it is a collection of inventions and innovations Ericsson self-published after he was not invited to contribute to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition.
The ideas man rehabilitated his reputation during the Civil War with the USS Monitor, a concept he had originally pitched to Napoleon III. The vessel was America's first ironclad warship, and it was made to stand up to the Confederacy's counterpart, the CSS Virginia – an ironclad built from the hull of the USS Merrimack. Ericsson's press improved considerably after the two ships fought in the Battle of Hampton Roads. Though the 1862 conflict ended inconclusively, it essentially neutralized the threat the Confederacy posed to the U.S. Navy.
"If the Union is saved, we owe it to John Ericsson, and not to Abraham Lincoln," the social reformer Wendell Phillips told a crowd in Boston.
The print above depicts the battle between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack). The Civil War skirmish was the first combat between ironclad ships.
Ericsson developed additional naval technology, including the torpedo boat Destroyer, after the war ended. But he eventually turned his attention to solar energy. Through the 1860s and 1870s, he reportedly constructed seven "sun motors." His prototypes used sunlight to boil water and generate steam, powering the engine. Features like a focusing lens, included in the American Swedish Historical Museum's model, made his inventions relatively inexpensive. He also claimed he could reach 100 horsepower with his designs. They were not, however, mass produced before his death in 1889. Even Ericsson seemed to recognize his ideas were a bit too ahead of their time.
"Ericsson has resolved in advance that he will make use of the laws for the protection of inventors only to secure to the public what he intends to offer as his free gift to the race," an 1879 profile in Scribner's Monthly read. "It is a gift of the future for, as we have said, he does not imagine that his invention can be made available in competition with machinery using wood and coal. But where and when artificial fuel is not to be obtained his solar engine will, he believes, open new possibilities to human achievement."
Visitors to the American Swedish Historical Museum can see additional artifacts from Ericsson's life at a recently opened exhibit on shipbuilding. "And Let Victory Tell the Rest" features some of his technical drawings of the USS Monitor as well as a half-hull model of the vessel.
The institute also plans to update its John Ericsson room, along with the rest of the galleries, for its 100th anniversary next year. (Fittingly, the museum was founded in 1926 on a "wave of patriotism" following the sesquicentennial, Peters explained, and will now celebrate a century in operation on the semiquincentennial.) Staffers will hang images showing the rooms at different time periods to illustrate their changes over the years. The museum will also open a "Nordic 100" gallery demonstrating the impact of Nordic culture and innovation on the U.S. It will naturally include ABBA, but also Charles Lindbergh, Spotify, Bluetooth and the three-point seatbelt.
Expanding the scope of the museum to include Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic stories is a wider goal as the temple of Swedish and Swedish American history enters its second century.
"Today, what we realize is having that kind of minimalistic view is not great," Peters said. "You want to have a larger holistic view. We wanna be able to talk about these different cultures, and while we've largely grouped them together as Scandinavian culture, they're all very different."
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