George Escol Sellers (1808-1899) was an American businessman, mechanical engineer, and inventor. He is associated with designing railroad locomotives and related equipment.
Early life
Sellers was born on November 26, 1808, in Philadelphia.[1] 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 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 II, born in 1827. His paternal grandfather Nathan Sellers (wife Elizabeth Coleman) was known for wire paper molds of artwork; the company was probably the first to make molded paper.[2] 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[3] at his academy in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[1] [2]
Mid life and career
Upon completing his private school education in Philadelphia, Sellers first obtained employment of his father's and grandfather's firm, Nathan & David Sellers. The business made machinery for producing wire and paper. His elder brother Charles was employed there too. It was this work that furnished inspiration for Sellers' many engineering writings. When Nathan Sellers died in 1830, the business was reorganized. Coleman Sellers and his two sons then ran the business. As a consequence of the Depression of 1837 the company then became insolvent and closed.[1] [2]
Sellers then removed to Cincinnati with his brother Charles and established a factory for making lead pipe from hot fluid lead. He patented his invention of the machinery that was capable of doing this. This business was eventually sold out and merged into a company that was a major producer of lead pipe in the United States. Sellers then partnered with Josiah Lawrence, a Cincinnati businessman, and organized a wire manufacturing company called Globe Rolling Mills. Here he introduced machinery of his own design that was more efficient in producing lead pipe and wire. Eventually he sold his interest in the company by 1850. In 1851 he undertook the manufacture of railroad locomotives for the Panama Railway. He invented a railroad engine for climbing mountains of heavy inclined planes. Sellers was engaged in the manufacture and sale of railroad equipment for several years in the 1850s. Sellers became interested in mining operations in southern Illinois in the 1860s. He spent the remainder of his career pursuing mechanical engineering and design.[1][2]
The company was probably the first to use forged frames to build locomotives.[2] They also did work for the Philadelphia Mint.[2]
Hobbies
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 arrowheads and stone age tools.[1][2]
Later life and death
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.[1][2]
Societies
Sellers had recognized artistic talent. Artist Thomas Sully urged him at an early age to become a portraitist. It is to be noted that Sellers' grandfather was Charles Wilson Peale and his uncle was Rembrandt Peale.[2] However, his mechanical proclivities ruled his vocational life.[2]
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.[1][2]
Inventions and patents
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.[1] 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.[1][2][4]
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.[1][2]
Legacy
Mark Twain in his novel The Gilded Age has a fictional character – an exploitative capitalist rascal without redeeming social value – 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. The use of "Eschol" was a carefully considered decision, with apocryphal descriptions of its antecedents.[5] 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 "Eschol" name, he ultimately put in the name "Mulberry Sellers" – which just happens to be the neighborhood where Sellers was raised in Philadelphia.[5][6] In fact, this unwanted connection continued to be repeated, even unto Sellers's obituaries.[5][7][8]
Published works
- Sellers, George Escol (January 1, 1849). Improvements in Locomotive Engines, and Railways (PDF). Cincinnati, Ohio: Gazette Office; Wright, Fischer & Co., Printers. p. 1.
- Sellers, George Escol; Ferguson, Eugene S., Editor (1965) [1884-1895]. "Early Engineering Reminiscences (1815-40) of George Escol Sellers". Bulletin of the United States National Museum. Smithsonian Institution. doi:10.5479/si.03629236.238.1.
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Reference
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cope & Ashmead 1904, p. 198.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m McGraw-Hill 1899, p. 256.
- ^ See "Anthony Bolar". Emory University. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
- ^ "Boiler and gearing of locomotive-engines for working heavy grades". Retrieved March 25, 2017 – via Google Patents.
- ^ a b c Schmidt, Barbara. "Special Feature: "We will Confiscate His Name": The Unfortunate Case of George Escol Sellers". twainquotes.com. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
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
- ^ 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.
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- McGraw-Hill (March 30, 1899). George Escol Sellers. McGraw-Hill.
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- Twain, Mark (1898). The American Claimant. Harper & Brothers.
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