Coleman Sellers II was a prominent American engineer and inventor.
Background
He was born on January 28, 1827 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the youngest son of Coleman and Sophonisba (Peale) Sellers and a descendant of Samuel Sellers who received a grant of land in Pennsylvania in 1682. His father and a number of paternal ancestors had been engineers; his maternal grandfather was Charles Willson Peale, the portrait painter. During Coleman's childhood his father died
Education
He attended private schools in Philadelphia and completed the course at Bolmar's academy, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Career
He went to work in the Globe Rolling Mill, Cincinnati, Ohio, operated by his two older brothers. From childhood Sellers had been greatly interested in natural philosophy and in the solution of physical problems, and he constantly devoted his spare time to studying and making apparatus in order to demonstrate to himself new theories as they were announced. Thus while making wire for the new telegraph lines in the West, he secured a few batteries and constructed apparatus with which he was able to repeat the unusual electrical experiments announced by Michael Faraday.
Because of his prompt and thorough investigation of scientific discoveries he became the mentor of a group of intellectual men in Cincinnati and frequently gave lectures, illustrated by practical experiments, on chemistry, physics, and electricity. At the age of twenty-one he became superintendent of the Globe Rolling Mill.
In 1850-51 he undertook the design and construction of locomotives for the Panama Railroad and upon the completion of this contract, took charge of the locomotive works of James and Jonathan Niles in Cincinnati. Five years later, in 1856, he was induced by William Sellers, his second cousin, to accept the position of chief engineer of William Sellers & Company in Philadelphia. In 1873 he became a partner in the firm.
Failing health led him to resign his position as chief engineer of William Sellers & Company in 1886, but subsequently he was induced to engage in active practice as a consulting engineer. For example, he was a consulting engineer of hydro-electric power development of Niagara Falls.
From the time of his return to Philadelphia in 1856 he was identified with the Franklin Institute, which he served as vice-president for several years and as president for five consecutive terms. He contributed much to the interest of the Institute's meetings by his lectures, always drawing large audiences. For a number of years after 1886 he was a non-resident professor of engineering practice at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey, where he delivered lectures at intervals during the school year.
He was a member of engineering and scientific societies both in the United States and in Europe, and was a charter member and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
He died in Philadelphia.
Achievements
Connections
He married, October 8, 1851, Cornelia Wells of Cincinnati, who with two sons and a daughter survived him.