James Brown Herreshoff was an American inventor and chemist. He belongs to a notable American family of Herreshoff family of chemists, boat designers and inventors.
Background
James Brown Herreshoff was born on March 18, 1834, near Bristol, Rhode Island, United States, the eldest of the nine children of Charles Frederick and Julia Ann (Lewis) Herreshoff, and a grandson of Karl Friedrich Herreschoff, son of one of Frederick the Great’s guardsmen, who emigated from Prussia to Rhode Island in 1783 and married Sarah, daughter of John Brown, a wealthy merchant and politician.
Education
From 1853 to 1866 James studied at Brown University, taking courses in general science but specializing in chemistry.
Career
After graduation James Herreshoff found employment as a chemist at the Rumford Chemical Works, Rumford, Rhode Island, and in 1858 became superintendent, serving in this capacity until 1863, during which period he improved Horsford’s substitute for cream of tartar.
In 1863, in partnership with his father, Herreshoff began the manufacture of fish oil and fertilize on Prudence Island, Rhode Island, utilizing a novel oil press of his own invention. This partnership continued until 1869, when Herreshoff went to Europe as the representative of his younger brothers, John Brown and Nathaniel, the famous yacht-designers and builders of Bristol, Rhode Island. For the next fourteen years he spent most of his time abroad, traveling extensively in the interests of his brothers and devoting what time he could spare to inventing various needed & vices.
In 1874 he and his brothers devise tubular marine steam-boiler constructed in 1 form of a beehive and having coils of iron pipe. It was tried out in a specially constructed 48- foot launch which made a speed of fifteen miles an hour. Subsequently the coil-boiler was adopted for the first torpedo-boat built for the United States navy, and on a trial trip made a speed of twenty-one miles an hour. Five years later, in 1879, he devised a steam-engine to utilize superheated steam, the cylinder of which was made of hardened slab steel.
Around 1875 Herreshoff began experimenting with and subsequently perfected the fin keel for racing yachts, which was incorporated to great advantage in later years in America’s Cup defender yachts designed and constructed by his brothers. In fact, between 1877 and 1889 Herreshoff was engaged in extensive experiments with his fin keel, first in Switzerland, and then in Bristol Harbor, having taken up his residence in Bristol in 1883 for the express purpose of conducting this work. During this period he did some successful work with a yacht equipped with metal plates and lead bulb, and also perfected a mercurial anti-fouling paint for boats
From 1893 until 1904 Herreshoff resided in Coronado, California, but in the latter year he removed with his family to New York, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Achievements
Connections
James Herreshoff married Jane Brown of Dromore, Ireland, in 1875.