John F. Allen

Background

John F. Allen was born in 1829 in England. He was brought to the United States at the age of twelve.

Career

Allen early interested himself in mechanical affairs. As a young man he was an engineer on the propeller Curlew, a freight boat running on Long Island Sound between New York and Providence, using a Corliss engine. There was a defect in this engine which caused it to race furiously when the Sound was rough; Allen invented a new valve motion which he hoped would remedy the defect, but found that he was unable to use it successfully on the Corliss engine.

In 1860 he was recommended as an expert engineer by Thurston and Gardiner, engine builders of Providence, Rhode Island, to Henry A. Burr, manufacturer of felt-hat bodies in New York City, who was having trouble with a pair of engines built by the Providence firm. Allen soon had the engines running satisfactorily.

One day he accidentally met Charles T. Porter, who was the inventor of a form of engine governor, and Allen told him the details of the valve motion he had invented. Porter immediately saw its application to a highspeed engine and asked to be allowed to attempt its introduction. The result was the Allen engine, later improved and known as the Porter-Allen engine. In order to help finance the Porter-Allen engine-building shops Allen mortgaged his home in Tremont, New York. Within a few years he had invented an inclined tube vertical water-tube boiler which was also being successfully introduced. But he seemed incapable of retaining much interest in his inventions after they were successfully placed on the market, so he sold out his stock in the Porter-Allen Company in the early seventies and built a shop of his own at Mott Haven. Here he originated an important system of pneumatic riveting in its two methods, by percussion and by pressure, and began the manufacture of air compressors and pneumatic riveters. At the time of his death he was doing a small business in this kind of manufacturing in New York City.

Achievements

• Allen is best known as an inventor of Porter-Allen engine, a pioneer in steam-engines of the so-called high-speed type. It made possible to achieve high rotative speeds and good economy, and reduced the weight and size of the engine.

Connections

No record of Allen's family is available.

References

• Engineering Reminiscences (History of Technology)