Stephen Wilcox was an American inventor and engineer.
Background
Stephen Wilcox was born on Feburary 12, 1830 in Westerly, R. I, a descendant of Edward Wilcox, who was in Portsmouth, R. I, as early as 1638, and the son of Stephen and Sophia (Vose) Wilcox. His father was a banker and business man, a strong opponent of slavery.
Education
Stephen was educated in the common schools of Westerly, and seems to have followed his natural aptitude for mechanics without serving a regular apprenticeship.
Career
He was a prolific inventor even as a young man, but when he attempted to patent his devices usually found that he had been anticipated. One of his early inventions was a practical caloric or hot-air engine, which he submitted to the United States Lighthouse Board for operating fog signals. Believing, however, that the field for the hot-air engine was limited, he turned his attention to steam boilers, and, in 1856, invented a safety water-tube boiler with inclined tubes - the germ of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler later well known throughout the world. In partnership with D. M. Stillman of Westerly he was granted Patent No. 14, 523 for this boiler, March 25, 1856. Some ten years later, with his boyhood friend George Herman Babcock, he designed a steam generator based on the principal of the earlier boiler, and was granted a patent for it on May 28, 1867. In that year the firm of Babcock, Wilcox & Company was formed to manufacture the boiler; the concern was incorporated in 1881, and Wilcox was vice-president from then until his death. The Babcock & Wilcox boiler and the Babcock & Wilcox stationary steam-engine were used in the first central stations (power plants) in the country and were of considerable significance in the development of electric lighting. Babcock & Wilcox products were used all over the world, and the company opened offices in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Wilcox was primarily the inventor and mechanic of the combination while Babcock was the executive; the boiler is the Wilcox boiler but is often called the Babcock, because Babcock's name came first in the title of the firm. Wilcox continued his experimentation with engines and boilers till the end of his life, in later years being assisted by his wife's nephew, William D. Hoxie. Much of his work was carried out on his yacht, the Reverie, and this circumstance may have been responsible for Hoxie's perfection of the marine form of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler. Wilcox secured, alone or with others, forty-seven patents in forty years. During the last part of his life he made his home in Brooklyn, N. Y. , where he died.
Achievements
Personality
He was handsome and popular, simple and unaffected by his rise to affluence.
Connections
He was married in 1865 to Harriet Hoxie, who survived him.