Background
Thomas Silver was of American Quaker parentage and was born on June 17, 1813 at Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey.
Thomas Silver was of American Quaker parentage and was born on June 17, 1813 at Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey.
It is recorded that he was educated in Greenwich and Woodstown, New Jersey, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He engaged in civil engineering practice in Philadelphia.
In 1854 the loss of the United States steamship San Francisco, bound to California with troops, turned his attention to devising a governor for marine engines. The ordinary steam engine governor was slow in action. When it was used with marine steam engines driving side-wheel steamships, it was unable to control the speed of the engine quickly, consequently, when a ship rolled, one of the paddle wheels was brought out of the water, and often much damage was caused.
The first patent to correct this condition, was issued to Silver on July 3, 1855. The contrivance was a very simple one, like the ordinary two-ball governor except that it was kept from being affected by the force of gravity by the use of four balls of equal weight placed at equal distance from the axis of motion. Furthermore, it could be used in any position - horizontal, vertical, or inclined.
In 1856 Silver succeeded in having his governor installed on the United States mail steamship Atlantic, as well as on the engines of the United States mint at Philadelphia, the Public Ledger (Philadelphia) and the New York Tribune, where they operated with entire success. He failed to interest the United States navy, however, and in 1857 went to Europe in the hope of introducing his governor there. After obtaining an English patent on May 23, 1857, he went to France and succeeded in having it adopted by the French navy.
He obtained a second United States patent on April 26, 1859, a reissue of his original patent on July 25, 1865, and still another improvement patent on October 2, 1866.
Meanwhile, in 1864, he succeeded in having his governor ordered into general use in the British navy. This was followed by its adoption by most of the naval authorities of the world, though not by the United States. About 1870 he returned to take up residence at Nyack, New York, where he lived for the rest of his life. He obtained four additional patents between 1871 and 1885, one for a hoisting apparatus and three for a completely inclosed oil lamp, in which air was furnished to the burning oil by a revolving fan operated by a clock movement. He became a member of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, in 1855.
In 1887 he published a pamphlet on The Scientific Explanation of the Polar Tides, and the Formation of Icebergs. He died in New York.
He married the daughter of James M. Bird, Philadelphia. They had a daughter.