Focusing on the man behind the inventions, this book tells the life story of John Ericsson. It details a number of Ericsson's inventions including a steam-powered fire engine, the first screw-propelled warship, a variety of ?hot-air engines, ? and early experiments in solar power from the roof of his Manhattan home. The main focus is Ericsson's design and construction of the ironclad USS Monitor. One of the first viable armored warships, the Monitor revolutionized naval warfare the world over. The ship's battle with the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads and its eventual fate off the coast of Cape...

'Olav Thulesius sets out to resurrect the sullied reputation of one of the most prolific writers of medical works during the Interregnum. - Thulesius has given us a welcome beginning of a study of a fascinating and neglected figure who made serious contributions to mid-seventeenth-century medicine while always living on the fringes of the established and licensed medical community.' - Martha Baldwin, Journal of the History or Medicine Was Nicholas Culpeper (1616-54) the father of English herbal medicine or a quacksalver and charlatan astrologer? This first modern biography shows a more...