John Ericsson

John Ericsson was a Swedish-American mechanical and marine engineer whose innovations transformed naval ship propulsion and armor. He developed and demonstrated a practical screw propeller in the 1830s, a more efficient and less vulnerable alternative to paddle wheels that the U.S. Navy eventually adopted for its warships, and during the American Civil War he designed the ironclad USS Monitor, built in just over a hundred days in 1862, whose low profile, rotating gun turret and iron armor famously fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia to a draw at Hampton Roads and reshaped naval architecture worldwide. He continued designing engines, including early solar and caloric engines, until his death. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/