Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/149

 JOHN ERICSSON 313 was soon summoned to the royal palace to draw maps to illustrate the campaigns of the marshal of the empire. He also passed with distinction a competitive examination for an appointment on the survey of Northern Sweden. This new employment was exacting, and the pay determined by the amount of work accom- plished. Mr. Church says : " The young surveyor from the Gota Canal was so indefatigable in his industry and so rapid in execution, that he performed double duty and was carried on the pay-roll as two persons in order to avoid criticism and charges of favoritism. The results of his labors were maps of fifty square miles of territory, still preserved in the archives of Stockholm." At the age of twenty-one John Ericsson is described as " a handsome, dashing youth, with a cluster of thick, brown, glossy curls encircling his white, massive forehead. His mouth was delicate but firm, nose straight, eyes light blue, clear and bright, with a slight expression of sadness, his complexion brilliant with the freshness and glow of healthy youth. The broad shoulders carried most splen- didly the proud, erect head. He presented, in short, the very picture of vigorous manhood. A portrait of him at this age, painted upon ivory for his mother by an English artist named Way, has been preserved." Fifteen years later he was in New York, and is thus described by Samuel Risley : " Captain Ericsson all his life was careful of his personal appearance ; at the time I refer to (1839) he was exceptional in dress, not dandified, but more in keeping with the present morning-call attire than an ordinary day habit. A close-fitting black frock surtout coat, well open at the front, with roiling collar, showing velvet vest and a good display of shirt-front ; a fine gold chain hung about his neck, looped at the first button-hole of the vest and attached to a watch carried in the fob of the vest. Usually light-colored, well-fitting trousers, light- colored kid gloves, and a beaver hat completed the dress. To this add a well- built military figure, about five feet ten and one-half inches in height and well set-up, with broad shoulders and rather large hands and feet ; the head well placed and supported by a military stock round the neck. Expressive features, blue eyes, and brown curly hair, fair complexion. His head was of medium size, his mouth well cut, upper lip a little drawn, the jaws large and firm set, convey- ing an expression of firmness and individual character. Up to the summer of 1842 I was in constant attendance upon the captain, being a sort of factotum to him in preparing his models. At that time he boarded at the Astor House, where I first met his wife. His manner with strangers was courteous and ex- tremely taking. He invariably made friends of high and low alike. With those in immediate contact in carrying out his work he was very popular." Mr. Church, in his biography, devotes three chapters to a delightfully con- densed account of Ericsson's career in England, whither he went in 1826 to ex- hibit his flame-engine. He quickly formed a partnership with John Braithwaite, a working engineer, and in his new field of activity produced invention after invention in such rapid succession that the truth reads like a fairy tale. An in- strument for taking sea-soundings, a hydrostatic weighing-machine, his improve- ments in the steam-engine dispensing with huge smoke-stacks, economizing