Jacob Perkins

Jacob Perkins (July 9, 1766 – July 30, 1849) was an American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist based in the United Kingdom. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical inventions and eventually had twenty-one American and nineteen English patents. He is sometimes known as the father of the refrigerator. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1813 and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1819.

Early life Jacob went to school in Newburyport until he was twelve and then was apprenticed to a goldsmith in Newburyport named Davis. Mr. Davis died three years later and the fifteen-year-old Jacob continued the business of making gold beads and added the manufacture of shoe buckles. When he was twenty-one, he was employed by the master of the Massachusetts mint to make a die for striking copper pennies bearing an eagle and an Indian.

Innovations

Nail machines In 1790, at the age of 24, in Byfield, he created machines for cutting and heading nails. In 1795, he was granted a patent for his improved nail machines and started a nail manufacturing business on the Powwow River in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

Cannon borings During the War of 1812 he worked on machinery for boring out cannons.

Hydrostatics He worked on water compression and invented a bathometer or piezometer, Stamp production started for the British government in 1840 with the 1d black and the 2d blue postage stamps, which incorporated an anti-forgery measure in the form of a complicated background produced by means of the rose engine. Their stamps were the first known preglued stamps.

Also concurrently, Jacob's brother ran the American printing business, and they made money on important fire safety patents. Charles Heath and Jacob Perkins worked together and independently on some concurrent projects.

Hermetic tube Jacob Perkins has patents for Heating and Air Conditioning technology. In 1829–30, he went into partnership with his second son Angier March Perkins, manufacturing and installing central heating systems using his hermetic tube principle. He also investigated refrigeration machinery after discovering from his research in heating that liquefied ammonia caused a cooling effect.

Steam power In 1816, Jacob Perkins had worked on steam power with Oliver Evans in Philadelphia. In 1822 he made an experimental high pressure steam engine working at pressures up to . This was not practical for the manufacturing technology of the time, though his concepts were revived a century later. Perkins' boiler was the first example of a flash boiler and one of the first examples of a contra-flow heat exchanger.

Perkins applied his Hermetic tube system to steam locomotive boilers and a number of locomotives using this principle were made in 1836 for the London and South Western Railway. This was a very early example of a high pressure steam locomotive.

National Gallery of Practical Science

In 1832 Perkins established the National Gallery of Practical Science on Adelaide Street, West Strand, London. This was devoted to showing modern inventions. A popular feature was his steam gun, which did not find favour with the military.

Refrigeration

Perkins is credited with the first patent for the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, assigned on August 14, 1834 and titled, "Apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids". The idea had come from another American inventor, Oliver Evans, who conceived of the idea in 1805 but never built a refrigerator. The same patent was granted in both Scotland and England separately.

Financial problems detailed Jacob Perkins and Charles Heath had many business successes, but also had financial difficulties, but usually not at the same time. The accounting records for their printing business shows the two borrowed from the business, and sold shares back and forth when necessary in any and all business ventures, and kept detailed records. This professional relationship ended when Jacob's son-in-law, Joshua Butters Bacon, bought out Charles Heath's share of their shared printing business, which then became Perkins Bacon. At one point he became involved in lawsuits and had to close his engine factory.

Patents Jacob Perkins has many patents: GB 4400/1819. Machinery and implements applicable to ornamental turning and engraving, transferring engraved or other work from the surface of one to another piece of metal, and forming metallic dies and matrices; construction of plates and presses for printing bank-notes and other papers; making dies and presses for coining money, stamping medals, and for other purposes. October 11, 1819 GB 4470/1820 Construction of fixed and portable pumps. June 3, 1820 GB 4732/1822 Steam-engines. December 10, 1822 GB 4792/1823. Heating, boiling, or evaporating by the steam of fluids, in pans, boilers, or other vessels. May 17, 1823 GB 4800/1823 Steam-engines. June 5, 1823 . GB 4870/1823 Construction of the furnace of steam-boilers and other vessels. November 20, 1823 GB 4952/1824 Throwing shells and other projectiles. May 15, 1824 GB 4998/1824 Propelling vessels. August 9, 1824 GB 5237/1825 Construction of bedsteads, sofas, and other similar articles. August 11, 1825 GB 5477/1827 Construction of steam-engines. March 22, 1827 GB 5806/1829 Machinery for propelling steam-vessels. July 2, 1829 GB 6128/1831 Generating steam. July 2, 1831 GB 6154/1831 Generating steam;– applicable to evaporating and boiling fluids for certain purposes. August 27, 1831 GB 6275/1832 Blowing and exhausting air;– applicable to various purposes, June 9, 1832 GB 6336/1832 Preserving copper in certain cases from the oxydation caused by heat. November 20, 1832 GB 6662/1835 Apparatus and means for producing ice and in cooling fluids. August 14, 1835 (steamindex incorrectly states 1834) GB 7059/1836 Steam-engines; generating steam; evaporating and boiling fluids for certain purposes. April 12, 1836 GB 7114/1836 Apparatus for cooking. June 13, 1836 GB 7242/1836 Steam-engines, furnaces, and boilers ;- partly applicable to other purposes. December 3, 1836

Perkins bought some technology, and patented it himself in multiple countries, and employed the true inventors (as was the case with Asa Spencer and Oliver Evans).

Family Jacob was married on November 11, 1790, to Hannah Greenleaf of Newbury and together they had nine children. His second son, Angier March Perkins (1799–1881), also born at Newburyport, went to England in 1827, and was in partnership with his father (later taking over the business on the latter's death). His grandson, Loftus Perkins (1834–1891), most of whose life was spent in England, experimented with the application to steam engines of steam at very high pressures, constructing in 1880 a yacht, the Anthracite.

Death He retired in 1843 and died in London on July 30, 1849, at 83 years of age. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.