Longtime readers of the Weirs Times may be asking themselves; what is Yankee Ingenuity and what is this column doing in my newspaper?

Yankee Ingenuity has many definitions and connotations. For example, Wikipedia defines "Yankee ingenuity" as a reference to the self-reliance of early colonial settlers of New England that describes an attitude of making-do with materials on hand, of inventive improvisation, adaptation and overcoming dire straits when faced with a dearth of materials. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a "Yankee" as someone who lives in New England and "ingenuity" as inventiveness, cleverness or aptness of design or contrivance. A more cynical anonymous Web poster defined it as the idea (true or not) that most of the twentieth century’s ingenious inventions were conceived by white males living in the Northern United States. Regardless of what this term means to you, in the context of this column, Yankee ingenuity means the inventive spirit and accomplishments of New Englanders with a focus of the past and present residents of the Lakes Region.

This is the first in a series of monthly columns that will examine Yankee ingenuity. Through this column, I hope to educate, amuse and amaze you with stories about the ingenuity of both our forefathers and of our neighbors of today. Although I am a registered patent attorney and this particular column focuses on a patent issued to a local inventor, Yankee ingenuity is certainly not limited to people who obtained patents on their inventions, and later columns will examine such prolific inventors as the Shakers, New Hampshire’s farmers and others who saw needs and developed devices or machines to meet those needs. In addition to telling the stories of inventions and innovative Yankees, I will be answering your questions about innovation, inventing, patents, and pretty much anything else that you want to throw at me.

Now that you know what this column is about and why it is here, I thought that it would be fitting for the first column to relate to another first. In this case, it is one of the first patents issued to a resident of Laconia. That distinction went to William Esty who was granted United States Patent No. 355,814 in 1887 for the steam engine shown in the accompanying drawing. Living in the City on the Lakes, it is fitting that this patent is directed to a steam engine for turning a boat propeller.

Although the screw type boat propeller was invented as early as 1681, and a British patent issued in 1785 on a screw propeller having many of the characteristics of modern screw propellers, the screw propeller did not enter widespread use until the 1840’s. Prior to the 1840’s, large steam engines were coupled to elaborate gear systems and used to turn paddle wheels, such as those used on Mississippi riverboats immortalized by another prominent Yankee; Samuel Clemens, who is better known by his pen name, Mark Twain. However, military testing conducted in the late 1830’s showed that screw propellers were far more efficient at propelling boats than the paddle wheels in common use at the time and, consequently, most new vessels built after 1840 used screw propellers instead of paddle wheels.

During the time between 1840 and the turn of the century, steam engine designs went through a period of significant change and innovation. Where paddle wheels were turned by relatively heavy slow-speed engines, screw type propellers required the use of lighter high-speed engines. The Esty engine represents one such innovation in design.

The Esty engine had two main advantages over prior designs. First, it used six relatively small steam cylinders that were located around a central drive shaft, which allowed the engine to produce a comparable amount of power to the power produced by conventional engines that used one or two large cylinders in a much smaller amount of space. The second advantage was the ability of the user of the engine to quickly and easily reverse the direction of the propeller by simply moving a lever (denoted as "I" in the drawing). Mr. Esty further refined his invention and was granted a second patent later in 1887 for his improved design.

Although the Esty steam engine was soon rendered obsolete by the commercial development of the internal combustion engines that power today’s boats, the concepts employed by Esty in his steam engine have practical application to this day. For example, the design concepts of the Esty engine were applied in the 1960’s to drive mechanisms for torpedoes in order to reduce vibration, which resulted in the "Swashplate Engine" described in U.S. Patent No. 3,151,528. More recently, the concepts were applied to a barrel type engine described in U.S. Patent 6,899,065, which issued in 2005.

The Esty steam engine is but one of many inventions developed by William Esty, who was a prolific inventor and successful businessman. Esty was the inventor of fifty-three issued patents covering a broad range of inventions, the majority of which related to woolen making and to fire protection equipment. Esty was the founder of the Esty Sprinkler Company, which later became Star Sprinkler, and manufactured sprinklers of the "Esty sprinkler design" shown in the photograph on this page. Esty was one of the first manufacturers of fire protection sprinkler systems in the United States and, along with Frederic Grinnell, is one of the people most responsible for the development of the modern fire protection system industry. Esty also was the founder and owner of the Esty Watch Tool Company, which also operated in Laconia. Finally, it is interesting to note that one of the co-owners of the Esty engine patent was Lewis F. Busiel, who was the founder of the White Mountain Hosiery mill in Laconia and was, himself, a prominent figure in Laconia’s history.

Mike Persson is a Registered Patent Attorney and is the Managing Director of the law firm of Lawson & Persson, P.C., in Laconia, where his practice focuses primarily on intellectual property law and litigation. Mike serves as Treasurer of the Belknap County Economic Development Council and the Belknap County Bar Association, and on the boards of The Salvation Army and the Lakes Region Rotary Club. Mike lives in Laconia with his wife and two daughters and may be reached by phone at 603-528-0023, or via email at mike@laconialaw.com.

The design concepts of Esty’s steam engine were employed in the 1960s as a model to drive mechanisms for torpedoes such as this "Swashplate Engine."