Theodore Timby-- Part 3: Where Should the Credit for a Revolving Turret Go?

In later years, a controversy followed as to credit for the idea of a revolving turret or battery tower.  Ericsson arguing that the idea for a revolving fort long antedated the 19th century.  Thus it was  one of the concepts  of military engineering that belonged as common property.

Supporters of Timby pointed to his earlier  caveat as proof that credit should go to him.

It seems clear that the  honor of first publicly urging this form of gun housing on governmental authorities belongs to Timby, while the honor of first using the idea in actual construction goes to Ericsson, who may or may not have known of Timby's design.

In 1857 and 1862, Timby received patents for a barometer; in 1869, he patented a turbine water wheel, amd in 1871, a gun carriage; he also devised  a process of  printing terrestrial globes in colors and a process for quickly ripening coffee.

His inventions seem to have brought little financial return, however,  and his family was supported in part by friends who memorialized Congress and the New York state legislature in his behalf.

--Old B-Runner

The USS Lexington-- Part 1: Timberclad Bought By U.S. Navy

From Wikipedia.

In the last post, I mentioned this ship being one of the two who helped turn Shiloh into a Union victory.

The USS Lexington was a Timberclad ship.  (Instead of iron, they were clad in thick wood.)  It was built as a sidewheel ship in 1861 in Pittsburgh, Pa., and purchased  by the U.S. Navy and converted into a gunboat at Cincinnati under the direction of Commander John Rodgers.

It joined the Western Flotilla at Cairo, Illinois, 12 August 1861.

It was 177 feet long and had a 34-foot beam and was armed with four 8-inch Dahlgren smoothbores and two 32-pdr. guns.

--Old B-Runner

Joseph Brown and His Ironclads

From the Strategy Page Book Review  "Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads: The USS Chillicothe, Indianola and Tuscumbia"  by Myron J. Smith, Jr..

Smith also wrote "Civil War Biography from the Western Waters, the Timberclads in the Civil War."

This is the first biography to be written on Joseph Brown (1823-1899) and his role in the creation of the Union's Riverine fleet.

Brown was a Scottish immigrant who became a steamboat captain and self-taught naval architect and engineer.  He was also an abolitionist, entrepreneur and politician.

Today, however, he is largely forgotten despite having designed and building the USS Chillicothe, Indainaola and Tuscumbia.  There is a chapter on each of the three ships in his book.

Brown also converted some 55 ships of all types into "tin-clads,"  lightly protected gunboats.  There are also accounts of the performance of his ships at Fort Donelson, Island No. 10, Fort Pillow and the Gulf.

--Old B-Runner