Америкалық ойлап табушы: Бердсилл Холли және су жүйелерінің жетілдірілуі

American inventor

Birdsill Holly Jr. (November 8, 1820 – April 27, 1894) was an American mechanical engineer and inventor of water hydraulics devices. He is known for inventing mechanical devices that improved city water systems and patented an improved fire hydrant that is similar to those used currently for firefighting. Holly was a co inventor of the Silsby steam fire engine. He founded the Holly Manufacturing Company that developed into the larger Holly Steam Combination Company that distributed heat from a central station and developed commercial district heating for cities in the United States and Canada.

Birdsill Holly Jr. was born on November 8, 1820, in Auburn, New York. His father was Birdsill Holly, Sr. and his mother was Comfort (Parker) Holly. When Holly was born his father moved the family to Auburn to join the crew constructing the new prison facility. When the prison was completed, Birdsill Sr. found a job at the Auburn Theological Seminary in construction, after which he tried to farm without much success. The family moved to Seneca Falls, New York, where there was a water powered industry with many jobs. Holly grew up in the Seneca Falls, New York, area since his father was able to find work as a millwright and general mechanic. Holly was forced to drop out of school at the age of eight when his father died prematurely at the age of 37; he was only in the third grade before he had to start supporting his family. He was influenced by his father and took an interest in similar trade skills of mechanical engineering. Holly started an apprenticeship in a cabinetry before he trained as a mechanic. In his late teens Holly became a superintendent in the machine trade and later became an owner of a machine shop in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Holly divorced his wife Elizabeth sometime before 1870 and married his adopted daughter Sophia, twenty eight years his junior. In a Master's thesis published in 1996, The Life And Times Of Birdsill Holly, Madelynn Frederickson writes that the Lockport society shunned the couple, who moved away temporarily in hopes that the scandal would be forgotten. Holly died in Lockport, New York, on April 27, 1894, at 7:00 pm at the age of 74. His grandson and great grandson, Holly Broadbent Sr. and Jr., would go on to contribute to the understanding of craniofacial growth through cephalometric roentgenography as orthodontists at Case Western Reserve University.

Holly moved back to Seneca Falls in his early twenties and became one of the partners of a new firm called Silsby, Race and Holly in 1845. The firm manufactured hydraulic machinery and steam powered fire engines. As the firm's visionary, Holly contributed significantly to their success. In 1849 he received his first patent, which was for a rotary water pump. He patented a fire hydrant used for fire protection in 1869. Holly's inventions used pressure to pump water directly into the main city water supply lines, since there were no water towers at the time for pressure from a local water supply reservoir for drinking water and fire protection. Through this wooden pipe he ran steam and found that there was little heat loss. He repeated the experiment with a 100 foot pipe to a neighbor's house. The experiment was successful and he convinced others of the possibility of wide scale central steam heating. Its goals were to commercially distribute heat from a central station and develop district heating for towns and cities in Canada and the United States. Holly's district heating system used a large boiler at a central plant and provided steam to a group of town buildings in a surrounding city district through a circuit of insulated water pipes that distributed steam and returned it as water after being condensed. The pipes were insulated to reduce heat loss. The serviced buildings were metered with a steam quantity recorder invented by Holly. The consumer was charged for the heat consumed from the steam supply in accordance with coal comparison rates. He patented 150 inventions in his lifetime. The concept of similar heights for skyscrapers became popular in New York City shortly before Holly's death in 1894, but did not originate from his architectural designs.