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American inventor (1796–1877)

Ross Winans (1796–1877) was an American inventor, mechanic, and builder of locomotives and railroad machinery. He is also noted for design of pioneering cigar hulled ships. Winans, one of the United States' first multi millionaires, was involved in national and state politics, a southern sympathizer and was a vehement "states' rights" advocate. Winans was briefly arrested after the Baltimore riot of 1861. His outspoken anti federal stance as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, the lower chamber of the General Assembly, (state legislature) led to his temporary arrest on May 14, 1861. At the time of his arrest, Winans was returning on a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train from an early session of the legislature that was being held in the western Maryland town of Frederick to avoid the Union Army occupied state capital of Annapolis in April–May 1861 to consider the possibilities of state secession during the early decisive period of the American Civil War. Winans was related to James McNeill Whistler through marriage (Whistler's brother George married Winans' daughter Julia).

Ross Winans was born in Vernon Township, New Jersey on October 17, 1796. His parents were William and Mary Winans. He married Julia de Kay (1800 1850) in 1820 and they had five children. He moved his family to Baltimore, Maryland in the late 1820s and did business with the newly founded Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.). Following the death of his wife Julia in 1850, he married Elizabeth K. West (1807 1889) in 1854. and was arrested twice due to his anti Federal activities and speeches. On the day before the Baltimore riot of 1861, Winans moved a resolution "protest[ing] in the name of the people of Maryland against the garrisoning of Southern forts by militia drawn from the free States" and 'calling upon citizens of the state unite "to repel, if need be, any invader who may come to establish a military despotism over us." He was arrested shortly after the riot, was released, and elected again on April 24 as part of a States Rights ticket. Meanwhile, Winans' firm was reportedly preparing weapons and munitions for the defense of Baltimore against union troops. According to the American of April 23, "At the works of the Mssrs. Winans, the entire force is engaged in the making of pikes, and in casting balls of very description " (Brown, 65). On May 14, one day after martial law was declared in Baltimore, Winans was again arrested while returning from a special session of the Maryland legislature in Frederick (the session in which the Maryland legislature considered, but ultimately rejected, secession). He was quickly released, after signing a "parole" guaranteeing his loyalty to the federal government. Winans' arrest, by Benjamin Butler's Federal troops, was one of the cases where Lincoln's emergency suspension of habeas corpus was employed. Winans' brief incarceration was not legally challenged, as it was in the case of Johns Merryman (Ex parte Merryman). While Winans is often credited as the inventor of the Winans Steam Gun, said to be among the weapons bought from the five hundred thousand dollar fund that Baltimore Mayor Brown and Maryland Governor Hicks gathered "for the defense of the city. This experimental weapon was in fact not designed by Winans, but was invented by Charles S. Dickinson, and built in Boston in 1860. It passed through Winan's machine shop during the period when his workers were making pikes, shot and other items ordered by city authorities. When it emerged, its former history was forgotten, and word spread that it was built by Winan's to oppose Federal troops. Though this novelty ultimately had no military impact, it was widely discussed at the time and its connection to Winans, along with his political views reputation as a threat to federal control of Maryland.

In the mid 19th Century, Winans and his son Thomas designed and built a series of spindle shaped boats, usually referred to as the "cigar ships" or "cigar boats". The first was constructed in 1858 and featured an unprecedented (and in the end, technically unfeasible) midship propeller, enclosed in a shroud. This propeller was driven by steam engines located in each hull section. The intent was to allow the ship to progress with less disturbance from weather and waves. This ship was discussed at length in the pages of the "Scientific American" national journal/magazine, and in the end remained tied up at the Winans docks at Ferry Bar, southside of the Whetstone Point peninsula and along the north shore of the Middle Branch or Ferry Branch of the Patapsco River, just west of old Fort Covington and Fort Babcock which supported Fort McHenry in the September 1814 Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812 for many years, (later the site of the Port Covington railroad and harbor piers of the Western Maryland Railway built in the late 1890s and early 1900s) after a series of trials and modifications. It was never subjected to a sea trial. In his own words, "the length of the vessel was more than eleven times it breadth of beam, being 16 feet wide by 108 feet long." It included four high pressure steam engines, driving a large iron wheel with fins amidships. It did achieve a speed of 12 miles per hour on its trial in January 1859. He then lengthened the ship to 194, and then 235 feet. It went to England for further trials, but was never a great success. After the Civil War, Winans and his son took their enterprise to Europe, and several similarly designed boats were built in England and in St. Petersburg, Russia. None of these were also put to full sea trials, though press reports survive of trips in the Solent and the English Channel. The boats themselves remained tied up in Southampton into the 1880s, but inspired no imitators. The Russian Naval Journal reported on the ships in 1858. Winans shifted his interests outside of the United States during the Civil War. His son William had gained experience in naval construction during the Crimean War, outfitting gunboats for the defense of St. Petersburg. The Railroad Shops at Alexandrovsky were employed for the Naval work. Winans presented a proposal to the Russian Government entitled, "War Vehicles on the Spindle Principle," July 1861. This was favorably received by the Grand Duke Nuikolaevich, Chief of the Russian Navy. A Winans Cigar boat was tested on the Neva River, and ran to Kronstadt, where it conducted tests in the Gulf of Finland. The Russian Shipbuilding Technical Committee were not impressed
Winans then proposed to the U. S. Government the design of his ships, in what he saw as a pending conflict with England. Nothing came of this. Winans took his cigar boat construction to England with his experimental Russian craft loaded on the British steamboat Nautilus. He built another cigar ship in Havre, France. He constructed a private yacht for himself in England, the fourth cigar ship. It was launched in 1866 on the Thames. Winans wanted to register his yacht at the Imperial Saint Petersburg Yacht Club. Numerous problems preventing the ship making the voyage. Thomas Winans stayed for a time in Russia and contracted with the Czar's government to develop Russian railroads.

Winans took an interest in sanitary engineering and public health, publishing a number of pamphlets on sanitation, particularly in regard to water and ventilation. He lobbied for the development of a public water supply for Baltimore City. Winans was a pioneer in the development of low income housing building a housing project he called "workingmen's housing" in Baltimore. Today a public housing project remains on the site and is named Mount Winans. He also published religious writings, including a pamphlet on religious tolerance and a collection of Unitarian sermons. The Winans' cigar ship and its shape inspired Captain Nemo's submarine ship, in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

Winans died in Baltimore on April 11, 1877, at the age of 81.