Who Was Oliver Evans?

Born September 13, 1755

Oliver Evans was born in Newport, Delaware, and had a strong impact on the development of technology and industrialization. The importance of his inventions became well known throughout the young United States, both during and after his lifetime.

Oliver is best known at Greenbank because of the milling process he invented in 1787. In 1782, he and two of his brothers purchased part of their father’s farm to build a mill, just upstream from the Philips mill at Greenbank, where he developed his process and equipment. The new United States government did not yet grant patents, so Evans patented the milling process in Delaware and several other states. As soon as the federal patent act was passed in 1790, he applied and received patent number three, signed by President George Washington and by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Oliver’s process involved several pieces of machinery that allowed for continuous production and could be operated by only one man. The automatic flour mill was the first mechanized mass production process. By May 1792, over 100 mills had adopted Evans’ machinery. The mills along the Brandywine and Red Clay Creeks were the country’s leading source of flour. The Philips Mill contracted with Evans for the process in 1793.

Evans’ second revolutionary invention was the high-pressure steam engine, which was an improvement on James Watts’ engine. Evans’ engine became the prototype of all steamboat engines and was adapted to use as a power source for manufacturing. The high-pressure engine was much smaller and more powerful than the low-pressure one, and it was easier to build and transport. In 1807, Evans established the Mars Works in Philadelphia, a group of engineering shops that manufactured the precision-built metal parts that steam engines required. Five years later, 35 men were employed there.

Oliver Evans once listed 80 inventions for which he was responsible. Beginning at age 22, he invented a machine to form teeth for textile cards at the rate of 1,000 per minute. Even a partial list of this compulsive inventor’s ideas is quite impressive: a steam carriage, America’s first self-propelled land vehicle (an amphibious steam dredge called the Orukter Amphibolos), a central hot-air heating system, a solar boiler, a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, a process for making millstones, a machine gun, a gas-lighting system, a way to raise sunken ships, a self-oiling shaft bearing, a gearshift for his steam carriage, a kneading machine for bread dough, and a perpetual baking oven. He even devised a way to heat mill buildings, using the exhaust of his high-pressure steam engines.

Evans wrote two well known technical books. The Young Mill-wright and Miller’s Guide was published in 1795 and went through 15 editions. This resource continued to be valuable to the industry until after 1860. In 1805, he published his second book, The Abortion of the Young Steam Engineer’s Guide, describing the principles, performance and construction of the high-pressure steam engine. The Evans book, The Young Mill-wright, is available at the Greenbank Gift Shop.

The restoration of Greenbank Mill includes a re-creation of Oliver Evans’ milling process and is a tribute to the Delawarean who revolutionized the milling industry and made important contributions to the industrial revolution.