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Ericsson received regular instruction from some of his officers in
Algebra, Chemistry, Field Drawing, and Geometry, and the English
language. Ericsson's education previous to this seems to have consisted
chiefly in lessons at home or from tutors, after the manner of the time.
He had thus received instruction in the ordinary branches and in
drawing and some chemistry. His training in drawing seems to have been
unusually thorough and comprehensive, and with a natural genius for such
work, his later remarkable skill at the drawing board is doubtless in no
small measure due to the excellent instruction which he received in his
early years. His progress in his duties as a young engineer was rapid,
and he was soon given employment in connection with the canal-work,
involving much responsibility and calling for experience and skill.

At length on reaching the age of seventeen he became stirred with
military ambition, and, dissatisfied with his present prospects, he left
his position with its opportunities for the future, and entered the
Swedish army as ensign of a regiment of Field Chasseurs. This regiment
was famous for its rifle practice, and Ericsson was soon one of its most
expert marksmen. The routine of army life was, however, far from being
sufficient to satisfy the uneasy genius of John Ericsson, and we soon
find him engaged in topographical surveying for the Government, and so
rapid and industrious in his work that as the surveyors were paid in
accordance with the amount accomplished, he was carried on the pay rolls
as two men, and paid as such, in order that the amount which he received
might not seem too excessive for one individual. Even this was not
sufficient to exhaust his energy, and about this time he conceived the
idea of publishing a book of plates descriptive of the machinery
commonly employed in the mining operations of his day. To this end he
collected a large number of sketches which he had prepared in his
earlier years, and made arrangements to take up the work of preparation
for publication. The drawings selected were to be engraved for the book,
and, nothing daunted by the undertaking, Ericsson proposed to do this
work himself. After some discouragement the engraving was undertaken,
and eighteen copper plates of the sixty-five selected, averaging in size
fifteen by twenty inches, were completed within a year. In various ways
the project met with delays, and it soon became apparent that the rapid
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