in the list of
wooden frigates of the navy. The "Florida" was too expensive to maintain
in commission, and the special circumstances which had called her into
existence having passed by, she was laid up at New London, and never
again saw active service.

Keenly as Ericsson was interested in the steam-engine, it must be
admitted that he always showed a more profound interest in some form of
engine which should be able to displace it with a superior efficiency;
and hence his long series of efforts relating to the flame-engine, the
caloric engine, the gas-engine, and finally the solar engine,--with
either steam or heated air as the medium for carrying the heat. During
the last years of his life some of his most patient and careful study
was given to the perfection of a solar engine, or engine for utilizing
directly the heat of the sun instead of that of coal or other carbon
compounds. Besides this direct line of study and experimentation, he
gave during these years much thought to various scientific problems
connected with solar energy, the tides, gravitation, the nature of heat,
etc., etc. A plan for deriving power direct from the tides, improvements
in high-speed engines for electric-lighting purposes, further
improvements in his hot-air engine in small sizes for commercial
purposes,--these are some of the further lines of work which occupied
the attention of his closing years.

But the most cunningly devised of all mechanisms, the heart and brain,
must sooner or later tire and cease from their labors. The motive energy
becomes exhausted, and the mechanism must cease its work. So it was with
John Ericsson. In the first hour of the morning of March 8, 1889,
Ericsson died. This was within one day of the twenty-seventh anniversary
of the battle at Hampton Roads, the event with which the name of
Ericsson will always be associated, and which has given to it a
significance that will never be forgotten. His remains were first
interred in New York, and then, in 1890, in accordance with the request
of the Swedish Government, they were returned with impressive services
to his native land, where they now rest. In his death he received his
highest honors, for his remains were conveyed across the Atlantic by the
U.S.S. "Baltimore," one of the new ships of the navy specially detailed
for that service, and on both sides, in the United States and in Sweden,
the event was marked with every honor and ceremony which could indicate
the si