“The Rider-Ericsson Engine Company is the successor of DeLamater Iron Works and Rider Engine Company, having bought from both companies their extensive plants and entire stocks of engines an patterns covering all styles of Rider and Ericsson Hot-air Pumping engines brought out by both of the old companies since 1844, excepting the original Ericsson Engine, the patterns of which were burned in the great fire in our Thirteenth Street works in 1888. The officers and directors of the Rider-Ericsson Engine Company are the former officers of the Rider Engine Company and De Lamater Iron Works. Our engineers, superintendent, foremen and experts were taken over from the old companies, and though it would be impossible to make stronger claims than any would-be competitor, we will only add to this our well-known motto, “A record is better than a promise.” We feel that both the Ericsson and Rider Hot-air Pumping Engines are too well known to the general public, owing to the many years they have been upon the market, to require any lengthy introduction enumerating their advantages, for the unqualified approval of over 25,000 users of our pumping-engines speaks more forcibly for the merit they possess and the success they have attained than could any argument advanced by us. As may be inferred from their names, the one is the invention of the late Capt. John Ericsson and the other the invention of the late Mr. Alexander K. Rider. The association of our name with those of the inventors means that the engines are constructed by us and by no one else. Every improvement suggested by either Captain Ericsson or Mr. Rider, who were both in our employ up to the days of their respective deaths, is embodied in the two engines, and as they stand to-day they are models of scientific construction and perfect workmanship. The advantages possessed by hot-air engines over all other devices for developing light power are many, and are now recognized by scientists and mechanics who have made this branch of knowledge a special study; and it is an equally well admitted fact that our engines are superior to all other contrivances for pumping water in limited quantities. Both engines are constructed by us solely for pumping operations and cannot be utilized for any other purpose. The Ericsson engine was patented in 1880. Since that time the improvements added to the engine, which have also been patented, have increased its pumping capacity nearly fifty per cent, reduced to the minimum the liability and cost of repairs, and made the durability of all its parts and pieces unquestioned. The Ericsson is the lighter type, and has a capacity less than that of the Rider, but where the amount of water delivered by it is sufficient to meet the requirements of any case we always recommend the Ericsson in preference to the Rider. For supplying water for domestic purposes or for furnishing water for a private dwelling, for which work the Ericsson engines are particularly adapted, they can not be surpassed. The Rider type is built more heavily in all its parts and pieces than is the Ericsson, and is specially designed to pump water for irrigating large tracts of land or for work where the requirements are so great that the engine will have to be run almost constantly. In such a case the Rider, being more heavily constructed, will last longer than will the Ericsson. As the conditions of each case differ from another, we prefer to have prospective customers submit such conditions to us, and we will cheerfully give their wants careful consideration, and recommend the proper size and type of engine which, in our judgment, based on many years' experience, seems to us the best.” (Quote from 1898.)

      About 1874-75, Alexander K. Rider, who was previously associated with the DeLamater Iron Works in New York City, founded the Rider, Wooster & Co. in Walden, NY.

      In 1879, A. K Rider and John Ericsson founded the Rider Engine Co. in Walden, NY to manufacture Hot Air (External Combustion) engines. The trustees for this new firm were William M. Sayre, Henry and Frank A. Merriam, and Jason W. Corwin. The company became the world's largest manufacturer of Hot Air Engines using the patents of Alexander K. Rider and John Ericsson.

      By 1898, the Rider-Ericsson Engine Co. was the successor of the DeLamater Iron Works and the Rider Engine Co.

Information Sources

• The American Architect and Building News, V60, 07 May 1898, pg. 4 of the Advertisers' Trade Supplement
• History of Orange County, New York, 1881, pg. 404
• Scientific American, Building Edition, Mar., 1898, pg. 2