Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Frederick Ellsworth Sickels or Sickles was an American inventor, best known for the invention of a cut-off valve for steam engines in 1841. Sickels grew up in New York City, where his father was Chief Health Officer. After having worked for a year for the Harlem Railroad, he apprenticed at the age of 17 at the Allaire shops, where he developed a new type of steam cut-off valve for steam engines. He had perfected his invention by 1841, and obtained a patent on it on March 20, 1842.