High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ross Winans (1796–1877) was an American inventor, mechanic, and builder of locomotives and railroad machinery. He is also noted for design of pioneering cigar-hulled ships. Winans, one of the United States` first multi-millionaires, was involved in politics and was a vehement states` rights advocate. His outspoken anti-federal stance as a member of the Maryland legislature led to his arrest during the early period of the American Civil War. Winans was related to James McNeill Whistler through marriage (Whistler`s brother George married Winans` daughter Julia).