Eminent Engineers - Brief Biographies of Thirty-Two of the Inventors and Engineers Who Did Most to Further Mechanical Progress Book

Eminent Engineers - Brief Biographies of Thirty-two of the Inventors and Engineers who did most to further mechanical progress By DWIGHT GODDARD, Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1906. The Deny-Collard Company, New York, Copyright 1905 by D wight Goddard Preface. These short biographies were originally written from 1903 to 1906 and issued in monthly numbers by Wyman Gordon, manufacturers of drop forgings, Worcester, Mass, and Cleveland, Ohio. Some of them have been entirely re-written others enlarged and revised, and others left as originally written. In the selection of names, those have been included who have accomplished something of importance in the development and application of power and machinery. For convenience, the book is divided into two parts European and American. Cleveland, October 1st, 1905. List of Americans T T T PAGES Benjamin Franklin 1705-1790 . . ... 9-16 John Fitch 1743-1798 18-26 Nathan Read 1759-1849 ... . 29-34 Oliver Evans 1755-1819 . . . . ,. 36-41 Robert Fulton 1765-1815 ... 43-48 John Stevens 1749-1838 . . 57-58 Robert L. Stevens . 57-58 Eli Whitney 1765-1825 .... 60-69 Thomas Blanchard 1788-1864 . 70-77 Elias Howe 1819-1867 ... 78-84 John Ericsson 1803-1889 86-98 Peter Cooper 1791-1883 . . ... .100-110 George H. Corliss 1817-1888 110-121 Alexander L. Holley 1832-1882 , .. ... .122-131 William R. Jones 1839-1889 . . . ... 132-138 James B. Eads 1820-1887 . . . . ... 140-149 Franklin. Massachusetts to Georgia. He laid his plans to publish a newspaper, hut his rival got the start of him so he waited until it failed, when he bought it in cheap. Immediately it changed character, and became the first real news paper in America. Its pages were enlivened by some of Franklin's best work. He did not hesitate to use its columns for poking fun at high and low, exasperating his competitors and booming his own enterprises. Among the novel features he introduced were advertisements, illustrations, and letters to the editor. In 1766 he sold out to a partner for a handsome sum. Meanwhile, he had undertaken other business ventures, all of which prospered, till he became one of the rich men of America. As early as 1743 he began to accept public office, and from that time on he was continuously in the public service. He was successively Chairman of Committee of Safety, Colonel of Pennsylvania militia, Burgess to Pennsylvania Assembly, Postmaster of Philadelphia, Deputy Postmaster General for the Colonies, Agent for the Colonies to England, Commissioner to Canada, Commissioner to France, Minister to France, President of Pennsylvania, and in each place he used his very, great abilities to expedite public affairs. Franklin was a many sided man and it is hard to say on which he was the greatest. Was he most notable as a statesman It might be. His native good sense, shrewdness and wealth of resource combined in one eminently genial, tactful, patient and persistent made him an ideal diplomat. He sought in everything to allay friction and bring about friendly relations. He was far-seeing in his attitude toward the union of the Colonies, relations with foreign nations, framing n Franklin. of the Constitution, slavery, taxation and a monetary system, but never sought to force his ideas on others in a way that would leave a sting behind. As Burgess for Pennsylvania, combating the avaricious claims of the Proprietors as the energetic Post master General for the Colonies as the conciliatory agent of the Colonies in England, during the increasing perplexities and animosities of the years just preceding the Revolution as the astute Commissioner to France to negotiate aid and recognition for the rebellious Colonies as the forbearing first Minister to France as the first President of Pennsylvania, he stood head and shoulders above his fellow colonials, above all save one General Washington...Read More