b. ? 1765 and d. November 18, 1854

British officer. About 1808 he invented a mode of saving life by shooting from a mortar a rope to mariners shipwrecked near the coast.

 Mournful wave! I deemed thy song
 Was telling of a mournful prison,
 Which, when tempests swept along,
 And the mighty winds were risen,
 Foundered in the ocean’s grasp,
 While the brave and fair were dying.
 Wave! didst mark a white hand clasp
 In thy folds as thou wert flying?

 —A Dying Wave: Anonymous

 Throw out the Life-line across the dark wave,
 There is a brother whom some one should save;
 Somebody’s brother! oh, who then will dare
 To throw out the Life-line, his peril to share?

 Throw out the Life-line with hand quick and strong;
 Why do you tarry, my brother, so long?
 See! he is sinking; oh, hasten to-day-
 And out with the Life-boat! away, then, away.

 —E. S. Ufford

 1802—Life-boats first invented.

 1819, June 20—First American steamer at Liverpool was launched.

 1821—First seagoing steam vessel, made of iron, was constructed in England.

 1880—First iron steamship was built in the United States.

b. November 18, 1810 and d. ?

American inventor. From 1842-1873 he was Professor at Harvard. With Dr. John Torrey, he classified species on the natural basis of affinity. In 1874 he was Regent of the Smithsonian Institute. From 1863-’73 he was President of the Amer. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, and in 1872 of the Amer. Assn. for the Adv. of Science.

 Lo! on each seed, within its slender rind,
 Life’s golden threads in endless circles wind;
 Maze within maze the lucid webs are rolled,
 And as they burst, the living flame unfold.
 The pulply acorn, ere it swells, contains
 The oak’s vast branches in its milky veins,
 Each raveled bud, fine film, and fiber-line,
 Traced with nine pencil on the small design,
 The young Narcissus, in its bulb compressed,
 Cradles a second nestling on its breast,
 In whose fine arms a younger embryo lies,
 Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;
 Grain within grain, successive harvests dwell,
 And boundless forests slumber in a shell.

 See’st thou yon fern and tree, the herb, the flower,
 Have they not life as thine, and health and power?
 Do they not breathe, and eat, and drink, to be?
 Something they have in common, man, with thee.
 Watch their emotion when the cold north wind
 Blows on the flowers; do they not try to find
 Some shelter ‘neath their leaves? Then bow their heads
 Away from hurting winds. But if instead
 Of cold the beneficent sun should shine,
 How glad all nature grows!

 —John P. Morris

b. April 4, 1823 and d. November 18, 1883

English inventor, metallurgist and electrician. With his brother, Werner, he made improvements in electric plating and in the solutions used for gilding and silvering. A chronometric governor for steam engines was devised by Werner and worked out by William and the process of “anastatic printing” wad developed by them. The regenerative steam engine and condenser was mainly the invention of William. In 1851 William produced a water meter, and, with Frederick Siemens, he invented the regenerative furnace which was applied to the manufacture of steel. William was one of the fist to suggest the transmission of power by electricity. In 1879 he also invented an electric furnace, a bathometer, and with his brother, Werner, he built the Indo-European telegraph in 1868-’69.

 Iron vessels cross the ocean, iron engines give them motion;
 Iron needles northward veering, iron tillers vessels steering;
 Iron pipe our gas delivers, iron bridges span our rivers;
 Iron pens are used for writing, iron ink our thoughts inditing;
 Iron stoves for cooking victuals, iron ovens, pots and kettles;
 Iron horses draw our loads, iron rails compose our roads;
 Iron anchors hold in sands, iron bolts, and rods, and bands,
 Iron houses, iron walls, iron cannon, iron balls;
 Iron axes, knives and chains, iron augers, saws and planes;
 Iron globules in our blood, iron particles in food;
 Iron lightning-rods on spires, iron telegraphic wires;
 Iron hammers, nails, and screws-iron everything we use.