b. October 28, 1728 and d. February 14, 1779

English navigator. Circumnavigated the globe. He discovered and named New Caledonia and in 1776 commanded an expedition to find a northwest passage by way of Behring Strait. He reached latitude 65°. In January, 1778, he discovered the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii and Maui; in 1779 on the return voyage at Hawaii a chief was accidentally killed and Cook and a number of his party were slain.

Is there a man, that, from some lofty steep,
Views in his wide survey the boundless deep,
When its vast waters, lined with sun and shade,
Wave beyond wave in serried distance fade
To the pale sky;-or views it, dimly seen,
The shifting screens of drifted mist between,
As the huge cloud dilates its sable form,
When grandly curtain’d by the approaching storm,
Who feels not his awed soul with wonder rise
To Him whose power created sea and skies,
Mountains and deserts, giving to the sight
The wonders of the day and of the night?

—Christopher Columbus: Joanna Baillie

1446—The Portuguese discovered the West Coast of Africa.

1460—Juan Ponce de Leon, discoverer of Florida, born. In 1521, he died.

1497, November 20—Vasco de Gama made the first passage to the East Indies by rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

1498—Vasco de Gama discovered a passage to India. In 1524 he returned to India.

b. October 27, 1836 and d. ?

American mechanical engineer and one of the foudners of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. To him belongs the credit of first studying scientifically the economic duty of pumping engines for supplying cities with water. His Lynn engine was, when designed and put in operation, a remarkable advance on what had previously been accomplished. He did great work for the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in designing and building its machinery.

Nymphs! you first taught to pierce the secret caves
Of humid earth, and lift her ponderous waves;
Bade with quick stroke the sliding piston bear
The viewless columns of incumbent air-
Press’d by the incumbent air the floods below,
Through opening valves in foaming torrents flow,
Foot after foot with lessen’d impulse move,
And rising seek the vacancy above.

—Botanic Garden: Dr. Darwin

1775, August 27-1847, April 13—Frederic Graff lived. He was employed as assistant engineer in erecting the first waterworks in Philadelphia. On April 1, 1805, he was elected superintendent and engineer of the works. He devised the iron pipe system which is now universally used. Patterns of his fireplugs and stop-cocks were sent to Europe.

1237—Water was first conveyed to London in leaden pipes.

1850-’94—The Thames water was conveyed into London by leaden pipes.

b. October 27, 1827 and d. ?

German-American civil engineer. He designed and built the first important iron bridges in this country-one over the Monongahela River and the Viaduct over Trey Run. He was consulting engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railway and designed the bridge at Norfolk. He built the Green River Bridge, one over the Cumberland at Nashville and one over the Ohio at Louisville. His plan for the creation of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association was adopted, and he was able to effect a complete revolution of the traffic management of the important American railways.

At whose command vast structures rise,
Towering upward to the skies;
Whose wondrous works in Nature’s field,
His fellow-man rich blessings yield;
In all the world none more should be
Respected, honored, loved, than he.
His name-need it be mentioned here-
Is this: “The Civil Engineer.”

—The Civil Engineer: O. H. Sheffield

1840—Mitchell introduced the screw pile.

1855, March 8—Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge first crossed.

1870 (about).—Johann G. H. Gerber, C. E., patented the so-called cantilever system of bridges.

1890, March 4—The great cantilever bridge across the Forth River was opened in Edinburgh, Scotland.