b. November 5, 1810 and d. ?

American manufacturer. In 1833 he produced pig-iron and in 1837 controlled the Albany & Rensselaer iron-works, one of the largest producers of railroad and other iron in The U. S. His firm built the “Monitor” which was begun in October, 1861, at Greenpoint, Long Island; launched January 30, 1862, and delivered to the government March 5, 1862. He was president of the company constructing the Poughkeepsie Bridge over the Hudson River.

The workman here, with busy hand,
The fire both late, and early fanned.
The sparks fly out, the bellows ply,
As of the rocks to liquefy.
The fire and water’s might twofold
Are here united found;
The mill-wheel, by the flood seized hold,
In whirling round and round;
The works are clattering night and day,
With measured stroke the hammer’s play,
And yielding to the mighty blows,
The very iron plastic grows.

—Fridolin: Schiller

1543—Ralph Page and Peter Baude made cast-iron in Sussex.

1558—The blast-furnace was introduced into England from Belgium.

1767—Cast-iron rails substituted wood on railroads in England.

b. ? 1704 and d. December ? 1749

American inventor of the quadrant, 1730, an instrument for measuring angles by two reflectors on two arms jointed. The Royal Society decided that Hadley and Godfrey were independent inventors of the quadrant. Godfrey was a profound student of mathematics, through a glazier by trade.

How would you long to find yourself once more
Where the great waves go rolling up and down!
And the loud winds that spur their steaming flanks
The sailors buffet and their voices drown!

How would you wonder if the honest hand
That held you sunward on the heaving main
Had quite forgot the trick it knew of old,
And never so would manage you again!

—To A Quadrant: John W. Chadwick

1602—Just Byng invented the measuring compass.

1608—William Barlowe invented the compass-box and hanging compass.

1795, April 7—The meter was made the legal unit of length and the base of the metric system in France. It is one ten millionth part of the distance between the poles and equal to 3.2808 English feet.

1847—Belanger gave the name of impulse to the expression pt. and living power (kinetic energy) to mv²/2.

1879—Hopkins introduced graphical representations of indicator curves in dynamo and engine tests.

b. November 4, 1855 and d. ?

American inventor of an improved mechanical telephone. The features of his telephone are the means of carrying the line around curves and the way in which it is fastened to the diaphragm. His other devices include a self-righting and self-bailing life-boat, a compound automatic mail-catcher, a dynamophone to enable deaf persons to hear, a typewriter and an automatic screw-driver.

I have a new typ-eWriter, Andd it is my de;ight
To patter on it gail Y and wrIte. and write/ and write$
It aidss mE in my laborrs9 when I)m in WorkiNG vein”
It makes A GREat improvEment&-i write So veRY pLain.

It oPerates sosw!FtlY$? that when yOu find you’re sTUck;;)
and CannoT fiNd the lettAer just6jab-and trusT to luck6$(?
It’s Easy–VEry eaSY–to opeRAte it then;:;?6&/0
Now where on earth’s that colon-***Give me my ink and pen!

1852—The tubular life-boat, the Challenger, was patented.

1878—Boxer’s life-saving, rope-carrying rocket for cummunicating with stranded vessels was described.

1801, March 12—Joseph Francis was born. He invented life-saving appliances, consisting of life-boats, life-cars and surf life-boats. In 1838 he invented the life-car by which to land people safely from a wreck; in 1842 th corrugated metallic life-car with space for four adults. He made great improvements in the hydraulic press.