b. February 4, 1859 and d. November 22, 1896

American engineer. He worked as a civil engineer in West Virginia and Kentucky. He conceived the idea of building the gigantic revolving wheel known by his name, which was a conspicuous figure at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in 1893.

 I’ll build it so, that if the blast
 Around it whistle loud and long,
 The tempest when its rage has pass’d
 Shall leave its columns doubly strong.
 I’ll build it so, that travelers by
 Shall view it with admiring eye,
 For its commodiousness and grace:
 Up from the ground-straight to the sky-
 A view of earth, from God’s dwelling plav=ce.

 —Adapted from The Building of the House: Mackay

 The largest pyramid, Ghizeh, is 461 feet high; the Sphinx, near to it, 100 feet; the Colossus of Rhodes was 106 feet; the Ferris Wheel, 264 feet; the Eiffel Tower of the Paris Exposition, 984 feet; the Washington Monument, 555 feet in height. The last was designed by Robert Mills and built by Lieut, Colonel T. L. Casey. The highest building in New York, the Park Row Syndicate, is 382 feet high.

 1871, June—The Tay Bridge was begun in Scotland; May 31, 1878, it was opened; length, 10,610 feet; consisted of 85 spans, some 90 feet above water level; cost £350,000; about 20 lives lost during its construction.

 1889, March 31—Eiffel Tower in the Champ de Mars, Paris, was completed. 984 feet high; 7,000 tons iron used; cost over $1,000,000.

b. February 12, 1804 and d. November 21, 1885

American mathematician and inventor. 1853-1858 he edited the Railroad Times and invented and constructed a spike-making machine, a water-faucet and an improved pipe-coupling. He evolved a new formula for finding the values of policies of various terms, known as the “accumulation formula,” and invented and patented (1869) the arithmeter, a mechanical contrivance for arithmetical operations based on logarithms. He published several works on practical insurance.

 The chiefest action for a man of spirit
 In never to be out of action; we should think
 The soul was never put into the body,
 Which has so many rare and curious pieces
 Of mathematical motion, to stand still.

 —Devil’s Law Case: Webster

 500-1150—The Hindus invented a process of casting out nines and they were familiar with the rule of three, with computation of interest with allegation and arithmetical and geometrical series.

 1299—The Florentine merchants were forbidden the use of Hindu numerals in bookkeeping and either to use the Roman numerals or to write the numbers in words.

 1501-1576—Jerome Cardan lived. He was a believer in astrology and pretended to have calculated his own death. He published “Ars Amgna,” which was remarkable for the age and in which were some of Tartaglia’s rules.

b. ? 1804 and d. November 21, 1877

American inventor and manufacturer of stoves and furnaces. Among his inventions are conical radiators, applied to stoves, 1854, a cooking-range with two ovens placed above the fire and arranged so that either may be used (1858) and an office stove surmounted with a broad disk, which radiates heat toward the floor (1865).

 Lo! where the chimney’s sootry tribe ascends,
 The fair Trochaid from the corner bends,
 Her coal-black eyes upturn’d incessant mark
 The eddying smoke, quick flame, and volant spark;
 Mark with swift ken where flashing in between,
 Her much-lov’d smoke-jack glimmers thro, the scene;
 Mark how his various parts together tend,
 Point to one purpose, in one object end.

 1200—Chimneys were first introduced in England, but were confined to kitchen and large hall.

 1200—Fire grates first used. The hearths of the early Britons were fixed in the centre of their halls. The fire-place originally was perhaps a large stone depressed below the level of the ground to receive the ashes. Chafing dishes were in use until the introduction of chimneys.

 1325—Stoves were first used.

 1444—Smoke-jacks were in use, and in 1571 Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to Pope Pius V., described them in his cook-book.

 1747—Col. William Cook’s method of heating by steam pipes was described in the Gentleman’s Magazine, p. 171.