b. June 10, 1777 and d. November 24, 1839

American engineer. In 1818-1824 he was an engineer of the Erie Canal; the first aqueduct at Rochester was designed and superintended by him; 1825-1829 he was engineer of the canal system of Ohio and chief engineer of the Louisville and Portland Canal; in 1829 he was chief engineer of the surveys and location of the Chenango Canal from Utica to Binghamton; in 1830 was commissioned to survey the Genesee Valley Canal and in 1834 made surveys for the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad in Michigan.

 Things of the noblest kind his genius drew,
 And look’d through nature at a single view;
 A loose he gave to his unbounded soul,
 And taught new lands to rise, new seas to roll;
 Call’d into being scenes unknown before,
 And, passing nature’s bounds, was something more.

—Rosciad: Churchill

 Suppose they did construct substantial works of
 masonry. The Cloaca maxima attests it. But what,
 think you, would a Roman engineer have said of
 putting a seven-mile bore, entirely through an
 Alpine barrier of solid rock, and of taking Pompey’s
 legions through it beneath the avalanche, from
 flank to flank, as quick as he could swallow a
 dish of Lucrine oysters?

 1808, February 4—Canals first acted upon in New York.

 1817—Construction of Erie Canal was begun.

b.November 24, 1834 and d. July 12, 1873

French inventor. In 1869 he devised an ammoniacal fireless engine for the propulsion of street cars. The motor has not been adopted in the United States but in France and Germany it is extensively used for street cars and vehicles. He patented another fireless engine in 1872 which is now in practical use; also a process for the manufacture of sponge gold, which product is used largely by dentists throughout the United States.

 The spirit of Palsey’s maxim, that “he alone
 discovers who proves,” is applicable to the history
 of inventions and discoveries; for certainly he
 alone invents to any good purpose who satisfies the
 world that the means he may have devised have been
 found competent to the end proposed.

 —Dr. Samuel Brown

 1791—John Barber patented his gas engine, using hydro-carbon gas.

 1794—Robert Street patented his explosive engine, using turpentine.

 1803—Sir George Cayley invented the first known air engine; in 1807 a hot-air engine.

 1825—Mr. Brown, of London, patented his pneumatic or gas-vacuum engine.

 1833—Ericsson obtained a patent for his caloric engine, and a subsequent patent for improvements was taken out in 1851 and another in 1856.

 1868, October—John Ericsson announced a device for obtaining motive power by condensing rays of sun.