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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Eden, Sir Robert, 1768-1786 (search)
Eden, Sir Robert, 1768-1786 Royal governor; born in Durham, England. Succeeding Governor Sharpe as royal governor of Maryland in 1768, he was more moderate in his administration than his predecessors. He complied with the orders of Congress to abdicate the government. He went to England, and at the close of the war returned to recover his estate in Maryland. He had married a sister of Lord Baltimore, and was created a baronet, Oct. 19, 1776. He died in Annapolis, Md., Sept. 2, 1786.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Electricity in the nineteenth century. (search)
invention of the lightning-rod was not intended to utilize electric force, but to guard life and property from the perils of the thunder-storm. Franklin's kite experiment confirmed the long-suspected identity of lightning and electric sparks. It was not, however, until the discovery by Alexander Volta, in 1799, of his pile, or battery, that electricity could take its place as an agent of practical value. Volta, when he made this great discovery, was following the work of Galvani, begun in 1786. But Galvani in his experiments mistook the effect for the cause, and so missed making the unique demonstration that two different metals immersed in a solution could set up an electric current. Volta brought to the notice of the world the first means for obtaining a steady flow of electricity. The simplest facts of electro-magnetism, upon which much of the later electrical developments depend, remained entirely unknown until the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Davy first showe
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Engineering. (search)
ghkeepsie bridge were accepted, and the same method of sinking open caissons (in this case made of iron) was carried out with perfect success. The erection of this bridge involved another difficult problem. The mud was too soft and deep for piles and staging, and the cantilever system in this site would have increased the cost. The solution of the problems presented at Hawkesbury gave the second introduction of American engineers to bridge building outside of America. The first was in 1786, when an American carpenter or shipwright built a bridge over Charles River at Boston, 1,470 feet long by 46 feet wide. This bridge was of wood supported on piles. His work gained for him such renown that he was called to Ireland and built a similar bridge at Belfast. Tunnelling by compressed air is a horizontal application of compressed-air foundations. The earth is supported by an iron tube, which is added to in rings, which are pushed forward by hydraulic jacks. A tunnel is now be
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Evans, Oliver, 1775-1819 (search)
Evans, Oliver, 1775-1819 Inventor; born in Newport, Del., in 1775; was of Welsh descent, and was grandson of Evan Evans, D. D., the first Episcopal minister in Philadelphia. Apprenticed to a wheelwright, he early displayed his inventive genius. At the age of twenty-two years he had invented a most useful machine for making card-teeth. In 1786-87 he obtained from the legislatures of Maryland and Pennsylvania the exclusive right to use his improvements in flour-mills. He constructed a steam-carriage in 1799, which led to the invention of the locomotive engine. His steam-engine was the first constructed on the high-pressure principle. In 1803-4 he made the first steam dredging-machine used in America, to which he gave the name of Oracter Amphibolis, arranged for propulsion either on land or water. This is believed to have been the first instance in America of the application of steam-power to the propelling of a land carriage. Evans foresaw and prophesied the near era of ra
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Fanning, Edmund -1818 (search)
1763) and clerk of the Supreme Court (1765). He was also a member of the legislature, and married the daughter of Governor Tryon. He became rapacious, and by his exorbitant legal fees made himself very obnoxious to the people. Their hatred was increased by his energetic exertions in suppressing the Regulator movement (see Regulators). He fled to New York with Governor Tryon to avoid the consequences of popular indignation. He was appointed surveyor-general of North Carolina in 1774. In 1776 he raised and led a force called the King's American Regiment of Foot. After the Revolution he went to Nova Scotia, where he became a councillor and lieutenant-governor in September, Edmund Fanning. 1783, and from 1786 to 1805 was governor of Prince Edward's Island. He rose to the rank of general in the British army in 1808. Fanning was an able jurist, and always regretted his later career in North Carolina. He was greatly influenced by his father-in-law. He died in London, Feb. 28, 1818.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Few, William 1748-1828 (search)
Few, William 1748-1828 Jurist; born in Baltimore county, Md., June 8, 1748. His ancestors came to America with William Penn. His family went to North Carolina in 1758, and in 1776 William settled in Georgia, where he became a councillor, and assisted in framing the State constitution. He was in the military service, and in 1778 was made State surveyor-general. In 1780-83 and 1786 he was in Congress, and in 1787 assisted in framing the national Constitution. He was United States Senator in 1789-93; and was a judge on the bench of Georgia three years. In the summer of 1799 he removed to New York, and became a member of the legislature and a commissioner of loans. He died in Fishkill, N. Y., July 16, 1828.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Fish, Nicholas 1758-1833 (search)
Fish, Nicholas 1758-1833 Military officer; born in New York City, Aug. 28, 1758; studied law in the office of John Morin Scott, and was on his staff as aide in the spring of 1776. In June he was made brigademajor, and in November major of the 2d New York Regiment. Major Fish was in the battles at Saratoga in 1777; was division inspector in 1778; and commanded a corps of light infantry in the battle of Monmouth. He served in Sullivan's expedition in 1779; under Lafayette, in Virginia, in 1781; and was at the surrender of Cornwallis, behaving gallantly during the siege. For many years after 1786, Fish, who had become lieutenantcolonel during the war, was adjutantgeneral of the State of New York, and was appointed supervisor of the United States revenue in 1794. In 1797 he became president of the New York State Cincinnati Society. He died in New York City, June 20, 1833.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Fitch, John 1743-1798 (search)
Fitch, John 1743-1798 Inventor; born in East Windsor, Conn., Jan. 21, 1743; was an armorer in the military service during the Revolution, and at Trenton, N. J., manufactured sleeve-buttons. For a while, near the close of the war, he was a surveyor in Virginia, during which time he prepared, engraved on copper, and printed on a press of his own manufacture, a map of the Northwest country, afterwards formed into a Territory. He constructed a steamboat in 1786 that could be propelled eight miles an hour. A company was formed (1788) in Philadelphia, which caused a steam-packet to ply on the Delaware River, and it ran for about two years when the company failed. In 1793 he unsuccessfully tried his steam navigation projects in France. Discouraged, he went to the Western country again, where Fitch's steamboat. he died in Bardstown, Ky., July 2, 1798, leaving behind him a history of his adventures in the steamboat enterprise, in a sealed envelope, directed to My children and futu
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Forward, Walter 1786-1852 (search)
Forward, Walter 1786-1852 Statesman; born in Connecticut in 1786; removed to Pittsburg, where he was editor of the Tree of liberty, a Democratic paper; admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania in 1806; elected to Congress in 1822; appointed first comptroller of the United States Treasury in 1841; Secretary of the United States Treasury in 1841; elected judge of the district court of Alleghany county, Pa., in 1851. He died in Pittsburg, Nov. 24, 1852. Forward, Walter 1786-1852 Statesman; born in Connecticut in 1786; removed to Pittsburg, where he was editor of the Tree of liberty, a Democratic paper; admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania in 1806; elected to Congress in 1822; appointed first comptroller of the United States Treasury in 1841; Secretary of the United States Treasury in 1841; elected judge of the district court of Alleghany county, Pa., in 1851. He died in Pittsburg, Nov. 24, 1852.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Franchere, Gabriel 1786- (search)
Franchere, Gabriel 1786- Pioneer; born in Montreal, Canada, Nov. 3, 1786; was connected with the American fur company organized by John Jacob Astor, and did much to develop the fur trade in the Rocky Mountains and the northern Pacific coast. He published a History of the Astor expeditions, in French, which was the first work containing detailed accounts of the Northwest Territory. When he died, in St. Paul, Minn., in 1856, he was the last survivor of the Astor expedition.
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