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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight) 80 0 Browse Search
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 26 0 Browse Search
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Browsing named entities in Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing). You can also browse the collection for Oliver Evans or search for Oliver Evans in all documents.

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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Ball's Bluff, battle at. (search)
's Bluff, battle at. In October, 1861, a National force, commanded by Gen. Charles P. Stone, was encamped between Edward's and Conrad's ferries, on the Maryland side of the upper Potomac, while the left wing of the Confederate army, under General Evans, lay at Leesburg, in Virginia. Misinformation had caused a belief that the Confederates had left Leesburg at a little past the middle of October, when General McClellan ordered General McCall, who commanded the advance of the right of the Naive aid if necessary, Stone, on the morning of the 21st, ordered some Massachusetts troops under Colonels Lee and Devens to cross to the Virginia shore from Harrison's Island to reconnoitre. They did not find the fore in the neighborhood. General Evans, unperceived, lay not far off; and riflemen and cavalry were hovering near and waiting a favorable opportunity to strike Devens, who, leaving a part of Lee's command near the Bluff. had advanced to near Leesburg. After a skirmish, in which
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Bull Run, battles of. (search)
, it encountered the Confederates, and a battle ensued in open fields. The batteries of Griffin and Reynolds were brought to bear by the Nationals. Only a small stream in a little vale separated the combatants. The Confederates were led by Colonel Evans. The contest raged most fiercely. Hard pressed, Evans's line began to waver, when General Bee advanced with fresh troops, and gave it strength. Then the National line began to tremble, when Col. Andrew Porter sent a battalion of regulars uEvans's line began to waver, when General Bee advanced with fresh troops, and gave it strength. Then the National line began to tremble, when Col. Andrew Porter sent a battalion of regulars under Major Sykes to strengthen it. More fiercely the battle raged. General Hunter was severely wounded. Colonel Slocum, of the Rhode Island troops, was killed, when Sprague, the youthful governor of the commonwealth, took command of his troops. The wearied Nationals, who had been on their feet since midnight, began to flag, when they were reinforced by troops under Heintzelman, Sherman, and Corcoran. A charge made by a New York regiment, under Col. Henry W. Slocum (q. v.), shattered the ben
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Card-cloth. (search)
Card-cloth. The manufacture of cards for carding wool by hand was quite an important industry in America before the Revolution, and was carried on successfully during that war. In 1787 Oliver Evans, the pioneer American inventor, then only twenty-two years of age, and engaged in making card-teeth by hand, invented a machine that produced 300 a minute. Already Mr. Crittendon, of New Haven, Conn., had invented a machine (1784) which produced 86,000 card-teeth, cut and bent, in an hour. These inventions led to the contrivance of machines for making card-cloth—that is, a species of comb used in the manufacture of woollen or cotton cloths, for the purpose of carding and arranging the fibres preparatory to spinning. It consists of stout leather filled with wire card-teeth, and is the chief part of the carding-machine in factories. A machine for making the card-cloth complete was invented by Eleazar Smith, of Walpole, Mass., at or near the close of the eighteenth century, for which i
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Chesapeake, (search)
her large number of prisoners, the Chesapeake was out on a long cruise to the Cape de Verde Islands, and the coast of South America. She accomplished nothing except the capture of four British merchant vessels; and as she entered Boston Harbor, in the spring of 1813, in a gale, her topmast was carried away, and with it several men who were aloft, three of whom were drowned. Among the superstitious sailors she acquired the character of an unlucky ship, and they were loath to embark in her. Evans was compelled to leave her on account of the loss of the sight of one of his eyes; and Lawrence, who had been promoted to captain for his bravery, was put in command of her, with the Hornet, Captain Biddle, as her consort. At the close of May the British frigate Shannon, thirty-eight guns, Capt. Philip The Shannon and Chesapeake entering the Harbor of Halifax. Bowes Vere Broke, appeared off Boston Harbor, in the attitude of a challenger. She then carried fifty-two guns. He wrote to
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Colonial settlements. (search)
Colonies.White.Colored. Massachusetts 207,0003 000 New Hampshire50,000 Connecticut 133,0003,500 Rhode Island 35,0004,500 New York85,00011,000 New Jersey73,0005,000 Pennsylvania and Delaware195,00011,000 Maryland104,00044,000 Virginia168,000116,000 North Carolina70,00020,000 South Carolina40,00040,000 Georgia5,0002,000 —————— Total1,165,000 260,000 At this period the extent of the territorial possessions of England and France in America was well defined on maps published by Evans and Mitchell—that of the latter (a new edition) in 1754. The British North American colonies stretched coastwise along the Atlantic about 1,000 miles, but inland their extent was very limited. New France, as the French settlers called their claimed territory in America, extended over a vastly wider space, from Cape Breton, in a sort of crescent, to the mouth of the Mississippi River, but the population was mainly collected on the St. Lawrence, between Quebec and Montreal. The Engli
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), Steam navigation. (search)
ress for a patent, saying his boat Fitch's steamboat. could be propelled 8 miles an hour by the vapor. A stock company was formed at Philadelphia, and built a steam packetboat, which ran until the company failed in 1790. Fitch's efforts in steam navigation also failed. John C. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., constructed a steamboat on the waters of the Hudson that was driven by a Watt engine, moved by vapor from a tubular boiler of his own invention, and a screw propeller. The same year Oliver Evans put a steam dredgingmachine on the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers propelled by a steam paddle-wheel moved by a high-pressure engine, the first of its kind ever used. Meanwhile Robert Fulton's Clermont on its trial-trip up the Hudson. Fulton, a professional painter, had conceived a plan for steamboat navigation while an inmate of Joel Barlow's residence in Paris. He met Chancellor Livingston in Paris, and interested that gentleman in his projects. He tried two experiments on the Sei
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Steamboats, Hudson River (search)
wers and velocities of the component parts. If they had, why did you not avail yourself of them, and construct a useful steamboat ten years ago? If those proportions and powers, which are now demonstrated by actual practice in my boats on the great scale, and where every intelligent blacksmith and carpenter can go and measure them, copy them, and make a successful steamboat, were formerly known, how is it that Mr. Stevens, Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Rumsey, Mr. Fitch, Lord Stanhope, and Oliver Evans could not find them in twenty years labor and at the expense of $100,000? Why were not steamboats made ten years ago? for Charnock's book has been published fifteen years. And here let me present to you a curious fact: the experiments in that book were in great part conducted by Lord Stanhope, who himself since failed in his experiments on steamboats; and, if you have not yet so far affected my character for truth that my countrymen will cease to believe me, I will state another fact: he
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), State of Tennessee, (search)
r to witness what was deemed by them the most important political event that had occurred since the proclamation of peace with Great Britain. With three others—Major Evans, and James and John Sevier, the two sons of the general—Cosby proposed to go to the rescue, to effect by stratagem what it would have been impolitic and hazardscuers halted on the outskirts of Morganton, and, concealing their horses in a clump of underbrush, left them there in charge of the young Seviers. Then Cosby and Evans, disguised as countrymen, entered the town. When they arrived at the court-house, Evans dismounted, and, throwing the bridle loosely over the neck of the animal, Evans dismounted, and, throwing the bridle loosely over the neck of the animal, stood with her directly before the open door and in plain view of the interior of the building. Then Cosby entered the courtroom, and, elbowing his way up the crowded aisle, halted directly in front of the judge's bench, and only a few feet from where his beloved leader stood encompassed by the court officials. Catching his eye,