Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Alger, Cyrus, 1781-1856

Inventor; born in West Bridgewater, Mass., Nov. 11, 1781; became an iron-founder early in life. In 1809 he founded in Boston the works which since 1817 have been known as the South Boston Iron Company. During the War of 1812 he supplied the government with a large number of cannon-balls. He devised many improvements in the construction of time-fuses for bomb-shells and grenades. In 1811 he invented a method of making cast-iron chilled rolls. and in 1822 designed the cylinder stove. The first perfect bronze cannon. the first gun ever rifled in the United States, and the largest gun of cast-iron, the “Columbiad” mortar, that had been cast in the country, were turned out at his foundry under his personal supervision. He died in Boston, Feb. 4. 1856.