John A. Roebling, who was born at Mulhausen, Prussia, June 12, 1806. In 1831 he emigrated to this country, and to his genius we are indebted for the bridges above named. The reports, plans, and specifications of the East River bridge were completed, and the work begun, when Roebling was severely injured in the foot while directing his work. Lockjaw succeeding amputation, he died in Brooklyn, July 22, 1869.
To what great Civil Engineer has the West given birth?
James B. Eads. Born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, May 28, 1820, he began life as a clerk on a Mississippi river steam-boat. In 1842 he entered a firm engaged in recovering sunken property, and with such success that he retired with a fortune in 1857. During the civil war he devised a plan for the defence of the Western waters, and constructed several iron gun-boats with many novel features of his own invention. He has since acquired reputation as projecting and constructing engineer of the Illinois and St. Louis bridge, and by building jetties at the South Pass of the Mississippi, by which the depth of the river is increased, and it is made more navigable. These jetties are projecting dikes of brush, fascines, and stone.
Fascines, bundles of rods or of small sticks of wood, bound at both ends and at intermediate points, used in filling ditches, etc.
Give the names of some distinguished American inventors.
Eli Whitney, the inventor of the Cotton Gin, born in Westborough, Mass., 1765; died 1825. Jethro Wood, the inventor of the modern cast-iron plow, born at White Creek, N.Y., 1774; died 1834. Cyrus H. McCormick, inventor of the mowing machine, born at Walnut Grove, Virginia, in 1809.
Who was the inventor of the Sewing Machine?
Elias Howe. He was born at Spencer, Mass., July 9, 1819. When a boy he worked in a cotton mill at Lowell, but afterwards entered a machine shop in Boston. Here he conceived the idea of the sewing machine, and after long days of labor, part of which time he and his family lived on the kindness of a friend, he completed his invention. After many struggles, his talent, industry, and perseverance were rewarded, and long before his death, which occurred in October, 1867, he had acquired a large fortune.