Florence Nightingale was born, May, 1823, in Florence, Italy, of English parents, and, prompted by philanthropic instincts, turned her attention to the relief of humanity. After study in various nursing schools, she was sent at the head of a corps of trained nurses to care for the sick and wounded soldiers of the Crimean war, in which position she displayed marvelous energy and ability. A grateful public subscribed for her a testimonial of $250,000, which she devoted to the founding of a training-school for nurses.
Clara Barton (b. about 1830) left a clerkship in Washington to engage in the work of alleviating the sufferings of the soldiers of the Civil War, on the battlefields and in hospitals, a work she performed with rare energy and self-sacrifice. She afterwards aided the Grand Duchess of Baden in establishing her hospitals during the Franco-Prussian war, and was decorated with the Golden Cross of Baden and the Iron Cross of Germany. In 1881 she organized the American Red Cross Society, for which she secured an international treaty giving it protection. She performed splendid service in camp and field during the Spanish-American war.
John D. Rockefeller (b. 1839) is a splendid example of those many and noble American millionaires who have responded with astonishing liberality to the promptings of their philanthropic natures. The reconstruction of the Chicago University, the founding or endowment of other public institutions, and of numerous charitable benefactions, together embracing the expenditure of many millions, are magnificent monuments to Mr. Rockefeller’s share in promoting the progress of his country during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Matthew Vassar (b. April 29, 1792; d. June 23, 1868) founded Vassar College, N. Y., in 1861. A brewer of large fortune, he conceived the idea of erecting and endowing a college for women, wherein education could be obtained either moderately or gratuitously, and which should be undenominational. To this end he gave land and $428,000 for buildings and equipment. Again he gave $360,000. Other members of his family added to his gifts, till $1,000,000 and more were expended in buildings, apparatus, etc., and the endowment amounted to over $1,000,000.
Inventors.—George Stephenson, of England (b. June 9, 1781; d. August 12, 1848), was the first (1814) to construct a satisfactory locomotive steam engine. In 1815 he introduced the steam blast into his second locomotive. In 1822 he built and operated his first railway, eight miles long. In 1829 his engine, named the Rocket, was driven at the rate of twenty-nine miles an hour. He invented a safety lamp, which is still in use in English collieries. A natural genius and self-taught mechanic, he refused knighthood, but has received by common consent the title of the father of railways.
Richard M. Hoe (b. September 12, 1812; d. June 7, 1886) completely revolutionized the art of printing by the invention of his “lightning” rotary press, in 1846. This marvel was capable of printing 20,000 impressions an hour. After many costly experiments, with a view to printing both sides of a sheet at once, he evolved his web-perfecting press, which drew the paper from a roll, perhaps miles in length, at the rate of 1000 feet a minute, printed both sides simultaneously, and cut and folded the sheets at the rate of 20,000 per hour. Subsequent improvements have given his machines a much larger hourly capacity.
CLARA BARTON.
Elias Howe (b. June 9, 1819; d. October 3, 1867) contributed the sewing-machine to the century’s triumphs and wonders, though it is alleged that the honor of inventing both the eye-pointed needle and the lock-stitch belongs to Walter Hunt, between whom and Howe long litigation prevailed, finally resulting in the recognition of the 1846 patent of the latter. Modifications and improvements by more recent inventors have made the sewing-machine the household boon of to-day.
Cyrus W. Field (b. November 30, 1819; d. July 12, 1892) made the problem of a telegraphic cable across the Atlantic an aim of his life. For thirteen years he labored with wonderful faith and perseverance, and at last, after a series of defeats and mortifying failures, succeeded (1866) in laying a cable that thoroughly solved the problem. Since then submarine telegraphy has become one of the most useful and powerful factors in the private and public life of the world.