Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/775

Rh riage-maker, with whom he remained until he be- came of age. During this time he constructed a machine for mortising the hubs of carriages, which proved of great value to his employer, who at the expiration of his service offered to establish him in business. This, however, was declined, and Cooper settled in Hempstead, L. I., where for three years he manufactured machines for shearing cloth, and at the end of this engagement he had saved suffi- cient money to buy the right of the state of New York for a machine for shearing cloth. He began the manufacture of these machines on his own ac- count, and the enterprise was thoroughly success- ful, largely owing to the interruption of commer- cial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain by the war, and also on account of an improvement devised by himself. At this time he married Sarah Bedel, of Hempstead, who proved a devoted wife during fifty-six years of married life. With the cessation of hostilities the value of this business depreciated, and he turned his shop into a factory for making cabinet-ware. Later he entered the grocery business in New York, but soon afterward the profits acquired by the sale of his machines and in the grocer's shop were invested in a glue-factory, which he purchased with all its stock and buildings then on a lease of twenty-one years. These works were situated on the " old middle road," between 31st and 34th streets, New York city, and there the busi- ness of manu- facturing glue, oil, whiting, pre- pared chalk, and isinglass was continued until the expiration of the lease, when he bought ten acres of ground in Maspeth ave- nue, Brooklyn, where the busi- ness has since been continued. In 1828 he pur- chased 3,000 acres of land within the city limits of Balti- more, and he erected the Canton iron-works, which was the first of his great enterprises tending toward the development of the iron industry in the United States. This purchase was made at a time when there was great commercial excitement in Baiti- moi'e on account of the building of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. It was feared that the many short turns in the road would make it useless for locomotive purposes. The stockholders had be- come discouraged, and the project seemed about to be abandoned, when Peter Cooper came to the res- cue and built, in 1830, from his own designs, the first locomotive engine ever constructed on this continent. By its means the possibility of building railroads in a country with little capital, and with immense stretches of very rough surface, in order to connect commercial centres, without the deep cuts, tunnelling, and levelling that short curves might avoid, was demonstrated, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was saved from bankruptcy. He determined to dispose of his Baltimore property, and a portion of it was purchased by Horace Ab- bott, which in time became the Abbott iron com- pany. The remainder was sold to Boston capital- ists, who formed the Canton iron company. He received part of his payment in stock at $44 a share, which he svibsequently sold at $230. He then returned to New York and built an iron-fac- tory, which he afterward turned into a rolling-mill, where he first successfully applied anthracite coal to the puddling of iron, and made iron wire for several years. In 1845 he built three blast-fur- naces in Phillipsburg, near Easton, Pa., which were the largest then known, and, to control the manu- facture completely, purchased the Andover iron- mines, and built a railroad through a rough coun- try for eight miles, in order to bring the ore down to the furnaces at the rate of 40,000 tons a year. Later the entire plant was combined into a corpo- ration known as the Ironton iron-works. At these works the first wrought-iron beams for fire- proof buildings were made. The laying of the Atlantic cable was largely due to his persistent efforts in its behalf. He was the first and only president of the New York, Newfoundland, and London telegraph company. It became necessary to expend large sums in its construction, much of which came directly from Mr. Cooper. The banks were unwilling to trust the corporation, and inva- riably drew on the president as claims matured. The company was frequently in his debt to the ex- tent of ten to twenty thousand dollars. The first cable lasted scarcely a month, and a dozen years elapsed before the original investments were recov- ered. In spite of public ridicule and the refusal of capitalists to risk their money, Mr. Cooper clung to the idea, until at last a cable became an assured success. The original stock, which had been placed on the market at $50 a share, was then disposed of to an English company at $90. Mr. Cooper served in both branches of the New York common coun- cil, and strongly advocated, when a member of that body, the construction of the Croton aque- duct. He was a trustee in the Public school socie- ty first founded to promote public schools in New York, and when that body was merged in the board of education he became a school commis- sioner. But he is most widely known in connec- tion with his interest in industrial education. His own experience early impressed him with the ne- cessity of affording proper means for the instruc- tion of the working classes. With this idea he secured the property at the junction of 3d and 4th avenues, between 7th and 8th streets, and from plans of his own making " The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art " was erect- ed. In 1854 the corner-stone was laid, and five years later, on its completion, a deed was executed in fee simple transferring this property to six trustees, who were empowered to devote all rents and income from it "to the instruction and improA^e- ment of the inhabitants of the United States in practical science and art." A scheme of education was devised which should include " instruction in branches of knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread ; in laws of health and im- provement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as individuals ; in social and political sci- ence, whereby communities and nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power ; and finally in mat- ters which affect the eye, the ear, and the imagina- tion, and furnish a basis for recreation to the working classes." Free courses of lectures on so- cial and political science were established ; also a free reading-room ; and collections of works of art and science were provided, and a school for in- struction of women in the art of design by which they may gain an honorable livelihood. When