Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/784

740 1860, was compelled to serve as a conscript in the Confederate army in 1863, and after his capture by the national troops at Petersburg, 2 April, 1865, joyfully took the oatli of allegiance and re- turned to his home. He opposed the policy of An- drew Johnson and Gov. Perry, advocated recon- struction in 1866, and was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, in which he introduced tlie resolutions to remove the provis- ional government, opposed the repudiation of the slave debts, and advocated the present homestead law of the state. He was elected to congress in 1868, and, after the removal of his technical dis- abilities, took his seat on 25 July, 1868, and served till 3 March, 1869. He introduced joint resolu- tions for the better protection of loyal men in the reconstructed states and the exclusion of secession- ist text-books from the schools, and earnestly sup- ported the 15th amendment. In 1869 he was ap- pointed a special agent of the U. S. treasury department. He was commissioner of the State board of agricultural statistics in 1870, treasurer of Lexington county in 1874, and a nominee of the independent party for state comptroller in 1882.

CORLISS, George Henry, inventor, b. in Eas- ton. N. Y., 2 June, 1817 : d. in Providence, R. I., 21 Feb., 1888. In 1825 his father, a physician, moved to Greenwich, N. Y., where young Corliss attend- ed school. After several years as general clerk in a cotton-factory, he spent three years in Castleton academy, Vermont, and in 1838 opened a country store in Greenwich. He first showed mechanical skill in temporarily rebuilding a bridge that had been washed away by a freshet, after it had been decided that such a structure was impracticable. He afterward constructed a machine for stitching leather, before the invention of the original Plowe sewing-machine. He moved to Providence, R. I., in 1844, and in 1846 began to develop imj^rove- ments in steam-engines, for which he received let- ters-jjatent on 10 March, 1849. By these improve- ments uniformity of motion was secured by the method of connecting the governor with the cut- off. The governor had previously been made to do the work of moving the throttle-valve, the result being an imperfect response and a great loss of power. In the Corliss engine the governor does no work, but simply indicates to the valves the work to be done. This aiTangement also prevents waste of steam, and renders the working of the engine so uniform that, if all but one of a hundred looms in a factory be suddenly stopped, that one will go on working at the same rate. It has been said that these improvements have revolutionized the con- struction of the steam-engine. In introducing their new engines, the inventor and manufacturers adopted the novel plan of offering to take as their pay the saving of fuel for a given time. In one case the saving in one year is said to have amounted to $4,000. In 1856 the Corliss steam-engine com- pany was incorporated, and Mr. Corliss became its president. Its works, covering many acres of ground, are at Providence, R. I., and hundreds of its engines are now in use. Mr. Corliss received awards for his inventions at the exhibitions at Paris in 1867, and at Vienna in 1873, and was given the Rumford medal by the American academy of arts and sciences in 1870. In 1872 he was appointed Centennial commissioner from Rhode Island, and was one of the executive committee of seven to whom was intrusted the responsibility of the pre- liminary work. In January, 1875, he submitted plans for a single engine of 1,400 horse-power to move all the machinery in the exhibition. Engi- neers of high repute predicted that it would be noisy and troublesome, but it was completely suc- cessful, owing to the care of Mr. Corliss, who spent $100,000 upon it above the appropriation for build- ing it. Special contrivances were necessary to com- pensate the expansion of the great lengths of steam- pipe and shafting, which would otherwise have been thrown out of gear by a change of tempera- ture. The cylinders were forty inches in diameter, with ten-foot stroke; the gear-wheel was thirty feet in diameter ; and the whole engine weighed 700 tons. M. Bartholdi, in his report ito the French government, said that it belonged to the category of works of art, by the general beauty of its effect, and its perfect balance to the eye. Mr. Corliss invented many other ingenious devices, among which is a machine for cutting the cogs of bevel- wheels, an improved boiler, with condensing ap- paratus for marine-engines, and pumping-engines for water-works. He was a member of the Rhode Island legislature in 1808-'70. and was a republi- can presidential electoi- in 1876. The Institute of France gave him, in 1878, the Montyon prize for that year, the highest honor for mechanical achieve- ment, and in February, 1886, the king of Belgium made him an " Officer of the Order of Leopold."

CORMIER, Charles, Canadian senator, b. in St. Gregoire le Grand, jn'ovince of Quebec, 22 June, 1813. He is a grandson of Fran9ois Cormier, who emigrated from France to Nova Scotia. He is a mill-owner, and has been mayor of Plessisville, president of the commissioner's court, and of the school commissioners. He was a member of the legislative council of Canada from 1862 until the union in 1867, when he was called to the senate.

CORNBURY, Edward Hyde, Lord, colonial governor of New York, d. in London, England, 1 April, 1723. He was the eldest son of the second Earl of Clarendon, and was one of the first officers of the household troops to abandon the cause of his uncle by marriage, James II., in 1688, and join the standard of the Prince of Orange and the Princess Anne, his cousin ; in reward for which service he was appointed governor of New York and New Jersey. He arrived in New York city, 3 May, 1702. The assembly, which was largely com- posed of Orange partisans, the followers of Leisler, welcomed the new governor, voted him £2,000 to pay the expenses of his voyage, and provided a revenue for the public service for seven years in advance. Although Cornbury had been educated at Geneva, he was a foe to Presbyterianism, and the colonists soon found that he was an arrogant and bigoted upholder of despotic power and more dishonest and rapacious than any of the governors that had preceded him. After £1,500, voted in April, 1708, for the specific purpose of fortifying the Narrows, had been misappropriated, the assem- bly in June petitioned for a treasurer of its own nomination. Lord Cornbury declared that the as- sembly had no rights but such as her majesty was l^leased to allow them, yet the queen in 1704 ac- knowledged the right to make specific appropria- tions, and perniitted the appointment of a treasurer to take charge of extraordinary grants. The gov- ernor denied the right of ministers or school-teach- ers to practise their professions without a special license from him. He even forged a standing in- struction in order to favor the English church. In Jamaica, L. I., he gave to the Episcopalians the church that had been built by the towns-people ; but the colonial courts reversed the decree. A Presbyterian clergyman, who was tried for preach- ing without a license, was acquitted by an Episco palian jury. In New Jersey the assembly was as firm in resisting the governor's demands for money