Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/343

Rh vised a mercurial air-pump giving an exhaustion of $$\tfrac{1}{388}$$ millionth of an atmosphere, a degree that ha- not been attained by other pumps up to the present time (1898). The methods of photometry that he has originated, and his investigations of phenomena that depend on the physiology of vision, are very ingenious, and he was the first to make quantitative experiments on color-contrast. Although not an artist by profession, he paints in water-colors, is frequently represented at the annual exhibitions, and has been a member of the American water-color society since its foundation in 1866. He was elected to 'the National academy of sciences in 1865, and in 1867 was vice-president of the American association for the advancement of science. The results of his various researches an- included in about sixty memoirs that have appeared in scientific journals, both in the United States and abroad, but chiefly in the "American Journal of Science." Sixteen nf his must important memoirs were originally read before the National academy of sciences, Prof. Rood has published "Modern Chromatics." a work that, besides presenting the fundamental facts as to perception of color, contains the results of numerous original investigations on the subject (New York, 1881).

ROORBACH, Orville Augustus, publisher, b. in Red Hook, Dutchess co.. N. Y.. 20 Jan., 1803; d. in Sehenectady, N. Y., 21 June, 1801. He was educated in Albany, opened a book-store in Charleston, S. C., about 1826, and was engaged in business there till 1845. During the latter part of that time he also carried on the book trade in New York city, whither he removed in 1845, and continued in that business till 1855, when he began to publish and edit the " Booksellers' Medium." He compiled and arranged the ' Bibliotheca Americana," a catalogue of American publications, in- cluding reprints and original works from 1820 till 1861 (4 vols., New York, 1852-'61).

ROOSA, Daniel Bennett St. John (ro-zah), phy-ifian, b. in Bethel. Sullivan co., N. Y., 4 April, ls:Vs His ancestor, Isaac, was a captain in the Continental army during the Revolution. Daniel entered Yale in" 1856, but left on account of the failure of his health, subsequently studied chemistry under Dr. John W. Draper in New York city, was graduated at the medical department of the University of New York in 1860, and became resident physician in the New York hospital in 1862. He studied abroad in 1863, devoting himself especially to ophthalmology and otology, and in 1864 settled in practice in New York city. He was professor of the diseases of the eye and ear in the medical department of the University of the city of New York from 1863 till 1882, occupied the same chair in the University of Vermont in 1875-'80, was a founder of the Manhattan eye and ear hospital, and is now (.1898) professor of those diseases in the New York post-graduate medical school, of whose faculty he is president. Dr. Roosa is a successful practitioner, eminent as a surgeon, and an acknowledged authority in the branch of his profession to which he has devoted himself, having performed the most difficult and delicate operations that occur in the prosecution of his specialty. He was president of the International otological society in 1876, and of the New York state medical society in 1879. Yale gave him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1872, and the University of Vermont that of LL. D. in 1880. He has translated from the German "Troltsch on the Ear" (New York, 1863), and. with Dr. Charles E. Hackley, "Stellwag on the Eye" (1867); and is the author of " Vest-Pocket Medical Lexicon" (New York, 1865); "Treatise on the Ear," republished in London and translated into German (1806); "A Doctor's Suggestions " (1880); and "On the Necessity of Wearing Glasses" (Detroit. 1887).

ROOSEVELT, Nicholas I., inventor, b. in New York city, 27 Dec., 1767; d. in Skaneateles, N. Y., 30 July, 1854. His ancestors were early citizens of New York. His father, Isaac, was a member of the New York provincial congress, the legislature, and the city council, and for many years was president of the Bank of New York. Nicholas was carefully educated. His connection with the invention of vertical steamboat paddle-wheels is described by John H. B. Latrobe in his &ldquo;Lost Chapter in the History of the Steamboat&rdquo; (Baltimore, Md., 1871). Mr. Latrobe's investigations show that, soon after the evacuation of New York by the British, Roosevelt returned to New York from Esopus, where he then resided, and where he had made a small wooden boat, across which was an axle projecting over the sides with paddles at the ends, made to revolve by a tight cord wound around its middle by the reaction of hickory and whalebone springs. In New York he engaged in manufacturing and inventing in that city, subsequently became interested in the Schuyler copper-mines in New Jersey on the Passaic river, and from a model of Josiah Hornblower's atmospheric machine completed a similar one, built engines for various purposes, and constructed those for the water-works of Philadelphia. He was also at the same time under contract to erect rolling-works and supply the government with copper drawn and rolled for six 74-gun ships. In 1797, with Robert R. Livingston and John Stevens, he agreed to build a boat on joint account, for which the engines were to be constructed by Roosevelt, and the propelling agency was to be that planned by Livingston. This experiment failed, the speed attained being only equivalent to about three miles an hour in still water. On 6 Sept., 1798, Roosevelt had fully described to Livingston a vertical wheel, which he earnestly recommended. This is the first practical suggestion of the combination that made steam navigation a commercial success, although four years later Robert Fulton believed that chains and floats were alone to be relied on. Livingston, however, had replied to Roosevelt's proposition on 28 Oct., 1798, that &ldquo;vertical wheels are out of the question.&rdquo; But in the spring of 1802, Livingston having communicated Roosevelt's plan to Fulton, they adopted the former's view, and in January of the next year launched a boat that was propelled by Roosevelt's vertical wheels. Roosevelt in the mean time became greatly embarrassed financially, the government failed to fulfil its contract with him, and he was unable to put his plans in operation. In 1809 he associated himself with Fulton in the introduction of steamboats on the western waters, and in 1811 he built and navigated the &ldquo;New Orleans,&rdquo; the pioneer boat that descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Pittsburg to New Orleans in fourteen days, he having previously descended both rivers in a flat-boat to obtain information. In January, 1815, he applied to the legislature of New Jersey for protection as the inventor of vertical wheels, for which he had obtained letters-patent from the United States in December, 1814. The legislature, after discussion, decided that &ldquo;it was inexpedient to make any special provision in connection with the matter in controversy before the body,&rdquo; and there the matter rested. Roosevelt's papers came into the possession of Richard S. Cox, his executor, from whom they were obtained in 1828, and from these, with others from the papers of Chancellor Livingston, a case was prepared and submitted to Roger B. Taney, which