Page:Brooklyn Daily Eagle - 1915-09-20 - page 18 - Cornelius J. Field dies of Typhoid.jpg



Cornelius James Field, 53 years old, a widely known mechanical and electrical engineer, died on Saturday from typhoid fever, at his residence, 825 Prospect place, where his funeral services, this evening, will be conducted by the Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, pastor of the Central Congregational Church. The interment tomorrow, will be in Kensico Cemetery.

Mr. Field was at the time of his death interested in engineering work for English sugar companies in Cuba. He was formerly chief engineer and superintendent of the Edison Company of Brooklyn and was known throughout the country as an expert in electrical construction matters. He was the first chief engineer of the old Edison United Manufacturing Company



and superintended the construction of the first central station for the distribution of electrical energy, located in Brooklyn, and in doing so solved many of the problems connected with the wiring of the streets of a great community for illuminating purposes. Mr. Field resigned his position with the Edison Manufacturing Company to take charge of the Brooklyn station as its chief engineer and general manager.

In 1891 he resigned to enter construction work, and for the next few years was engaged in extensive and important operations. He built electric railroads and electric street systems in Buffalo, Newark, N. J.; Worcester, Mass.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Philadelphia and other cities throughout the Eastern States. During this period, as engineer and contractor, he constructed about five hundred miles of electric railways, a record that has seldom been equaled. He had by this time gained a wide reputation as an expert in his chosen field, and in 1895 became consulting engineer for large banking and railroad interests. He served in this capacity for the ensuing ten years. In 1905 he went to Europe and to the West Indies on construction work, building many miles of railroad and several large sugar plants.

Mr. Field then went to London and Paris to study the omnibus system of those cities in behalf of the traction interests with which he was connected. He made a thorough investigation of the matter and returned to America in 1909.

It was at this time that he was sent for by Thomas A. Edison. Mr Edison had perfected his storage battery, and it had been proved to be practical in connection with a modern street car. To Mr. Field he entrusted the development of the bus end of the business, and the latter, perceiving its immense possibilities, became an enthusiastic exponent of the idea. The omnibus which he finally adopted as suitable for city traffic was 22 feet long, 7 feet wide and 10 feet high. The weight of the bus was 7,500 pounds and of the the batteries 1,800 pounds, the equipment being 72 Edison batteries and two 7-horsepower electric motors with a large overload capacity. This vehicle was designed to carry twenty-nine passengers fifty to seventy-five miles on one charge, equal to half a day's service, at a speed of fifteen to twenty miles an hour. A bus can be operated in this manner for one-third less than a gasoline bus, while vehicles of this type can be built on 20 per cent. of the capital of a trolley company.

Mr. Field was born in Chicago, Ill., on January 4, 1862, the son of Cornelius R. and Sarah Elizabeth Harvey Field. He was educated in the primary schools of that city and was graduated from Stevens Institute as a mechanical engineer. He had lived most of his lifetime in Brooklyn, and was a member of the Washington Avenue Baptist Church. He was a former president of the Stevens Institute Alumni Association.

Mr. Field was a brother-in-law of Supreme Court Justice Frederick E. Crane and the brother of Frank Harvey Field, the well known lawyer and publicist, at present one of the commission appointed by Mayor Mitchel to consider the city's tax problems, and long identified with the Board of education. Mr. Field is survived by his wife, formerly Miss Agnes M. Craven; four daughters, Gertrude, Edith, Ethelwynne and Olive; his brother and two sisters, Mrs. Edward F. Stevens, wife of the librarian of the Pratt Institute Library, and Mrs. Virginia Birdsall, widow of Dr. Albert T. Birdsall.