Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/393

 STEVENS 381 became surgical dresser and afterward house surgeon in the New York hospital. In 1817 he was appointed attending surgeon there, and in 1839 resigned and. was chosen consulting surgeon. He was professor of the principles and practice of surgery in the college of physi- cians and surgeons, New York, from 1826 to 1837, and of clinical surgery from 1837 to 1839. He was also president of the college from 1843 to 1855. In 1848 he was chosen president of the medical society of the state of New York. STEVENS, George Alexander, an English author, born in London in the early part of the 18th century, died at Baldock, Hertfordshire, Sept. 6, 1784. He was at first a strolling actor, and acquired reputation as a writer of burlesques and of comic songs. In 1760 he published a novel, "The History of Tom Fool," and a few years later produced an entertainment en- titled "A Lecture on Heads." He also pub- lished a volume of " Songs, Comic and Satiri- cal" (1772); and after his -death appeared " The Adventures of a Speculist, compiled from the Papers of G. A. Stevens, with his Life, a Preface, and Notes " (1788). STEVENS. I. John, an American inventor, born in New York in 1749, died in Hoboken, N. J., in 1838. He early engaged in solving the problem of steam navigation, and in a memorial to the legislature of New York in 1789 stated that he had perfected his plans. In 1804 he launched a propeller, using the screw, and in 1805 he employed twin screws. He completed the steamboat Phoenix in 1807, and being prevented by Fulton's monopoly >from navigating the Hudson, he sent the ves- sel to sea and up the Delaware. Her engines were high-pressure condensing, and the boil- ers of the kind now called sectional. Neither these nor either single or twin screws were generally employed by engineers until many years afterward. In 1812 he designed a cir- cular iron-clad or revolving steam battery with armor plating, substantially the same as those recently designed by the late John Elder, and like those now constructing for the Kussian navy; and in the same year .he published a pamphlet on railroads, indicating the mode of applying steam, calculating their cost, and pre- dicting the speed of trains. He planned the Camden and Amboy railroad. II. Robert Liv- ingston, son of the preceding, born in Hoboken, N. J., in 1788, died there, April 20, 1856. He had charge of his father's steamboat the Phoe- nix in its passage to the Delaware, and in 1808 introduced concave water lines in her hull, the first application of the wave line to ship build- ing ; and he was afterward largely engaged in building steamboats. In 1813-'14 he invented and sold to the government percussion elonga- ted shells for smooth-bore guns; in 1818 he burned anthracite coal in a cupola furnace, and soon after used it in his steamers. In 1822 he substituted the skeleton wrought-iron work- ing beam for the heavy cast-iron one before in use; and during the next 27 years he made numerous other improvements in steam ma- chinery and navigation. In 1836 he introduced the T rail on the Camden and Amboy railroad, of which he was president for many years. In 1842 he was commissioned by the United States government to build an iron-plated war steamer or battery, to be shell-proof and driv- en by screws. (See IRON-CLAD SHIPS.) In consequence of a change of his plan, it was unfinished at his death. III. Edwin Augustus, brother of the preceding, born in Hoboken in 1795, died in Paris, France, Aug. 7, 1868. With his brothers he established lines of steam passenger and tow boats on the Hudson and other rivers. He also made several inven- tions and improvements in machinery and naval architecture. At the opening of the civil war he endeavored, in conjunction with his brother James C., to induce the govern- ment to take and put in service the iron-clad battery begun by Eobert L. Stevens, offering to complete the ship at their own expense, pay- ment only to be made in case of her success. For the purpose of showing the feasibility of their plans, they fitted out the small iron-clad Naugatuck, and sent her into action ; she took part in the engagement on the James river, and rendered valuable assistance. The government declined the offer, and Edwin A. Stevens left at his death $1,000,000 for the completion of his brother's plans. The amount proved insuf- ficient, however, and the vessel was sold to the United States navy in November, 1874, by the state of New Jersey, to which he had be- queathed it. Congress having failed to make the appropriation for the purchase, the vessel still remains (1876) in dock at Hoboken. Mr. Stevens possessed an immense fortune. He endowed the Stevens high school at Hoboken, and at his death left nearly $1,000,000 for the purpose of founding the Stevens institute of technology. (See HOBOKEN.) STEVENS. I. Joseph, a Belgian painter, born in Brussels about 1819. He is the son of a French officer, is self-taught, and resides alter- nately at Paris and Brussels, and is distin- guished for his pictures of animals, especially dogs, and also for his genre paintings. II. Alfred, a Belgian painter, brother of the pre- ceding, born in Brussels in 1828. He com- pleted his studies under Roqueplan in Paris, and has made himself known by his genre pictures, such as "The Visit," "The Pink Lady," and " The Love of Gold." STEVENS, Thaddeus, an American statesman, born at Peacham, Caledonia co., Vt., April 4, 1793, died in Washington, D. 0., Aug. 11, 1868. His parents were poor, and he was lame and sickly from childhood; but he qualified him- self by hard study to enter college, and gradu- ated with honor at Dartmouth in 1814. He went immediately to York, Pa., where he taught school and studied law, and soon obtained a large practice. He kej)t aloof from politics till the election of Jackson in 1828, against whom he took part with great ardor, and became -an