Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/346

 BLANCH A RD.

BLANCHARD.

BLANCHARD, Albert aallatin, sol.iior. was Ix.rn in Cliarlt'stowii. Mass.. in 1810. He was ^T-aiiuiiti'tl fnun West IV.int in ISOK. After serv- in>; on frontier duty and in recruit inj; service he resijjned with tlie rank of 1st lieutenant in 1840, and entered into business at New Orleans. In the Mexican war lie again entered the army as captain of a regiment of Louisiana volunteers, which he commanded at the battle of Monterey and the siege of Vera Cruz. He was admitted to the regular army with tlie rank of major. May 27. 1*47. and sorveil as sui>erintendent of recruiting service at New Orleans, in addition to his duties as conuiiander of his regiment, luitil the disband- ing of the troops in 1848. After the war he taught school for a time in New Orleans, and lat^r became connected with the surveying de- partments of several cities and railroads. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army with the rank of brigadier-general. Returning to New Orleans after the war he engaged as a civil engineer and surveyor. He died at New Orleans, La., Jmie 21, 1891. "

BLANCHARD, Charles A., educator, was born at Galesburg, Knox covmty, III., Nov. 8, 1848. He was educated at "Wheaton (111. ) college, of which his father was at that time president, graduating in 1870. For the two subsequent years he was general agent and secretary of the national Christian association, opposed to secret societies, and in this service lectured in nineteen different states and in Canada. He studied at the Chicago theological seminary, and was ordained pastor of the College church, Wheaton, in 1878, occupying the pulpit of this church for five years. He also preached statedly in the First Pre.sby- terian church, Paxton, 111., the Bridge street Con- gregational church, Streator, 111., and for more than a j'ear preached at the Chicago avenue church, Chicago, III. In 1872 he was made prin- ciijal of the preparatory department of Wheaton college, and occupied the ]X)sition until 1874, when he was appointed professor of English lan- guage and literature. In 1878 he was elected vice-president, and in 1882 president of the col- lege. He received the degree of D.D. from Monmouth college, June, 1896.

BLA.NCHARD, Newton Crain, senator, was bom in Rapides Parish, La., Jan. 29, 1849. He received an academic education, and was gradu- ated from the law department of the University of Louisiana in 1870. He began practice at Shreveport. La., in 1871. In 1^79 he was elected a delegate to the state constitutional convention. Sub8e<iuently he was appointed a state trustee of the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., and in 1880 was elected a repre.sentative from Louisiana to the 47th Congress, and to each suc- ceeding Congress up to and including the 53d,

from which he resigned to become United States senator, under apiKjintment from Governor Fo.ster to succeed Edward Douglass White, appointed associate justice of the U. S. supreme court, tak- ing his seat March 12, 1894. On the meeting of the state legislature in May, 1894, he was duly elected for the remainder of the term. He was instrumental in procuring from Congress an ap- propriation for building the long line of levees on the lower Mississippi river; also for securing in the river and harbor act of 1892 the authoriza- tion of the expenditure of ten million dollars in four years" time on the lower river.

BLANCHARD, Thomas, inventor, was born at Sutton, Mass., June 24, 1788; fifth son of Sam- uel Blanchard, a farmer. When thirteen years of age he in%-ented a machine for paring apples. He was soon after this employed by his brother in the making of tacks, and invented a machine to save himself the trouble of coimting the tacks. In his intervals of leisure he learned the use of blacksmith's tools, and also acquired skill in turning and carving wood, which proved useful in preparing the models of his inventions. At the end of six years of experiments he produced, in 1812, a machine which turned out five hun- dred tacks a minute, more perfectly than they could be made by hand. He sold the patent rights of this machine for five thotisand dollars, which enabled him to fit out a shop. He next invented a machine for turning and finishing gvm barrels at one oj^eration, the finishing hav- ing hitherto been accomplished by hand with much labor. He overcame the difficulty of turning the breech, which had two flat and two oval sides, by means of a wheel placed in the arbor of the lathe and operated by a lever. The government immediately ordered one of these machines for the United States armory, at Springfield, giving him a royalty of nine cents on every gun barrel turned by his lathe. He was employed at the armory for five years and made many improvements in the stocking of arms, inventing for this purpo.se as many as thirteen different machines. His next inven- tion was an eccentric lathe for turning irregular forms, one of the most valuable mechanical devices that has been given to the world, one of its applications being the pantagraph, an in- strument for reproducing statuary. He set up a pantagraph in Washington, and obtaining plaster ca.sts of the heads of Webster, Clay, Cal- houn and others, reproduced them in marble, and exhibited the bu.sts in the rotunda of the capitol. When it was found that these busts, which were as much like the original as any skilled hand could have shaped them, had been made by machine, the members of Congress were aston- ished, and when he asked for a renewal of his