Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/26

 BRUSH.

BRUSH.

Jersey .sanitary association. The University of the city of New York conferred upon him tiie de- gree of B.S. and C.E. in 1867, and of M.S. in 1878. He is tlie author of numerous contributions to the Transactions of scientific associations, includ- ing : Roads (1878) ; Aeration of Water (1886) ; Friction, Waste and Loss of Water in Mains (1888) ; One Way of Obtaining Brine (1890) ; Aerafionoii a Gravity Water Supply (IS9\), and Vertical Gates on Force Mains (1892). He died in New Yorli city, June 3. 1897.

BRUSH, Charles Francis, electrical engineer, was born at Euclid, Cuj-ahoga county, Ohio. March 17, 1849. His ancestors came from England in 1630 and 1656. His early years were spent at work on his father's farm. While quite young he devised experiments at home and at school that indicated his special taste for chemistry, physics, and engineering. At the age of thirteen he entered the Shaw academy at Collamer, Ohio, where he made his first experiments with static electrical machines, electro-magnets, and bat- teries, all of his own construction. Early in 1864 he entered the Cleveland high school, where he became much interested in the subject of micro- scopes and telescopes. He constructed every part of these instruments, even to grinding the lenses. In the same year he devised a plan for lighting and turning off gas on street lamps by electricity. He also constructed a number of induction coils, and did some very creditable dry-plate photo- graphic work, a process then almost unknown. During his high school course he passed a rigid examination in physics, and during his senior year, the physical and chemical apparatus be- longing to the school was placed in his charge. At this early time he constructed an electric motor, having its field magnets as well as its armature excited bj^ the battery current. He also produced his first electric arc light, with a lamp and battery of his own construction. The subject of his ";raduating oration was " The Con- servation of Force." Having graduated from the Cleveland high school in June, 1867, Mr. Brush, in September, entered the University of Michigan, where he took a course of study par- ticularly suited to his tastes, and was graduated in 1869, being one year in advance of his class. Returning to Cleveland he organized a laboratory and conducted the business of an analytical and consulting chemist for about three years. Dur- ing this period he was employed as expert in several important litigations involving questions of chemistry. In the spring of 1873 he engaged in business with C. E. Bingham, dealing in Lake Superior and other pig-irons and iron-ores, and continued his electrical investigations, and early in 1876 completed his first dynamo-electric ma- chine. After 1877 Mr. Brush devoted his entire

attention to electricid inventions and constructed a commercial arc lamp, which was followed by his series arc-lamp. He also invented and pat- ented copper-plate carbons, automatic cut-outs ; a compound series-shunt winding for dynamo- electric macliines, and a multiple carbon arc- lamp. He sold these patents to a London com- pany in 1880. for nearly $500,000. He establislied the Brush Electric Company at Cleveland, Ohio ; became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the British association of that name. He re- ceived the degree Ph. D. from Western Reserve luiiversity in 1880, and LL.D. in 1900, and was decorated a chevalier of the legion of honor in 1881. BRUSH, George de Forest, artist, was born at Shelby ville. Tenn.. Sept. 28. 1855, son of Alfred Clark Brush. He was educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and under Gerome in Paris, and on his return to the United States opened a studio in New York city. He was awarded tlie first Hallgarten prize in 1888 ; a medal at the World's Columbian exposition in Chicago in 1893, and the Temple gold medal at the Pennsylvania academy of fine arts in 1897. He was a inember of the Society of American Artists, and of the Artists' Fund Society, and was elected a National Acade- mician in 1902. He exhibited The Ai^tist and Motlier and Child attiie Paris Expo.sition in 1900, where he received a gold medal.

BRUSH, George Jarvis, mineralogist, was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 15, 1831. His fondness for scientific research was developed while he was a student of Theodore S. Gold at West Cornwall, Conn. Upon leaving the acad- emy, he entered a counting-house in New York city, and had acquired two years' business ex- perience, when he attended a course of lectures on agriculture at Yale, he having decided to become a farmer. His fondness for chemistry and mineralogy now re-asserted itself, and after completing his course in agriculture, he re- mained at Yale two years studying his favorite branches. He was appointed assistant to Benja- min Silliman, Jr., professor of chemistry in the University at Louisville, Ky., in 1850, and in the following year accompanied the elder Silliman on an extended tour tlu-ough Europe. Return- ing to Y'ale in 1853 for examinations, he was one of six to receive the degree of Ph. B., the first time that degree was conferred by the college. The next thi'ee j'ears he spent in study at the University of Munich, the Royal mining academy of Saxony, and the Royal school of mines in London, after which he made an extended tour through the mines and smelting works of Eng- land, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, Germany and Austria. In 1857 he entered upon his duties as professor of metallurgy at the Y^ale soif^ntific