Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/371

 DURFEE

DURFEE

of the state, and was chairman of the commission. The revision reported by it received the almost unanimous appi'oval of two successive General assemblies, but when submitted to the people failed of adoption by the three -fifths vote required, though there was a large majority in its favor. He was made a trustee of Brown university in 1875, was chancellor, 1879-88, and a fellow from 1888. He was married, Oct. 29, 1857, to Sarah J., daughter of John and Sarah (Tiffany) Slater, and had one son, Samuel Slater Durfee, Avho was graduated from Brown university in 1880 and became a lawyer in Providence. Judge Durfee received from Brown university the honorary degree of LL. D. in 1875. He published: Beports of Cases in Supreme Court of Ehode Island (2 vols., 1851-53j; Treatise on the Law of Jiighicays (with J. K. Angell, 1857); TJie Village Picnic, and Other Poems ( 1873); Gleanings from the Judicial History of Ehode lilaibd (1883); Some Thoughts on the Consti- tution of Bhode Island (1884); and Historical Dis- course on the 250th Anniversanj of the Planting of Providence (1887). In December, 1877, he deliv- ered an oration at the dedication of the Provi- dence county court-house, and in June. 1894, an oration at the dedication of the statue of Ebenezer Knight Dexter in Providence. He died in Provi- dence, June 6. 1901.

DURFEE, William Franklin, civil and me- chanical engineer, was born in New Bedford, Mass., Nov. 15, 1833; son of William and Alice (Talbot) Durfee; grandson of James Durfee of Fall River, Mass. , and of Silas Talbot of Dlghton, Mass.; and a descendant of Thomas Durfee, Revo- lutionary patriot, state senator and member of the exec- iitne council of Gov. f ^r-" 1 Jolm Hancock. He

\^ received a practical

^ training as a me-

dian ic and pursued a special course in en- ■^ \^pB^^, lence scientific school
 * ,' . \N«^^|Sg v^ »\ .^meeringintheLaw-

,j J of ILirvard. He was

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was associated with his father in the design and construction of the Gosnold iron works; was a representative in the state legislature, 1861, and secretary of the committee on militia in that body. Early in the civil war he designed a sub- merged gun for naval use that embraced all the essential features of that of the '' Destroyer," afterward designed by Jolm Ericsson, and had several important advantages over that gun.

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The government commission appointed to ex- amine the weapon pronounced it the best of the kind brought to their notice, but it was not adopted by the government and Mr. Durfee aban- doned further effort to introduce it. In June, 1862, he took charge of the designing and con- structing of experimental steel works at Wyan- dotte, Mich., for testing the invention of William Kelly for making steel, and in these experimen- tal works were made the first rail-steel ingots produced in America, and on May 25, 1865, these ingots were rolled into the first steel rails manu- factured in the United States, the work being done at a mill at North Chicago, 111., erected by Mr. Durfee. In connection with the works at Wyandotte he equipped the first analytical labo- ratory attached to steel works in the United States to determine the chemical composition of the crude materials used in the production of steel by the " Kelly "' or " Bessemer " process. He designed and constructed a rolling mill at North Chicago, the machine shop for the repair- ing of small arms at Cambridge, Mass., and the works of the Milwaukee iron company at Bay View, Wis. In 1869 he planned and built the works of the American silver steel company at Bridgeport, Conn., the first works in which gas was exclusively used as fuel by means of the Siemens regenerative furnace. In 1871 he was made general manager of the William Butcher steel works (soon after renamed the Mid- vale steel works), Philadelphia, Pa., and supervised the manufacture of the steel used in the St. Louis bridge, the first steel bridge erected in the United States. In 1873 he became general su- perintendent of the Milwaukee iron company's works at Bay View, Wis., where he introduced gas as a fuel. In 1875 he was a member of the board of judges of the Centennial exhibition and was assigned to "Group XXL," charged with the examination of machine tools for working iron, wood and stone, and for his service was awarded a special medal. In 1878-82 he designed special machinery for the Wheeler & Wilson manufacturing company, Bridgeport, Conn., and introduced many improved methods and enlarged their plant by erecting new buildings. While with this company he visited Europe where he studied the use of fuel-gas in the manufacture of copper and brass, and on his return he erected at Ansonia, Conn., the first gas furnace for refining copper erected in America. In 1885 he engi- neered the removal of a brick chimney eight feet square at its base and one hundred feet high, weighing 170 tons, a distance of thirty feet, to a new foundation, for the Bridgeport paper com- pany. In 1886 he was manager of the U.S. Mitis company which was engaged in the introduction of a process for the production of wrought iron