Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/391

 EADS

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EADS, James Buchanan, engineer, was born in Laurenceburg, Ind., May 23, 1830. He re- moved with his parents to St. Louis, Mo., in 1843, and while en route they lost their entire household goods by fire, which calamity made it necessary for the boy to devote his time to lielp support- the destitute family. He spent his evenings in study and acquired a fair knowledge of engineering without the aid of teacliers. While purser on a Mississippi steamboat he constructed the model of a boat on the principle of the div- ing-bell, which in 1840 he put into prac- tical operation in re- covering the cargoes of sunken freight boats and finally in floating the boats with their cargo by means of- pmnps which discharged the sand and water weighting them down. He sold out his inventions in 1845 and erected in St. Louis the first glassworks established in the Mississippi valley. In this he failed to Inake money and he resumed the wrecking bvisiness. In 1856 he proposed to congress a scheme by which he agreed to keep the channels of the west- em rivers clear of wrecks, snags and other ob- structions to navigation for a term of years. His proposition was accepted by the house but was not acted on by the senate. In 1861 he proposed to the war department the practicability of em- ploying light draft iron-clad gunboats in western rivers and withm 100 days constiaict- ed eight such vessels which were accepted by the govern- ment and were first used by Commodore Foote in the capture of Fort Henry, Feb. 6, 1862, over one month before the Jlonitor encoimtered the Merri- mac in Hampton Roads, Va. He also constructed the monitor and gimboats with revolving turrets, operated by steam, used in the capture of the various forts on the banks of the Mississippi river and in Mobile bay. He constructed the steel arch railroad bridge across the Mississippi river at St.

Louis, 1867-74, and liis method of building by the aid of caissons the granite pillars supporting the central arch, which had a clear span of 520 feet, was afterward generally adopted by bridge build- ers. This bridge, built at a cost of $6,536,72'J.99, was opened to the public on July 4, 1874. He then proposed to the government the deepening of the entrance to the Mississippi river Ijy means of jetties. This suggestion was ridiculed by scien- tific engineers, but congress finally made an appro- priation for the improvement of the South Pass, and on July 4, 1874, Eads satisfied the U.S. inspect- ing officer that he had obtained the maximum depth proposed. "With his theorj- thus practi- cally demonstrated he outlined to congi-ess in 1879 the practicability of extending the deep water channel from his jetties at South Pass to the mouth of the Ohio, and in 1880 the Mississippi river commission was appointed, of which he was made a member, and an appropriation was made for continuing the work. After extending the improvements for a distance up the river congress discontinued the. appropriation, but the work al- ready done demonstrated the feasibility of the entire project. On failing to receive the support promised by congress ]Mr. Eads interested himself in the projected ship railway across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, and secured from the U.S. senate in 1887 favorable action on a bill to incorporate a private company for carrying out the project. AVhile so engaged he was employed by the several authorities to devise and report upon means for deepening the St. John's river, Florida, the Sacramento river, California, the harbor at Toronto, Canada, the harbors of Brazil, the entrance to the ports of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the estuary and port of Mersey, England. He also visited and inspected the great engineer- ing accomplishments made to the canals and rivers of Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1884 he was awarded the Albert prize medal given by the Society for the encouragement of arts, manufact- ures and commerce, organized in 1754, the first American so honored; was president of the St. Louis academy of sciences, 1872-74; vice-president of the American society of civil engineers, 1882- 83; and a member of the National academj- of sciences from 1872. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of the state of Missouri in 1877. See Addresses and Papers of James B. Eads together with a Biographical Sletch (18S4). He died at Xassau. X.P., March 3, 1887. EAQAN, Charles Patrick, soldier, was born in Ireland in January, 1841. He immigrated to the United States and settled in San Francisco, Cal., where he was educated. He entered the