Stevens Institute of Technology - Link Yearbook (Hoboken, NJ)

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Hoboken. This was the first engine and train that ever ran on a railroad in America -built by a. man verging on his eightieth year. Sucl1 a record as this, very few men are privileged to make. Of Colonel Stevens' eleven children, those who distinguished themselves most were John Cox, Robert Livingston and Edwin Augustus. Robert was born in 1787. When he was but seven- teen years of age he helped his father buildand fit out thefirst screw steamship. The first sea trip of a Steamship was cap- tained by Robert. five years later, when he took the Phoenix , a sidewheeler, from Hoboken to the Delaware. This trip was ,not made to establish a record, but it was rather one of necessity, Col. Stevens being unable, because of Fulton's Hudson River monopoly, to navigate on that river. 'It was now as a builder of steamships that Robert Stevens made himself famous, each successive boat being faster, until in 1832, with the handsome 'North Ameriea,' using forced draft, he attained a speed of fifteen miles an hour. For a quarter of a century, and while he gave his atten- tion to that line of work, he stood at the head of the naval engineering profession in this country: and his inventions and improvements up to 1840 were so valuable and numerous that a bare catalogue would fill pages. We may specify, for example, the invention. as early as 1818, of the cam-board cutoff, being the first use of steam cxpansively for navigation purposes: the universally prevalent forms of ferry-boat and ferry-slipg the overhanging guards: the fendersg the spring piling, the adoption of the walking beam in 1821: the invention of the split water wheel in 18Q6g the invention of the balance valve for beam engines in 18313 the location of the steam- boat boilers on the wheel guards: and the increase of strength in the boilers until they could stand fifty pounds to the square inch, although English naval engineers had got no further than five pounds as late as 184-8. Nothing could be sharper than the contrast between the lines of an ordinary steamboat and those of a fast clipper, yet it was Robert Stevens who designed and built in 18-H the 'Mariaf a yacht literally as fast as his steam- ers. She was the conqueror of the 'America', owned in part by John C. Stevens and Edwin A. Stevens, just before the lat- ter wcnt across the Atlantic to capture, in the Solent, the famous cup which now glist- ens on Uncle SZUIIVS sideboard. ow cmmrsrnn' tknoanouv LOOKING TH ROUGH GATE Y'11-wily-si.:

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auction. Baron Steuben was very anxious to ' purchase the island, but as he would not bid at l auction, the land was sold in 1784 for about 2l'S90,000, to Colonel John Stevens, who thus became the founder of Hoboken. : Colonel John Stevens was born in New York, in 174-9, of English lineage. Ile was a graduate of Kings College Cnow Columbia Uni- versityj in 1768, a member ofthe New York bar in 17713 'l'reasurer of New Jersey during the perilous days of the Revolution: and a pioneer citizen alike of New York and Hoboken. where he located his family estate. He was not forty years of age when he saw Jolm Fitch's steamboat making headway against the tide on the Dela- ware. off Burlington, N. J.. and was at once seized with enthusiasm for the new means of locomotion. He studied the boat and her mechanism. and in 1792, under the new patent system he had himself petitioned into existence, he took out patents for steam propulsion. E' Experiments were hotly pushed. and in 1708, nearly a decade before Fulton ran his 'Clermont'. Colonel Stevens as builder, owner, and captain, had a steamboat on the Hudson. The first condensing double-acting engine made on this continent, was built for this boat at the Soho works in lfelleville, N. J. Six years later he equipped with double screws another predecessor of Fulton's craft. 'l'he short four- bladed screw which he designed for these boats has shown great vitality against later comcrs. Colonel Jolm Stevens continued prolific in in- i vention and enterprise. He patented the mulli- tubular boiler in the United States in 1803, and in England in 1805, established in 181 1 , between Hoboken and New York, the first steam ferry in the world: in 1812, before work began on the Erie Canal, he urged on the State authorities of New York the superiority of a railroad: before 1812, with the aid of his son Robert, he made steam navigation on the Delaware a commercial success: in 1813 he designed an ironelad ship which fully embodied the 'Monitor' type, and which was the first ironelad ever worked out for construction, in 1813 also he put into operation the first of numerous double-hull ferryboats carrying a paddlewheel driven by circling horses, in 1817 he obtained a charter, the first in America, for a railroad from the Delaware to the Raritan: in 1823 he secured acts of legislature for the in- corporation of the Pennsylvania Railroad: and in 1826 he built a steam locomotive with multi- tubular boiler, which he operated on a circular track at twelve mifes per hour, carrying passengers at his own expense, on his own property at A 'all XLNS FOCNIJICR PRESIDENT MORTON 'it The Stevens Family-A Family ol' l'Inginccrs, by F. Deli. Furman. Twcn Iyf rc

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Col, John Stevens. inspired by his own success with steamboats, was early satisfied that he could do even better with steam on tracks. He had applied for charters: had operated experimentally his own locomotive, and had done all that was possible to educate public opinion on the subject. And now in 1830 came the incorporation of the famous Camden and Amboy Railroad,with Robert Stevens as its president and chief engineer, and Edwin A. l Stevens as its treasurer. The 'Y invention and development of the T-rail, the hooked spike, the tie piece and the bolts and nuts required to give rigidity to the tracks are all the result of Robert Stevens'mgenu1ty, while the formulation and mastery of conditions of railroad work at a time when there was no precedent are lasting tributes to the business sagaeity of Edwin A. Stevens. OLD FORGE SIIOI' VVhen Edwin A. Stevens became active business manager of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, all the intricate fundamental principles and methods had to be discovered or worked out, but his genius and training were all in the line of harmonious predisposition for the great task. A seventh son, he was born at Castle Point, Hoboken, in 1795. At the age of twenty-five, by family agreement, he became trustee of the bulk of the family estate. At the age of thirty he took charge of the huge transportation system known as the Union Line. At thirty-five he became the treasurer and manager of its offspring, this pioneer steam railroad, and at once there sprang into light and full vigor his splendid qualities of initiative, ability, and diplomacy. Merely to state that during the thirty-five years of his management of the Camden and Amboy Railroad its stock appreciated steadily in value and never passed a dividend, would be sufficient indication of masterly skill, but it tells a very significant part of the story. Not only had the 'property' to he created but it had to be - ' E - 1: ng conserved amid all the storms of political intrigue and com- mercial rivalryg through all the scenes of financial disaster and national trouble: despite all the vicissitudes due to the redistribution of population and shifting of industries. Mr. Stevens was a keen dis- cernerof ability in other men. allying himself with the best engineers of the time. He en- listed in the companys serv- ice, the best legal talent of the State, whereby he combated political onslaught and con- ciliated public sentiment. He saw the first pacts made om ELECTRIVAL 1.AuonA'1'om' T ivanty-seven