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Trowbridge (WILLIAM PETIT an American)

WILLIAM PETIT, an American engineer; born near Birmingham, Mich., May 25, 1828; was , 1828; at the United States Military Academy in 1848; served on the United States Coast Survey in 1851-1853; conducted tidal and magnetic observations on the Pacific coast in 1853-1856 ; taught in the University of Michigan in 1856; superintended the erection of a self-registering magnetic observatory in Key West in 1860; and was employed in the preparation of minute descriptions of the harbors, inlets, and rivers of the S. coast and in the supervision of the distribution of supplies to the Union army in 1861-1865. He was chief engineer in the construction of the fortifications at Willett's Point, on Governor's Island, and at other points, and was also for several years Professor of Engineering at Yale and Columbia Universities . He TROY was an expert on bridge construction.

Special recognition is due him for his design of the first cantilever bridge and for his invention of a high class coil boiler. He died in New Haven, Conn., Aug. 12, 1892.