Trowbridge
Trowbridge names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Trowbridge WILLIAM PETIT, an American engineer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM PETIT, an American engineer; born near Bir- 28; was mingham, Mich., May 25 , 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 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.
Trowbridge JOHN, an American scientist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN, an American scientist; born in Boston, Mass., in 1843; was graduated at the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University, in 1865; served as instructor there in 1866-1869 . He was assistant Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- He afterward nology in 1869-1870. founded a laboratory course in physics at Harvard University and was Professor of Experimental Physics in 1880-1888. In the latter year he accepted the chair of applied science in the same institution. In 1878 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and in 1883 was a delegate to the International Congress of Electricians. He was the author of "The New Physics"; "What is Electricity?" "Three Boys on an Electrical Boat"; "The Electrical Boy"; "Philip's Experiments, or Physical Science at Home"; and of many papers on physics and more especially on electricity.
Trowbridge JOHN TOWNSEND, an American author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN TOWNSEND, an American author; born in Ogden , N. Y., Sept. 18, 1827. He began his literary career in 1846 by writing for the magazines, and in 1850 became editor of "The Yankee Nation," and co-editor with Lucy Larcom and Gail Hamilton , of "Our Young Folks." Among his most popular works are: " Neighbor Jackwood" (1857); "Cudjo's Cave " (1863); "Coupon Bonds, etc." (1872); "His Own Master" (1877); "The Tinkham Brothers' Tide-Mill" (1882); the "Jack Hazard Stories, etc."; "The Kelp Gatherers" (1890); "The Scarlet Tanager" (1891); "Woodie Thorpe's Pilgrimage" (1893 ) ; "The Lottery Ticket" (1895 ); (1895); "The Prize Cup" (1896); " Two Biddicut Boys, etc." (1898); also several volumes of poems, among them "The Vagabonds and Other Poems" (1869 ); "The Book of Gold" (1877); "The Lost Earl" (1888). He died in 1916.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
All three men were already at or near the end of their careers when Collier's compiled these sketches in 1921, so the biographical facts still stand; only one needs an ending added. John Trowbridge, described in the present tense as holding Harvard's chair of applied science, died in 1923 — he is remembered today less for boys' books like "Three Boys on an Electrical Boat" than for founding Harvard's laboratory teaching of physics and for high-voltage spark research. The claim that W. P. Trowbridge designed "the first cantilever bridge" no longer passes unchallenged: modern histories usually point to Heinrich Gerber's Hassfurt bridge over the Main (1867) and C. Shaler Smith's Kentucky River bridge (1877) as the pioneering examples, with the form's fame resting on the Forth Bridge (1890) and the twice-collapsed Quebec Bridge (finished 1917). J. T. Trowbridge's antislavery novel "Cudjo's Cave" (1863) sold in the hundreds of thousands but is now read almost exclusively by scholars, who value him mainly as an early first-hand witness to Walt Whitman.
Written for this edition, 2026.