Julius Erasmus Hilgard, of a distinguished family,' was born at Zweibrücken in the Palatinate, in 1825, and settled with his father at Belleville, Illinois, in 1835. Studying civil engineering at Philadelphia, J. E. Hilgard attracted the attention of Alexander B. Bache, who was then reorganizing the United States Coast Survey. After being appointed to take charge of a party to make trigonometric, astronomic, and magnetic observations, Hilgard soon rose to be chief of the Bureau of the Coast Survey with headquarters at Washington. During the war he fulfilled. with great ability the task of supplying information on topography, geography, geology, and tidal currents. When Professor Bache retired, in 1864, the whole work of the coast survey was in Mr. Hilgard's hands for three years. After that he gave the greater part of his attention to the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and advocated the adoption of the metric system. He made the first reliable determination of the difference of longitude between Washington, Greenwich, and Paris, and in 1872 was the official representative of the United States at the international convention at Paris for forming an international

1 His father, Theodor Erasmus Hilgard, at home a prominent jurist, and a judge (1831-1835) of the Bavarian Court of Appeals, was at Belleville a successful "Latin farmer," viticulturist, and man of letters. He paid still more attention to the rearing of his sons, each of whom became distinguished in his particular profession. In 1851 he was invited by the Bavarian government to take part in recasting the law of mortgages. He died in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1873. The career of the youngest son, E. W. Hilgard, professor of agriculture and founder of the Experiment Station, University of California, has been outlined in the previous chapter (11). Theodore Charles Hilgard, the second son, after studying medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Zurich, Vienna, and Berlin, settled down as a physician in St. Louis, subsequently removing to New York. He was an investigator of great note; his papers are published in the proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One of his earliest treatises was his fundamental work: Experimental Observations on Taste and Smell (1854).

bureau of weights and measures. In 1881 Hilgard became the superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, a position which he resigned in 1885. One of the original members of the National Academy of Sciences, he was for seven years its secretary. In 1874 he was honored with the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His publications and his active service have been epoch-making in the departments of the Coast Survey, and Weights and Measures.

Men of German descent born in the United States soon figured prominently. A. P. Boller (born in Philadelphia) built a large number of bridges, among others the Central Avenue Bridge, Newark, New Jersey, the viaduct1 over the Harlem River (125th Street, New York), the FourTrack Duluth-Superior Bridge, and the Thames River Bridge at New London, Connecticut, noted for its great double-track draw-span, five hundred and three feet long. Another bridge-builder is R. Khuen (born at Saginaw, Michigan), chief engineer (Pittsburg district) of the American Bridge Company since 1901.

An important name in railway engineering is that of Herman Haupt, born in Philadelphia, in 1817, and a graduate of West Point. He was general superintendent, chief engineer, and director of the Pennsylvania Railroad; engineer of the Hoosac Tunnel, 1847-1861; brigadier-general and chief of bureau, United States Military Railways, in the Civil War; general manager of the Piedmont Air

1

"This is nearly forty-five hundred feet in length, cost upward of two million dollars, and is not only noted for its architectural character but, constructively, as one of the most difficult works in engineering, both in the foundation difficulties overcome and in its unprecedented draw-span, weighing twenty-four hundred tons, the largest moving mass in the world; being double the weight of the New London draw previously mentioned." The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, vol. ix, pp. 43–44.

Line, 1875; later he was engineer of the Tide Water PipeLine Company, and general manager of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Frank J. Hecker (born in Michigan, in 1846) was chief of the division of transportation of the army during the Spanish-American War, and a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 1904. Noted German names among railway engineers and officials are Kniskern (since 1901 passenger traffic manager of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad); Henry Fink (born in Germany), president of the Norfolk and Western Railway; R. Blickensderfer (general manager of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, etc.); J. Kruttschnitt (general manager of the Southern Pacific, etc.); G. J. Lydecker, military engineer, brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious service in the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, engaged as engineer in river and harbor work at Galveston, New Orleans, Chicago, etc.

The list of members of the American Society of Civil Engineers abounds in German names, and the biographical sketches contained in the publications of that eminent society show most prominent as a class the engineers born in Germany, or of German descent. A few more examples will illustrate this point: Lewis Mühlenberg Haupt (son of Herman Haupt), professor of civil engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1872-1892, member of the Isthmian Canal Commission since 1899, chief engineer on the survey for a ship canal across New Jersey, etc.; G. Y. Wisner, member of the United States Deep Water Ways Commission, 1897-1900; E. Wegmann, engaged in railway construction, 1871-1884, and on the new waterworks for New York since 1884; E. A. Hermann, since 1899 member of the Board of Public Improvements and Sewer Commissioner, St. Louis; J. K. Freitag, New England

representative of the Hecla Iron Works; John Bogart, engineer, hydraulic and electric development of power at Niagara Falls, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Lawrence River, etc.; W. P. Gerhard, sanitary engineer on staff of state architect of New York, 1892-1899; Henry Wehrum, builder of the immense Lackawanna Steel Works, at Buffalo; W. G. Berg, chief engineer, Lehigh Valley Railroad; M. Bein, an authority on matters of irrigation in the West; O. H. Ernst, Spanish War veteran, distinguished for work at Galveston, and reappointed member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 1905; D. M. Stauffer, railway engineer and editor of the "Engineering News," New York, since 1883. Spencer Miller has made inventions facilitating the coaling of vessels at sea. Count Ferdinand Zeppelin made his first experiments with the dirigible war balloon in this country, while serving in an engineering corps during the Civil War. Theodore P. Shonts, late chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, is of Dutch descent.

1

The most prominent of all the numerous German electrical engineers is Charles P. Steinmetz, born in Breslau, Germany, 1865. Steinmetz left Germany because of difficulties resulting from his socialistic writings. Coming to America, he had to meet the whip of ill fortune before his real worth and the bent of his genius were discovered. Since then, his laboratory at Schenectady, in the works of the General Electric Company, has become the scene of some of the most searching investigations and brilliant discoveries made within recent times. As an investigator and inventor, Steinmetz is the peer of Edison. His official

1 Cf. The Miller Cableway for Coaling Vessels at Sea, Engineering News, 1900; The Problem of Coaling Vessels at Sea, Engineering Magazine, February, 1900.