Cyrus Alger
{{Short description|American arms manufacturer and inventor (1781-1856)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cyrus Alger
| image = Cyrus-alger.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1782|11|11}}
| birth_place = West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1856|02|04|1782|11|11}}
| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Metallurgist
| known_for = “Columbiad”
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- Lucy Wills (1st)
- Mary Otis Pittsbury (2nd)
}}
}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}}
Cyrus Alger (11 November, 1782 – 4 February, 1856) was a United States arms manufacturer and inventor.
Biography
He was born between Hephzibah Keith and Abiezer Alger on November 11, 1782, in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts.{{Cite book |last=Alger |first=Arthur M. (Arthur Martineau) |url=http://archive.org/details/genealogicalhist00alge |title=A genealogical history of that branch of the Alger family which springs from Thomas Alger of Taunton and Bridgewater, in Massachusetts. 1665-1875 |date= |publisher=D. Clapp & Son |others=Boston Public Library |year=1876 |location=Boston |pages=}}"Vital records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to the year 1850." FamilySearch. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9C5-7L5?i=15)
Early in life Alger became an iron founder, training in one of his father's three foundries in the Boston area, in Easton, Massachusetts.{{Cite book|title=Networked machinists : high-technology industries in Antebellum America|author=Meyer, David R.|date=2006|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=9780801889226|location=Baltimore|oclc=213305500}} In 1809, he worked with Thomas Handasyd Perkins, likely tied to Perkins's interest in the Monkton Iron Works in Vergennes, Vermont. Initially Monkton aimed to provide iron to American consumers while the Embargo stymied foreign competition. While the Embargo's end threatened business, the War of 1812 created a new market for Monkton. The company supplied the American government with large numbers of cannon balls as well as iron to join the timbers in constructing frigates.{{Cite book|title=Mastering Iron|last=Knowles|first=Anne Kelly|date=2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226448596|doi = 10.7208/chicago/9780226448619.001.0001}}
In 1817 Alger incorporated the South Boston Iron Company in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Through his firm's success, the region became a hub for iron manufacturing.
File:Cyrus Alger & Co. No. 20 mortar - DSC05846.jpg
Alger was one of the best practical metallurgists of his time. His numerous patents of improved processes show a continued advance in the art. The first gun ever rifled in America was made at his works in 1834, and the first perfect bronze cannon was made at his foundry for the U. S. ordnance department, The mortar “Columbiad,” the largest gun of cast iron that had then been made in the United States, was cast under his personal supervision.{{Cite book|title=Appleton's cyclopedia of American biography|editor=Wilson, James Grant |editor2=Fiske, John|date=1888–89|publisher=D. Appleton and Co|oclc=55119437}}
Alger also devised numerous improvements in the construction of time fuses for bomb shells and grenades. In 1811 he patented a method of making cast-iron chilled rolls, and in 1822 first designed cylinder stoves. Alger served as a member of the city council during the first year of its existence, and was elected alderman in 1824 and 1827.
He died on February 4, 1856, in Boston, Massachusetts."Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-9975-M9ZG?view=explore : Jun 9, 2024), image 32 of 677; Boston (Massachusetts). City Registrar. He is buried at the Mount Auburn Cemetery with his family.
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{Appletons'|wstitle=Alger, Cyrus|year=1900}}
External links
- {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Alger, Cyrus |volume= 1 |pages= 77 |short=1}}
- [http://www.cannonsuperstore.com/alger.htm Extremely Rare Bronze Model 1835 12 Pound Mountain Howitzer], cannonsuperstore.com [https://web.archive.org/web/20160125004317/https://www.cannonsuperstore.com/alger.htm Archived]
- [https://sites.google.com/site/suvcw43/blissfield-monument Blissfield Monument] via sites.google.com
- [http://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/2013/01/algers-gun-works.html Alger's Gun Works], goodoldBoston.blogspot.com
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Category:19th-century American inventors
Category:American metallurgists
Category:People from West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Category:Businesspeople from Boston
Category:19th-century American businesspeople