Charles Storer Storrow (25 March 1809 – 30 April 1904) was a prominent American

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. He is known for designing and building the dam and

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

complex in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Biography

Charles Storer Storrow was born in

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

, Canada, on March 25, 1809. From age 9 to 15 he attended Collége Royal de Bourbon (now

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

) in Paris, France, where his father had a business. In 1824 he returned to America and completed his secondary education at the

Round Hill School The Round Hill School for Boys was a short-lived experimental school in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was founded by George Bancroft and Joseph Cogswell in 1823. Though it failed as a viable venture — it closed in 1834 — it was an early effort ...

. He entered

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

as a sophomore in 1826 and graduated at the top of his class in 1829. His thesis was entitle
Of the Celestial Motions
On the advice of America's leading civil engineer at the time,

Loammi Baldwin Colonel Loammi Baldwin (January 10, 1744 – October 20, 1807) was a noted American engineer, politician, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. Baldwin is known as the Father of American Civil Engineering. His five sons, Cyrus ...

, he returned to Paris and spent two years (1830-1832) as an ''auditeur libre'' at

École des Ponts et Chaussées École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

where he studied

hydraulics Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...

under

Gaspard de Prony Baron Gaspard Clair François Marie Riche de Prony (22 July 1755 – 29 July 1839) was a French mathematician and engineer, who worked on hydraulics. He was born at Chamelet, Beaujolais, France and died in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. Educati ...

and

applied mechanics Applied mechanics is the branch of science concerned with the motion of any substance that can be experienced or perceived by humans without the help of instruments. In short, when mechanics concepts surpass being theoretical and are applied and e ...

under

Claude-Louis Navier Claude-Louis Navier (born Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier; ; 10 February 1785 – 21 August 1836) was a French mechanical engineer, affiliated with the French government, and a physicist who specialized in continuum mechanics. The Navier–Stok ...

. Returning to America in 1832, Storrow joined the engineering staff of the

Boston and Lowell Railroad The Boston and Lowell Railroad was a railroad that operated in Massachusetts in the United States. It was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in the state. The line later operated as part of the Boston and Maine ...

and went on to become the railroad's business agent in 1836. In 1845 Storrow left the Boston and Lowell to become the chief engineer at the Essex Company, a company organized to harness the water power of the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...

downstream from

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

. Storrow designed and built the

Great Stone Dam The Great Stone Dam (also called the ''Lawrence Dam'' or ''Lawrence Great Dam'') was built between 1845 and 1848 on the site of Bodwell's Falls on the Merrimack River in what became Lawrence, Massachusetts. The dam has a length of and a height of ...

across the Merrimack river, canals to distribute the water, several large

s, and a city,

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, to house the mill workers. He came up with the idea to make roads that go to the mills in Lawrence, allowing him to become the first mayor of Lawrence in 1853. Storrow's book, ''A Treatise on Water-Works for Conveying and Distributing Supplies of Water; with Tables and Examples'', introduced American civil engineers to the mathematical theory of hydraulics and put America hydraulic engineering on a strong scientific basis. Storrow also authored an extensive report on the Hoosac Tunnel and contributions to ''Lowell Hydraulic Experiments'', a book by his protégé,

James Bicheno Francis James Bicheno Francis (May 18, 1815 – September 18, 1892) was a British-American civil engineer, who invented the Francis turbine. Early years James Francis was born in South Leigh, near Witney, Oxfordshire, in England, United Kingdom. ...

. James J. Storrow, after whom Boston's

Storrow Drive Storrow Drive, officially James Jackson Storrow Memorial Drive, is a major crosstown parkway in Boston, Massachusetts, running east–west along the southern bank of the Charles River. It is restricted to cars; trucks and buses are not perm ...

is named, was Charles Storrow's grandson.

Honors

* Honorary Member, American Society of Civil Engineers * Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Storrow, Charles Storer 1809 births 1904 deaths Lycée Condorcet alumni Harvard College alumni American civil engineers Mayors of Lawrence, Massachusetts

Biography

Honors

Further reading

References