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Cyrus Alger (11 November 1781, in
Alger was one of the best practical
Extremely Rare Bronze Model 1835 12 Pound Mountain HowitzerBlissfield Monument
''And this is good old Boston'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Alger, Cyrus 1781 births 1856 deaths 19th-century American inventors American metallurgists People from West Bridgewater, Massachusetts Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Businesspeople from Boston 19th-century American businesspeople American Civil War artillery Inventors from Massachusetts
West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
West Bridgewater is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,707 at the 2020 census.
History
West Bridgewater was first settled in 1651 as a part of Olde Bridgewater. The town ...
– 4 February 1856, in Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
) was a United States arms manufacturer and inventor.
Biography
Early in life Alger became aniron founder An iron founder (also iron-founder or ironfounder) in its more general sense is a worker in molten ferrous metal, generally working within an iron foundry. However, the term 'iron founder' is usually reserved for the owner or manager of an iron foun ...
, training in one of his father's three foundries in the Boston area, in Easton, Massachusetts. 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
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
created a new market for Monkton. The company supplied the American government with large numbers of cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
balls as well as iron to join the timbers in constructing frigates.
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.
Alger was one of the best practical metallurgist
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
s 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.
Alger also devised numerous improvements in the construction of time fuses for bomb shells and grenade
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...
s. 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 is buried in Union Cemetery in South Boston.
See also
* Field artillery in the American Civil War *Siege artillery in the American Civil War
Siege artillery is heavy artillery primarily used in military attacks on fortified positions. At the time of the American Civil War, the U.S. Army classified its artillery into three types, depending on the gun's weight and intended use. ''Fie ...
Notes
References
*External links
*Extremely Rare Bronze Model 1835 12 Pound Mountain Howitzer
''And this is good old Boston'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Alger, Cyrus 1781 births 1856 deaths 19th-century American inventors American metallurgists People from West Bridgewater, Massachusetts Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery Businesspeople from Boston 19th-century American businesspeople American Civil War artillery Inventors from Massachusetts