Henry Smith Craven (14 October 1845,

Bound Brook, New Jersey Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, located along the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 10,402,Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

) was an American inventor,

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and

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

Biography

He was a son of Thomas Tingey Craven, a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

officer. He studied in St. John's College,

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, and later in the scientific department of Hobart College, but did not graduate, since he entered the

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shortly before the close of the

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. He later received an honorary degree of B.S. from Hobart in 1878. He obtained employment on the Croton works in

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, but in 1866 went to California and became secretary, with the rank of lieutenant, to his father, then commanding the

North Pacific Squadron The Pacific Squadron was part of the United States Navy squadron stationed in the Pacific Ocean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially with no United States ports in the Pacific, they operated out of storeships which provided naval s ...

, and in 1869 was appointed assistant civil engineer of the navy yard at

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. This office he resigned in 1872, and then practiced his profession in

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until 1879. He was commissioned civil engineer in the U. S. Navy during the latter year, and ordered to

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is ...

, where he was occupied with the construction of the iron floating dock then building for the

Pensacola Navy Yard Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United State ...

. Later he was ordered to the navy yard at

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, and in July 1881, was sent to the navy yard at

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, and in September 1882, assigned to special duty at Coaster's Harbor Training Station. He was granted leave of absence in 1883, and took charge of the construction of the

new Croton aqueduct The New Croton Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system in Westchester County, New York carrying the water of the Croton Watershed. Built roughly parallel to the Old Croton Aqueduct it originally augmented, the new sys ...

in New York, up to March 1886. He invented an automatic trip for mining buckets (1876), and a tunneling machine (1883). He was a member of the

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References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craven, Henry Smith 1845 births 1889 deaths United States Navy officers American civil engineers 19th-century American inventors Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni