COPELAND

COPELAND 11.02. 1815 Coventry CT/USA 05.02. 1895 Brooklyn NY/USA Charles Wilson Copeland was the son of a builder of steam engines and boilers at Hartford. Under his guidance, the son received lessons in the profession which was to become his life work. These were followed by a course at Columbia College. He was appointed at age 21 superintendant of the West Point Foundry Association, beginning with the design of the machinery of the Fulton, the first steam war-vessel to be constructed under the direct supervision of the US Navy Department. In 1839 he received a government appointment under which he signed himself ‘Naval Engineer’, and was entrusted with the machinery designs for Mississippi and Missouri, among others. In 1850, this work for the government completed. Copeland was then appointed superintendent of the Allaire Works in New York City, where he designed and supervised a large number of merchant steamers, two of which broke the record of speed in transatlantic travels. During the Civil War, his experience as a marine engineer was used by the government in the adaptation of merchant steamers for service in the Southern blockade. After war, he became the constructing engineer for the US Lighthouse Board, which position he held almost to the time of his death. Copeland was simple and kindly in manner, frugal in personal economy, and untiring in industry. He was a lover and reader of books and a discriminating collector. He was life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE and maintained an interested and helpful relation to the work of this society. He was also a founding member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME. Anonymous (1895). Copeland, Charles W. Engineering and Mining Journal 59(Feb.16): 155. Anonymous (1895). Charles W. Copeland. Trans. ASME 16: 1191-1192. Anonymous (1895). Charles W. Copeland. J. American Society of Naval Engrs. 7(1): 201-202. Anonymous (1930). Copeland, Charles W. Dictionary of American biography 4: 423. Scribner: New York. Bennett, F.M. (1896). Charles W. Copeland. The steam navy of the United States: A history of the growth of the steam vessel of war in the US Navy, and of the Naval Engineer Corps: 36-37. Nicholson: Pittsburgh. P Shipman, W.D., Copeland, C.W. (1862). The Clark patent steam and fire regulator company versus Charles W. Copeland. Nesbitt: New York. Thurston, R.H. (1888). A manual of steam-boilers. Wiley: New York.