Eckley Brinton Coxe
Eckley Brinton Coxe | |
---|---|
Pennsylvania Senate for the 21st district | |
In office 1881–1884 | |
Preceded by | Elijah Catlin Wadhams |
Succeeded by | Morgan B. Williams |
Personal details | |
Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | June 4, 1839
Died | May 13, 1895 Drifton, Pennsylvania, U.S. | (aged 55)
Political party | Democratic |
Eckley Brinton Coxe (June 4, 1839 – May 13, 1895) was an American
Coxe was instrumental in the formation of
He served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 21st district from 1881 to 1884.
Early life and education
Coxe was born on June 4, 1839, in Philadelphia to Charles Sidney Coxe (1791–1879) and Anna Maria Brinton (1801–1876). His great-great grandfather was Daniel Coxe, his grandfather was Tench Coxe[2] and his cousin was George B. McClellan.[3]
Coxe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1858 with degrees in Chemistry and Physics.[2] He spent six months after graduation in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania conducting a topographical geology survey of his grandfather's 35,000 acre estate under the supervision of Benjamin Smith Lyman.[4]
In 1860 he traveled to Europe and studied for 2 years at the
He served during the American Civil War on the staff of Major General George Meade.[7]
Career
Eckley Coxe's grandfather, Tench Coxe, had purchased 800,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania and urged his heirs to hold on to the land as he suspected coal would be found in the region. Tench's son, Charles, was able to retain ownership of 35,000 acres and left it to his sons including Eckley.[2]
Coal was found in the Coxe owned land and the Coxe Brothers and Company mining company was founded in 1865 with the first mine opened in
The Coxe Brothers & Company organization became the Cross Creek Coal Company led by Coxe,[9] and in 1890 Coxe organized and became president of the Delaware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill Railroad.[10]
In 1869, Coxe married Sophia Georgina Fisher. Together they worked to improve the lives of miners by building a fully functional hospital at the mines to help miners injured on the job.[2]
He lectured frequently before scientific bodies. He published several technical papers on mining and translated the first volume of Julius Weisbach's "Mechanics of Engineering and Construction of Machines" from German to English in 1872.[5]
He was instrumental in the founding of
He was strongly anti-union and defeated two powerful unions in one of the longest strikes in the coal industry from September 1887 to March 1888.[12]
He was a member of the
Coxe was an inventor who was granted over 100 patents.[15] He developed a long steel tape for the measurement of land by surveyors[11] and the traveling grate, which he patented in 1893.[16]
He served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 21st district from 1881 to 1884.[5] He served as chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1884.[2]
He died on May 13, 1895, of pneumonia[13] and was interred at Saint James Episcopal Churchyard in Drifton, Pennsylvania.[17]
Legacy
Eckley Miners' Village in Pennsylvania was named for him in 1857 by his father.[18]
The Coxe Hall (1910) at Lehigh University, originally a mining laboratory, is named after him.[19]
Coxe was admitted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for his work on the traveling-grate furnace.[2]
Publications
- Eckley B. Coxe. "A Furnace with Automatic Stoker, Travelling Grate and Variable Blast, Intended Especially for Burning Small Anthracite Coals." Transactions of the American Institute of Mining. 1895.
- "Mechanics of Engineering: Theoretical Mechanics, with an Introduction to the Calculus", D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1889.
References
- ^ Eckley Miners' Village: Pennsylvania Trail of History Guide, 2003. p. 23-24
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Eckley Coxe". www.engineering.lehigh.edu. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-57003-633-0. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ^ Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Volume 25. New York City: American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. 1896. p. 452. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "Pennsylvania State Senate - Eckley Brinton Coxe Biography". www.legis.state.pa.us. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
- ISBN 9781412830751. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^ a b Shea, Patrick Henry. "Weld Coxe Collection" (PDF). www.hsp.org. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "Eckley B. Coxe is Dead" (PDF). www.timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ISBN 0-313-23907-X. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^ The Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association, Volumes 29-30. Philadelphia: American Iron and Steel Association. 1895. p. 117. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^ a b c "Eckley Brinton Coxe (Deceased)". www.aimehq.org. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ISBN 0-8117-2741-6. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^ a b Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Volume 36. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers. 1897. p. 554. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
- ^ "Eckley B. Coxe Traveling-Grate Furnace". www.invent.org. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ISBN 9781906986582. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^ "Eckley Brinton Coxe". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
- ^ Veskovic, Dejan. "The Life and Times of Eckley Miners' Village". www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
- ^ "Eckley Coxe". www.engineering.lehigh.edu. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
External links
- Coxe, Eckley - Lehigh University Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine