Alexander Catlin Twining (July 5, 1801 – November 22, 1884) was an American scientist and inventor. Twining, the son of Stephen Twining and Almira (Catlin) Twining, was born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, July 5, 1801. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1820. He left College with the intention of entering the ministry, and soon after studied for one year in

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambrid ...

. In 1823 he returned to New Haven as tutor in at Yale, in which office he served for two years. Meanwhile he had decided to become a civil engineer, and now went to

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

to prepare himself for his profession. He was first employed upon the State works of Pennsylvania, and his earliest independent work was in 1835–37 as chief of the survey for the

Hartford and New Haven Railroad The Hartford and New Haven Railroad (H&NH), chartered in 1833, was the first railroad built in the state of Connecticut and an important direct predecessor of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (the New Haven). The company was forme ...

; he was subsequently employed either as chief or consulting engineer upon every railroad running out of New Haven (excepting possibly the Derby road). In like manner he was employed on the northern lines running up the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

valley and through

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

, on the Lake Shore road between Buffalo and Erie, and on other roads in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. From 1839 to 1848 he filled the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

, Vt.; this position he resigned to give himself more fully to his engineering labors. He removed from Middlebury to New Haven in 1852, and resided there for the rest of his life. From 1856 until his death he was a deacon in the First Church, in which his father had filled the same office. For several years after his return to New Haven his labor was mainly given to the development of his invention for the artificial production of ice economically on a large scale. The principle of his invention was widely adopted, but he failed to secure pecuniary recompense for it. He made valuable original investigations in

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

, and was equally interested in questions of theology and political science, both in their theoretical and practical aspects In connection with the remarkable meteor shower of November 1833, he deserves the credit for first suggesting the correct theory of radiation of meteor tracks from a fixed point among the stars.

Personal life

On March 2, 1829, Twining married Harriet Amelia Kinsley, of

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York (state), New York, General George Washington stationed his headquarters in West Point in the summer and fall of 1779 durin ...

, who died October 12, 1871. Their children were three sons (graduates of Yale) and four daughters, including the Rev. Kingsley Twining; they survived their parents, with the exception of one son who died in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Early in October 1884, he suffered

congestion of the brain "Congestion of the brain" and "cerebral congestion" were medical terms used before hypertension was understood. The term was first proposed by Dr. von Basch in the nineteenth century and was widely used for the next 150 years, and had a major inf ...

, and died at his home in New Haven on November 22, at the age of 83.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:twining, alexander catlin 1801 births 1884 deaths Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut Yale College alumni American civil engineers 19th-century American inventors Middlebury College faculty Andover Newton Theological School alumni Engineers from Connecticut Yale University faculty