Asa Whitney (December 1, 1791

Townsend, Massachusetts Townsend is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,127 at the 2020 census. History Townsend was first settled by Europeans in 1676 in an area known by indigenous people of the area as Wistequassuck, ...

– June 4, 1874

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania) was an American manufacturer, inventor, railroad executive and politician.

Life

He became a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

like his father. In 1812, he moved to

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. After a short time, his employer sent him to Brownsville, New York, to supervise the installation of machinery at a cotton factory, and Whitney remained in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. About 1830, he was hired by the

Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people (Kanien’kehá:ka), an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language (Kanien’kéha), the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a ...

to make machinery and railway carriages, and after a few years became superintendent of the line. In February 1840, he was elected by the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the Bicameralism, two houses that act as the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York: the New York State Senate and the New York State Assem ...

as one of the

Erie Canal commissioners Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

, and remained in office until 1842 when the Democratic majority removed the Whig commissioners. In 1842, he formed a partnership with Matthias W. Baldwin to manufacture

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s in Philadelphia. Two years later he left Baldwin, and worked for the reorganized

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a toll road, common carrier Anthracite, anthracite coal canal across North Jersey, northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its weste ...

Company. In 1846, he opened his own factory to manufacture wheels for railway carriages. In 1847, he took out

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s for the corrugated-plate carriage wheel and the curved corrugated-plate carriage wheel, and the following year for the process of annealing carriage wheels. This consisted of placing the wheels, soon after they were cast, in a heated furnace, where they were subjected to a further gradual increase of temperature, and were then slowly cooled for three days. The discovery of this process of annealing, as applied to chilled cast-iron wheels, marked an era in the history of railroads. It enabled trains to safely increase both loads and speed. Previous to this discovery it was impossible to cast wheels with solid hubs, and therefore impossible to secure them rigidly to the axle. Now the whole wheel was easily cast in one piece, and capable of being forced securely upon the axle at a pressure of 40 tons. In 1850, he patented the tapered and ribbed corrugated wheel. Whitney was for a short time president of the

Philadelphia and Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and freight transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1924 until its acquisition by Conrail in 1976. Commonly called the Reading Railro ...

, but retired in 1861 because of ill health. He gave $50,000 to found a professorship of dynamical engineering in the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, $12,500 to the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

, and $20,000 to the old men's home in Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia and is interred at

The Woodlands Cemetery The Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It includes a Federal-style mansion, a matching carriage house and stable, and a garden landscape that in 1840 was transformed int ...

. After Whitney's death, the factory, which had been once the largest carriage-wheel manufacturer in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, was taken over by his three sons: George Whitney (d. 1885), John R. Whitney and James S. Whitney. In 1891, the company was in financial trouble and going bankrupt.

Sources

* *Franklin Benjamin Hough, comp.
''The New York Civil List''
Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858, p. 42.
"A. Whitney & Sons Fail"
''New York Times'', March 26, 1891 Attribution *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Asa 1791 births 1874 deaths Burials at The Woodlands Cemetery People from Townsend, Massachusetts Erie Canal Commissioners 19th-century American railroad executives Politicians from Philadelphia 19th-century American inventors