Simeon Borden (January 29, 1798 – October 28, 1856) was an American inventor, engineer, and surveyor. Borden was born in

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, now

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, tenth-largest city in the state, and the second- ...

, to Simeon and Amey Briggs Borden, he was the 4th great grandson of Richard and Joan (Fowle) Borden, who immigrated to Rhode Island from England in 1838. His younger brother Nathaniel Briggs Borden was an important businessman in the Fall River, Massachusetts and a United States Representative. Simeon received a limited education at

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, and studied geometry and applied mathematics on his own. He became a woodworker and metalworker, practiced surveying, and in 1828 headed up a machine-shop in Fall River. In 1830 Bordon invented a new apparatus for accurately measuring the base line for the upcoming Massachusetts' Trigonometrical Survey. It was 50 feet long, enclosed in a tube, and used with four compound microscopes. The tube and microscopes were mounted on trestles, and adjustable to any direction. Borden's equipment was judged to be more accurate and convenient than any instrument available, and thus he assisted in measuring the

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

base line (now known as the

Borden Base Line The Borden Base Line is a historic survey line (7.42 miles, long) running north–south through Hatfield and South Deerfield, Massachusetts. It was completed in 1831. It was designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the Am ...

) to a remarkable accuracy in 1831, and afterwards led the triangulation of the entire state from 1834 to 1841 as Superintendent of the Survey. He described this first geodetic survey in America in the ninth volume of the ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society''. In 1842, he was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. Borden surveyed and marked the line between

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

and

after their disputed boundary had been tried before the

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in 1844. He then turned his attention to railroads and telegraphs. In 1851 he strung a telegraph wire, suspended on masts 220 feet high, across the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

from the Palisades to Fort Washington, a distance of more than a mile. Borden died a bachelor in Fall River on October 28, 1856.Death info
/ref> Most, if not all, of the original field notes from Borden's trigonometric survey of Massachusetts are in the possession of the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers, Inc., One Walnut Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

Selected works

*
An Account of the Trigonometrical Survey of Massachusetts
, ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', Volume 9, 18, Part I. * ''A System of Useful Formulae: adapted to the practical operations of locating and constructing Railroads'', Boston : Charles C. Little & James Brown, 1851.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borden, Simeon American civil engineers People from Fall River, Massachusetts 1798 births 1856 deaths