New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Engineering History

Ben Stickney’s Press: A New York Inventor’s Piece of World Postal History

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Stickney Presses US Treasury DepartmentAppeals from officials in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York to President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 resulted in the reappointment to federal government service of “undoubtedly the greatest inventive genius that Essex County has ever produced.”

Benjamin R. Stickney, a Moriah Center native, was a chief engineer at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing when President Warren Harding dismissed Stickney and 27 other federal bureaucrats, without notice, on March 27, 1922. [Read more…] about Ben Stickney’s Press: A New York Inventor’s Piece of World Postal History

Kesselring Atomic Power Labratory: A Short History

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Kenneth A Kesselring Site in the 1950s courtesy Town of Milton Historians Office CollectionIt was 71 years ago in May that the land for the Kenneth A. Kesselring Site began to be purchased to create the Atomic Energy Commission’s $20 million plant located in West Milton, Saratoga County, NY.

The Kesselring Site was built by the United States Government for the purpose of training nuclear officers and enlisted sailors to operate the United States Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. [Read more…] about Kesselring Atomic Power Labratory: A Short History

Schoharie Aqueduct Restoration Update

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Schoharie Crossing on Erie Canal showing 9 arches of aqueduct at Fort HunterThe Aqueduct Alliance is an informal group of organizations and individuals working to preserve the Schoharie Aqueduct, the ruins of the Erie Canal aqueduct over Schoharie Creek at Schoharie Crossing. They hope to expand the knowledge and appreciation of the structure, and make it more accessible to visitors.

Two recent newspaper articles were published highlighting the work that is being done by the partners involved in this project. [Read more…] about Schoharie Aqueduct Restoration Update

David Brooks: A Canal for the Adirondacks

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, David Brooks describes unfulfilled plans to build a canal linking the Erie Canal with Johnstown, Gloversville and the Sacandaga Valley in the Adirondacks.

The story first appeared as an article in The New York History Blog. Brooks is education coordinator at a state Erie Canal history site, Schoharie Crossing in Fort Hunter.

Listen to the podcast here.     [Read more…] about David Brooks: A Canal for the Adirondacks

Little Falls’ Lock 17: Engineering Marvel, Opened 100 Years Ago

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lock 17 postcardThe Little Falls Journal and Courier proclaimed in a banner headline on their July 4th, 1916 edition that the celebration for the completion of Lock 17 “will go down in history.”

The paper stated that the pageantry and parades of the previous Friday and Saturday were a tremendous success. “Nothing so elaborate, so gorgeous, so successful from an historic, an artistic and idealistic point of view was ever before undertaken in this city… The crowd on Friday was conservatively estimated at four thousand and on Saturday it was as large or larger.”

Featured throughout the festivities were the recently arrived immigrant communities, the “New Americans” that Governor Whitman especially recognized in his remarks that Friday. [Read more…] about Little Falls’ Lock 17: Engineering Marvel, Opened 100 Years Ago

A Short Biography of Engineer Benjamin Prescott

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Pipes of the Albany Water Works excavated by Wolfert Roost CC circa late 1980s002The Wolfert’s Roost Country Club in Albany maintains a small dam, pond, and pump house to provide water for their golf course. In the 1980s workers excavating the pond, which is fed by the Maezlandtkill, discovered several sections of ancient wooden and very early cast iron pipe along with iron bands. The pipe and other artifacts were placed in the woods near the club’s tennis courts and forgotten.

Benjamin Prescott, engineer of Albany’s first municipal water system and the man responsible for those pipes, is all but equally forgotten, despite an illustrious career in engineering.  Prescott served as an Engineer in the American Revolution, Superintendent of the Springfield Armory, and was the designer of several notable projects, including one of this nation’s first inclined planes (on the Connecticut River). He also conducted a 1790s survey of Niagara Falls, consulted on the Erie Canal, designed the Troy Sloop Lock (the Federal Dam) and more. [Read more…] about A Short Biography of Engineer Benjamin Prescott