Engineering History

The Poesten Kill: Healing & Healthful Waters

August 13, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

The Poesten Kill is a mid-sized stream that flows off the Rensselaer Plateau in western Rensselaer County toward the Hudson River. It tumbles through Barbersville Falls and winds its way through the towns of Poestenkill and Brunswick, before reaching the Great Falls above Troy. Below there it’s channeled into a long-abandoned canal (hence Canal Street in Troy) that flows into the Hudson.

In the earliest recorded times, fresh drinking water was acquired from the Poesten Kill and from a spring on Hollow Road in Troy (now Spring Avenue, later the farm of Stephen J. Schuyler). [Read more…] about The Poesten Kill: Healing & Healthful Waters

Stewart’s Shops 19th Century Patriarch Starks Dake’s Saratoga Lake Canal Plan

August 9, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Starks Desivigna Dake was born May 9,1852. He died on November 10, 1937, at the family homestead in Middle Grove after a long illness. The Saratogian reported on November 11, 1937 that he was “Courageous to the last, he voted in the November 2 election at a polling place near his home.”

Starks was a member of one of the oldest families to settle in Saratoga County. He was the son of Benjamin C. and Mary Jane Carmen Dake. He attended school in Daketown and, in the winter of 1869-70, attended the prominent Fort Edward Collegiate Institute. In 1870 he won a scholarship to Cornell University, where he studied civil engineering. He left college early to teach school in Eddy’s Corners, South Corinth, Greenfield Center, Middle Grove, and Chatfield Corners in Saratoga County. In 1872 the enterprising Starks took up land surveying while still teaching. He would continue that occupation for the next 60 years. [Read more…] about Stewart’s Shops 19th Century Patriarch Starks Dake’s Saratoga Lake Canal Plan

The Upper Delaware’s First Suspension Bridge

July 18, 2021 by John Conway 1 Comment

John A. Roebling was born in Prussia on June 12th, 1806. Educated as an engineer, but finding the political unrest in his home country stifling, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1831 with a small group intent on establishing a community where technology could freely advance. They settled in Western Pennsylvania, establishing the community of Saxonburg. [Read more…] about The Upper Delaware’s First Suspension Bridge

Engineering Theatre: The Brunel Legacy in London & New York

June 1, 2021 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

For a long time Rotherhithe was London’s natural port, gaining its name from the Anglo-Saxon term for “landing-place for cattle.” There were shipyards in the area from Elizabethan times until the early twentieth century, and working docks until the 1970s. [Read more…] about Engineering Theatre: The Brunel Legacy in London & New York

Egbert Ludovicus Viele: Engineer, Soldier, Politician

April 22, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Egbert Ludovicus Viele died on April 22nd, 1902 at the age of 77 in the city of New York after an eventful life that began in Waterford, New York.

He was born in 1825, son of Kathlyne Schuyler (Knickerboacker) and State Senator John L. Viele. The title of his newspaper obituary notice “Veteran of Two Wars and Indian Campaigns Passes Away” did little justice to his varied career, nor his personal foibles. [Read more…] about Egbert Ludovicus Viele: Engineer, Soldier, Politician

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

October 1, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Appeals 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

May 15, 2020 by Guest Contributor 5 Comments

It 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

March 17, 2020 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

The 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

December 15, 2017 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This 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: An Engineering Marvel

July 7, 2016 by Craig Williams Leave a Comment

The 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: An Engineering Marvel