Cooper, Peter

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 12 February 1791 New York, USA

d. 4 April 1883 New York, USA

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American entrepreneur and steam locomotive pioneer.

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Cooper had minimal formal education, but following a childhood spent helping his small-businessman father, he had by his early twenties become a prosperous glue maker. In 1828, with partners, he set up an ironworks at Baltimore. The Baltimore \& Ohio Railroad, intended for horse haulage, was under construction and, to confound those sceptical of the powers of steam, Cooper built a steam locomotive, with vertical boiler and single vertical cylinder, that was so small that it was called Tom Thumb. Nevertheless, when on test in 1830, it proved a match for horse power and became one of the first locomotives to run on an American railway. Cooper did not, however, personally take this line of development further; rather, he built up a vast industrial empire and later in life became a noted philanthropist.

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Further Reading

J.F.Stover, 1961, American Railroads, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dictionary of American Biography.

See also: Allen, Horatio; Stevens, John; Winans, Ross

PJGR