Jervis, John Bloomfield

SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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b. 14 December 1795 Huntingdon, New York, USA

d. 12 January 1885 Rome, New York, USA

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American pioneer of civil engineering and locomotive design.

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Jervis assisted in the survey and construction of the Erie Canal, and by 1827 was Chief Engineer of the Delaware \& Hudson Canal and, linked with it, the Carbondale Railroad. He instructed Horatio Allen to go to England to purchase locomotives in 1828, and the locomotive Stourbridge Lion, built by J.U. Rastrick, was placed on the railway in 1829. It was the first full-size locomotive to run in America, but the track proved too weak for it to be used regularly. In 1830 Jervis became Chief Engineer to the Mohawk \& Hudson Rail Road, which was the first railway in New York State and was opened the following year. In 1832 the 4–2–0 locomotive Experiment was built to his plans by West Point Foundry: it was the first locomotive to have a leading bogie or truck. Jervis was subsequently associated with many other extensive canals and railways and pioneered economic analysis of engineering problems to enable, for example, the best choice to be made between two possible routes for a railroad.

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Bibliography

1861, Railway Property, New York.

Further Reading

J.H.White Jr, 1979, A History of the American Locomotive-Its Development: 1830–1880, New York: Dover Publications Inc.

J.K.Finch, 1931, "John Bloomfield Jervis, civil engineer", Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 11.

PJGR