Cyrus Durand was born on February 27, 1787 at Jefferson Village, near Newark, New Jersey, United States. He was the second child of John and Rachel (Meyer) Post Durand. His father was a watchmaker and silversmith possessing mechanical talent of great versatility, and was engaged in the manufacture of various metal and other trinkets, such as sleeve buttons, arrowheads, powder horns, and engraved copper plates.
Durand's whole education was obtained in the village public school.
As a young man Durand was accumstomed to help in his father’s shop, one of his particular duties being the engraving of monograms or other devices on the various articles manufactured. Some of his time, too, was occupied in the design and construction of unusual machinery.
At the age of thirty-one he secured a patent for what he called a “grammatical mirror. ” This machine rendered the abstract rules of grammar and the definitions of the parts of speech intelligible by objective means through a combination of mirrors, slides, wheels, and other mechanical equipment. Four years before this, following the accidental death of his father, Durand had established himself as a silversmith in Newark and had served for a few months in the army during the War of 1812-14.
In 1815 he was employed for about a year in Rahway, New Jearsey, to construct machines for carding and weaving hair to be used in the manufacture of carpets. Following this period he continued in his own establishment in Newark, and on September 22, 1818, obtained another patent for a machine to ornament columns. He continued in Newark for about six years after this, when at the suggestion of Peter Maverick, tutor of his younger brother Asher in engraving, the brothers established the A. B. & C. Durand Company in New York City, to engage in banknote engraving. Asher made the designs and Cyrus executed them with machines of his own invention, which included one for ruling straight and wave lines, another for drawing water lines, and a third for making plain ovals. These machines are regarded as the beginning of geometrical lathes by which machine work on banknotes is universally executed. The company continued as a partnership until 1832, when Asher retired to devote his life to art. Cyrus continued alone, constantly devising new appliances, not only for bank-note engraving but also for engine turning and transfer printing-press work. While it is not definitely known just when, Durand gave up his engraving business in New York and went to Washington, D. C. , as an engraver in the Treasury Department. It is presumed that he continued to serve in this capacity after the establishment of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1862 but no record is to be found in that department except a notice of his death in Irvington, New Jersey.
Durand married Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff of Newark.
