Background
He was born on May 16, 1780 at North Woburn, Massachusetts. He was the third son of Loammi Baldwin and his wife, Mary Fowle.
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Loammi Baldwin Jr.
Edit ProfileEducation
After completing his preparatory education in Westford Academy, he proceeded to Harvard College and was duly graduated in 1800.
Career
His early predilection for mechanics moved his father to write to his friend, Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), inquiring as to the possibility of mastering the trade of instrument-making in two or three years. Discouraged by the reply that the term of apprenticeship was seven years, and that indenture cost several hundred pounds, the son began to read law under the preceptorship of Timothy Bigelow of Groton. There, in 1802, he designed and built the town's first fire-engine, a machine capable of throwing a five-eighths-inch stream to the height of seventy-five feet, which was in continuous use for over eighty years. The first hose, made in sections, was stitched in a harness shop.
After his admission to the bar in 1804, he practised for three years in Cambridge. During this period he produced his pamphlet, Thoughts on Political Economy (Cambridge, 1809), a suggestive discussion of population, industry, and currency in the United States, in which he points out the danger of over-immigration impairing "national character, " and proposes as a remedy for currency irregularities an extension of the capital of the United States Bank. In 1807 Baldwin abandoned the law for civil engineering, and in preparation for the duties of this profession visited Europe to inspect public works in England and on the Continent. On his return he opened an office in Charlestown, Massachussets In 1814 he began work on building Fort Strong, Noddle's Island, Boston Harbor; in 1819 he succeeded Uriah Cotting as engineer of improvements in Boston city, including the extension of Beacon St. beyond the Common; in the meantime, for three years (1817 - 20), he was engaged on public works in Virginia.
In 1821 he entered on his memorable service as engineer of the Union Canal, one of the outstanding projects of the time, extending seventy-nine miles from Reading to Middletown, Pa. , and including a tunnel 739 feet in length on the summit level, three large dams, and an artificial lake of 800 acres. One dam, across a gorge on the Swatara River, exceeded in strength and proportions any previously constructed in America. In spite of the excellence of his plans and the thoroughness of his work, Baldwin became involved in a controversy with the president of the company, Samuel Mifflin, over the proposed width of the canal, resigned, and was succeeded by Canvass White. After completion of the work, the original proportions were found to be correct, and alterations were effected at immense cost. In 1825, after a year in Europe, Baldwin became associated with the committee on the erection of the Bunker Hill Monument, and was assigned the duty of determining the proportions of the shaft. Taking the committee to the Roxbury Mill-dam, whence Bunker Hill was then visible, he exhibited the effects of various heights by affixing small models to the railing of the sidewalk, so that, at a proper distance away, each would appear to rest upon the hill. Actual proportions were then readily estimated for the accepted model. In the same year, under appointment by the state legislature, he surveyed the route for a proposed canal from Boston Harbor to the Hudson River and the Erie Canal, suggesting a tunnel through the Hoosac Mountain nearly on the line of the present railway tunnel. In 1827 he was again retained to survey for a railroad over the same line, but delegated the work to his brother James. During the next seven years of productive activity he designed and built, simultaneously, large masonry dry docks at the Charlestown (Massachussets) and Norfolk (Virginia) navy-yards, both completed in 1833. These were works of magnitude at the time, because of the lack of power-driven machinery and the primitive character of many of the appliances used. Pile-drivers were operated by treadmills, a vexation to American spirit, since "reputable workmen" objected to operating them. While on these works Baldwin made surveys for a third naval dry dock in New York Harbor, which was not built until after his death. In 1834 he published an elaborate Report on the Subject of Introducing Pure Water into the City of Boston, which listed all neighboring ponds and located all wells in the city as possible sources of supply. He was not destined to complete the work proposed.
Another masterly and elaborate work was his Report on the Brunswick Canal and Railroad, Glynn County (1836), giving details of a proposed inland navigation system, including 900 miles on the Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers, and opening up an extensive territory. Another project for which he furnished complete plans was a "marine railroad" from Pensacola. He was a member of the state Executive Committee under John Davis in 1835, and a presidential elector in 1836.
Achievements
Membership
He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the American Antiquarian Society.
Connections
Baldwin was twice married; first to Ann, daughter of George Williams, of Salem. She was sister of Samuel Williams, an eminent American banker in London; second on June 22, 1828, to Catherine, widow of Captain Thomas Beckford, of Charlestown. She died May 3, 1864. Child by first marriage: Samuel Williams Baldwin, born 1817, died December 28, 1822.
