William Browne Congswell

Background

William Browne Cogswell was born on September 22, 1834 at Oswego, New York, United States. He was the son of David and Mary (Barnes) Cogswell. His parents moved to Syracuse when he was four years old.

Education

Cogswell's early education was acquired in private schools at Syracuse and Seneca Falls and at Hamilton Academy. When he was about twelve years old he took some lessons in architecture under Luther Gifford of Syracuse and plans drawn by Cogswell were used for the Globe Hotel, erected in Syracuse in 1846-1847. His fourteenth year was spent with a railroad surveyor’s party. He studied civil engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for three years, but left in 1852 without a degree. In 1884, however, the Institute conferred upon him the degree of Civil Engineers.

Career

After his work at Rensselaer Cogswell spent three years as an apprentice in machine-shops at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and from then until 1860 he was actively engaged in responsible positions in foundries or machine-shops where his mechanical engineering abilities were marked.

During the Civil War he held an appointment as civil engineer in the United States navy. He fitted out five repair shops for stations on the Atlantic seaboard, assembled equipment, and then converted an old whaler into a floating machine-shop, of which he took command. This enabled warships to be repaired without leaving the spots where they were participating in blockades of Southern ports. In 1862 Cogswell was transferred to the Brooklyn Navy Yard where he remained until 1866.

After the war, supervision of the construction and operation of the blast furnaces of the Franklin Iron Works in Oneida County and the completion of the Clifton Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls occupied him until 1873. Its because of his share in the introduction into this country of the Solvay Process of manufacturing soda, however, that Cogsw'ell is best known. His interest in “things under the earth” was awakened in 1874, when he was placed in charge of some lead mines at Mine La Motte, Missouri. In 1879, at a meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, he heard a paper by Oswald J. Heinrich on “The Manufacture of Soda by the Ammonia Process”. He conceived the idea of applying the process patented by the Solvay brothers of Brussels to the exploitation of the salt lands of Onondaga County, New York. Going to Europe, he succeeded in persuading Ernest and Alfred Solvay of the soundness of his plan, and became treasurer and general manager of the Solvay Process Company formed in 1881. Later he became its vice-president and managing director. He was interested also in other local enterprises, especially in the development of the Hannawa Falls Power Company. Cogswell built the Hospital of the Good Shepherd in Syracuse, and did much charitable work in a quiet way.

Achievements

• William Brown Cogswell was known as the founder of the Solvay Process Company. His company became the largest manufacturer in the United States of soda ash and its derivatives, and the production of soda became one of the major industries of Onondaga County. It was largely due to Cogswell’s personal effort that the vein of rock salt, fifty to a hundred feet in thickness, and 1, 200 feet below the surface, was located twenty-two miles south of Syracuse at Tully.

Interests

• Cogswell had a deep interest in astronomy, and found recreation and pleasure in gathering together a remarkable collection of precious stones.

Connections

Cogswell was married twice: in 1856 to Mary N. Johnson, who died in 1877, and on April 29, 1902, to Cora Louise Brown of New York City.

Father:

David Cogswell

Mother:

Mary (Barnes) Cogswell

Spouse:

Cora Louise Brown

Spouse:

Mary N. Johnson

References

• Biographical Dictionary of People in Engineering: From the Earliest Records to 2000