Background
He was born on November 1, 1856 in Columbus, Georgia, United States, the son of the Rev. William Trebell and Eliza (Morton) Saunders.
He was born on November 1, 1856 in Columbus, Georgia, United States, the son of the Rev. William Trebell and Eliza (Morton) Saunders.
He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1876 with the degree of B. S.
After studies he engaged in newspaper work in Philadelphia for two years but gave this up to become an engineer with the National Storage Company, Communipaw, N. J. , in the construction of docks. This work involved considerable subaqueous rock excavation for which no satisfactory rock drilling equipment was available. In the course of his four years' work, however, Saunders developed a compressed-air drilling apparatus for submarine use, patented Jan. 9, 1883, which has been in general use in subaqueous work such as that in the Baku oil fields of Russia.
Shortly after this, he joined the engineering staff of the Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company in Jersey City and had much to do with the development of the rock drill in its diversified forms. Patents granted to him between 1883 and 1898 dealt with the radialaxe system of coal mining, the apparatus for Ingersoll track and bore channelers and gadders for quarrying stone, and the pumping of liquids by compressed air. He was successively engineer, secretary, and vice-president of his company.
On its reorganization as the Ingersoll-Rand Company in 1905, he became president and ultimately chairman of the board, an office he held at the time of his death. Besides being a director in a number of business enterprises he was a government director and department chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of New York and a member of the district committee on capital issues, Federal Reserve Board.
Under President Woodrow Wilson he served as a member of the New Jersey harbor commission, the New Jersey board of commerce and navigation, and as chairman of the United States naval consulting board. He was also a member of the advisory committee of the Federal Trade Commission and chairman of the industrial training committee of the National Civic Federation. He was twice mayor of North Plainfield, N. J. , his residence for upwards of thirty years, and had long been prominent in New Jersey politics; he served as a member of the New Jersey State Committee, as Wilson's personal representative from New Jersey on the national campaign committee in 1916, and as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1924.
In December 1926, through the American Society for the Control of Cancer, he offered a prize of $50, 000 for the discovery of the nature of human cancer and an equal amount for the discovery of a positive cure, but after two years, convinced of the futility of the search, he withdrew his offer. He also founded the medal awarded annually by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers in recognition of achievements in mining methods.
In 1903 he edited Compressed Air Information; in 1911 with R. T. Dana he published Rock Drilling, and in 1912 with G. H. Gilbert and L. I. Wightman The Subways and Tunnels of New York.
Saunders developed a compressed-air drilling apparatus for submarine use, patented Jan. 9, 1883. He was was chairman of the Naval Consulting Board during World War I. , later became the first president of the now combined Ingersoll Rand. He wrote on both engineering and political subjects, and was editor of Compressed Air Magazine. His famous political articles were "Business and Politics and the Anti-Trust Laws, " "Right and Strength in Equal Suffrage, " and "Government Regulation of Commerce as Affecting Foreign Trade".
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Throughout his career he maintained his membership in such engineering societies as the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and the United Engineering Society.
He married Bertha Louise Gaston on August 4, 1886. He was survived by two daughters.
