Career
At an early age Stevens was entrusted by his father with the family business affairs, and in 1821 at the age of 26 he assumed full responsibility for the Stevens estate in Hoboken and other properties. Also in 1821, he developed the "Stevens plow," a cast-iron plow with a curved moldboard and replaceable heel piece. The plow was popular among New Jersey farmers. He went on to design many other technological innovations, such as the “twohorse dump wagon” for New York City; the "closed fireroom” system of forced draft for his family's steamboat fleet; and the "vestibule car" for the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
Following the death of Colonel Stevens in 1838, Edwin and his brother Robert worked on a commission from the United States government to construct the nation's first ironclad naval vessel. After conducting tests to determine the amount of armor a vessel needed to defend itself against naval guns, the two brothers constructed a huge vessel known as the Stevens Battery. Though the craft was never fully completed, it nevertheless laid the groundwork for the modern armored warship. A scaled-down version, the USS Naugatuck, saw limited action in the Civil War. After the war, the Naugatuck and the Battery were sold for scrap.
Stevens was part of the syndicate from the New York Yacht Club that built and raced the schooner-yacht America. His brother, John Cox Stevens, was the head of the syndicate and the NYYC's first Commodore. Edwin Augustus also served as Commodore of the NYYC, resigning in 1866.
He died in Paris, France. His will left land adjoining his family estate, $150,000 for the erection of a building and $500,000 as an endowment for the establishment of an "institution of learning".
Because of the Stevens family's close ties with engineering, the executors decided this would be an institution devoted to the "mechanical arts".
A building on the Stevens campus now stands as The Edwin A. Stevens Hall, which houses the school of engineering for the Institute. Also in this building is the renowned "DeBaun Auditorium", which is over 100 years old, and has been refurbished to what it would have looked like when first constructed.
Read more about this topic: Edwin Augustus Stevens
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)