MORGAN, THOMAS REES (1834 - 1897), mechanical engineer and manufacturer, and inventor
Date of birth: 1834
Date of death: 1897
Spouse: Elizabeth Nicholas Morgan
Gender: Male
Occupation: mechanical engineer and manufacturer, and inventor
Area of activity: Business and Industry; Engineering, Construction, Naval Architecture and Surveying
Author: Robert (Bob) Owen
Born 31 March 1834 at Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire. He worked in the mines until he had an accident, at the age of ten, which resulted in the loss of the left leg below the knee. After the accident he attended schools taught by John Thomas (Ieuan Ddu), Owen Evans, and Taliesin Williams (Taliesin ab Iolo). He developed, under the tuition of Taliesin Williams, a special fondness for mathematics and engineering; he afterwards worked as mechanic in local iron-works. Emigrating to the U.S.A. in 1865, Morgan settled at Pittston, Pa., and worked in the shops of the Lackawanna and Bloomsbury railway. He afterwards worked in the Cambria Iron Works at Johnstown, as a foreman in the Atlas Works at Pittsburgh, etc. In 1868 he started business on his own account, under the name of Marchand and Morgan, the firm making steam hammers; from this humble beginning came the large works of the Morgan Engineering Company, besides other companies. Nearly all the large travelling cranes used in the Carnegie Steel Works and at other rolling mills at Pittsburgh were designed by Morgan, who was also the first to construct electric cranes. Government contracts, including many for the U.S.A. navy, followed. It was he who solved the problem of 'shaping' armour plate for U.S.A. battleships. He took out numerous patents for designs and inventions. He died 6 September 1897, at Alliance, Ohio.
Author
- Robert (Bob) Owen, (1885 - 1962)
- The Cambrian, 1891 (289-93), 1897 (441-4)
- Y Drych (Utica), 26 November 1891
- Ebenezer Edwards, Welshmen as Factors in the Formation and Development of the United States Republic (Utica 1899), 295-8
- The Royal blue book prize productions of the Pittsburgh International Eisteddfod, July 2, 3, 4 and 5, 1913 (Pittsburgh 1916) (Pittsburgh International Eisteddfod, 2-5 July 1913), 1916, 74-5
Sources
- Wikidata: Q20734524
Additional Links
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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