Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made | Page 5

a partnership with George
Law, and establishes the Stonington line--Opening of the Hudson River
Railway--Drew's foresight--Room enough for the locomotive and the
steamboat--Buys out the Champlain Company--Causes of his success
as a steamboat manager--Becomes a banker--His success in Wall
Street--Indorses the acceptances of the Erie Railway Company--His
courage and calmness in the panic of 1857--He saves "Erie" from
ruin--Elected a director of the Erie Road--Is made Treasurer--His
interest in the road--His operations in Wall Street--His farm in Putnam
County--Joins the Methodist Church--His liberality--Builds a church in
New York--Founds the Drew Theological Seminary--Estimate of his
wealth--His family--Personal appearance.
CHAPTER XI.
JAMES B. EADS.
Birth--Childhood--Fondness for machinery--Early mechanical
skill--Constructs a steam engine at the age of nine years--His

work-shop--Death of his father--Works his way to St. Louis--Sells
apples on the streets--Finds employment and a friend--Efforts to
improve--Becomes a clerk on a Mississippi steamer--Undertakes the
recovery of wrecked steamboats--Success of his undertaking--Offers to
remove the obstacles to the navigation of the Mississippi--Failure of his
health--Retires from business--Breaking out of the war--Summoned to
Washington--His plan for the defense of the western rivers--Associated
with Captain Rodgers in the purchase of gunboats--His first contract
with the Government--Undertakes to build seven ironclads in sixty-five
days--Magnitude of the undertaking--His promptness--Builds other
gunboats during the war--The gunboat fleet at Forts Henry and
Donelson the private property of Mr. Eads--Excellence of the vessels
built by him--A model contractor--Residence in St. Louis.
CHAPTER XII.
CYRUS W. FIELD.
Birth--Parentage--Early education--Goes to New York in search of
employment--Obtains a clerkship in a city house, and in a few years
becomes a partner--A rich man at thirty-four--Retires from
business--Travels in South America--Meets Mr. Gisborne--Plan of the
Newfoundland Telegraph Company--Mr. Field declines to embark in
it--Conceives the idea of a telegraph across the Atlantic
Ocean--Correspondence with Lieut. Maury and Prof. Morse--The
scheme pronounced practicable--Mr. Field secures the co-operation of
four New York capitalists--Organization of the New York,
Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company--Building of the line
from New York to St. John's--A herculean task--The Governmental
ocean surveys of the United States and England--Efforts to secure aid
in England--Liberal action of the Government--Organization of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company--A hard-won success in
America--Passage of the bill by Congress--The first attempt to lay the
cable--The expedition of 1857--The telegraph fleet--Scenes on
board--Loss of the cable--Failure of the expedition--Difficulties
remedied--The new "paying-out" machinery--The expedition of
1858--The second attempt to lay the cable--Dangerous

storm--Failures--Loss of the cable--The third attempt--The cable laid
successfully--Messages across the Atlantic--Celebrations in England
and the United States--The signals cease--The cable a
failure--Discouraging state of affairs--Courage of Mr. Field--Generous
offer of the British Government--Fresh soundings--Investigations of the
Telegraph Board--Efforts of Mr. Field to raise new capital--Purchase of
the Great Eastern--The fourth attempt to lay the cable--Expedition of
1865--Voyage of the Great Eastern--Loss of the cable--Efforts to
recover it unsuccessful--What the expedition demonstrated--Efforts to
raise more capital--They are pronounced illegal--The new
company--The fifth attempt to lay the cable--Voyage of the Great
Eastern--The cable laid at last--Fishing up and splicing the cable of
1865--The final triumph--Credit due to Mr. Field.
III. INVENTORS.
CHAPTER XIII.
ROBERT FULTON.
Trinity churchyard--The Livingston vault--An interesting
place--Fulton's tomb--Birth of Robert Fulton--Boyhood--Early
mechanical skill--Robert astonishes his tutor--Robert's
fireworks--"Nothing is impossible"--"Quicksilver Bob"--The fishing
excursion--The first paddle-wheel boat--Fulton's success as an
artist--His gift to his mother--His removal to England--Intimacy with
Benjamin West--Goes to Devonshire--Acquaintance with the Duke of
Bridgewater--His interest in canal navigation--His first
inventions--Goes to Paris--Residence with Mr. Barlow--Studies in
engineering--Invents the diving boat--The infernal machine--His
patriotic reply to the British ministry--His marriage--Returns to
America--The General Government declines to purchase his
torpedo--Brief history of the first experiments in steam
navigation--Fulton's connection with Livingston--The trial boat on the
Seine--Determines to build a boat on the Hudson--Fulton and
Livingston are given the sole right to navigate the waters of New York
by steam--Popular ridicule--Disbelief of scientific men--Launch of the

"Clermont"--The trial trip--The first voyage up the Hudson--Fulton's
triumph--Scenes along the river--Efforts to sink the
steamer--Establishment of steam navigation on the Hudson River--The
first New York ferry-boats--The floating docks--Boats for the
West--New York threatened by the British fleet in 1814--Fulton's plan
for a steam frigate--The "Fulton the First"--The steamboat war--Illness
of Fulton--His death and burial--His last will--True character of his
invention.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHARLES GOODYEAR.
Discovery of India-rubber--Mode of collecting it--Preparation and use
by the natives--Its introduction into the United States--Mr. E.M.
Chaffee's process--The India-rubber fever--Brief success of the
India-rubber companies--Their sudden failure--Visit of Mr. Goodyear
to New York--He invents an improvement in the life preserver--Early
history of Charles Goodyear--His failure as a merchant--Offers his
invention to the Roxbury Company--The agent's disclosures--Mr.
Goodyear finds his mission--His first efforts--A failure--Discouraging
state of his affairs--Renews his efforts--Experiments in
India-rubber--Coldness of his friends--His courage and
perseverance--Goes to New York--Accidental discovery of the aqua
fortis process--Partial success--Ruined--Life on Staten
Island--Removes to Boston--Delusive prosperity--The mail bag
contract--His friends urge him to abandon his efforts--He refuses--On
the verge of