Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/346

HUNT, Robert Woolston, metallurgist, b. in Fallsington, Bucks co., Pa., 9 Dec, 1838. He re- ceived his early education in Covington. Ky., and then studied analytical chemistry with James C. Booth and Thomas II. Garrett in Philadelphia, Pa. During the civil war he was commandant of Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, with the rank of captain. Meanwhile he had become associated with the Cam- bria iron company as chemist, and in July, 1860, established the first analytical laboratory connected with any iron or steel works in the United States. Subsequently he assisted George Fritz in construct- ing the Bessemer steel works of the Cambria com- pany, and after 1868 was superintendent of that department, also having charge during 1865-'6 of the experimental steel works in Wyandotte, Mich. He was called to the charge of the Bessemer steel works of John A. Griswold and Co., in Troy, N. Y., in 1873 ; was made general superintendent of the Albany and Rensselaer iron and steel company in 1875 ; and in 1885 of its successor, the Troy steel and iron company. The works of the various Troy companies with which he has been connected have been rebuilt and extended under his supervision. Mr. Hunt has obtained patents for improvements in bottom casting of steel ingots, for making spe- cial soft Bessemer steel, for a recarburizer for Bes- semer steel, also a series relating to automatic tables for rolling-mills, and one for a feeding-in device for the same kind of mills. In 1886 he was elected one of the trustees of the Rensselaer poly- technic institute. Mr. Hunt is a member of the American society of civil engineers, and of the American society of mechanical engineers, and was president of the American institute of mining en- gineers in 1883-'4. His contributions to literature have consisted of technical papers in the transac- tions of societies of which he is a member.

HUNT, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Attleboro, Mass., 18 March, 1810 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 23 July, 1878. He was graduated at Amherst in 1832, taught at Southampton, Mass., and Southampton, L. I., and studied theology in the seminaries at Andover and Princeton, and with the Rev. Dr. Jacob Ide, of West Medway, Mass. He was pastor of a Con- gregational church in Natick, Mass., from 1839 till 1850, and of the church in Franklin, Mass., from 1850 till 1864. In the latter year he became super- intendent of education for the American mission- ary association, and labored to establish schools among the freedmen. In 1868 he exchanged this office for that of clerk of the U. S. senate commit- tee on military affairs, and in 1873-'5 acted as pri- vate secretary to Vice-President Henry Wilson. He assisted Mr. Wilson in writing the " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," and com- pleted the work after the latter's death. He also prepared and arranged for publication Mr. Wilson's papers. His published works are " Letters to the Avowed Friends of Missions," " Political Duties of Christians," and " Puritan Hymn and Tune Book." He left unfinished " Religion in Politics."

HUNT, Theodore Whitefleld, author, b. in Metuchen, N. J., 19 Feb., 1844. He was graduated at Princeton in 1865, and after teaching and study- ing in the Union seminary of New York city, en- tered Princeton theological seminary, where he spent one year, and was graduated in 1869. In 1868-'71 he was tutor in Princeton, and, after spend- ing two years in the University of Berlin, became professor of rhetoric and English literature. In 1880 Lafayette college conferred on him the degree of Ph. D. Prof. Hunt has contributed to reviews and periodicals, and has published " Caedmon's Exodus and Daniel " (Boston, 1883) ; " Principles of Written Discourse" (New York, 1884); and " English Prose and Prose Writers " (1887). HUNT, Thomas, physician, b. in Charleston, S. C, 18 May, 1808; d. in New Orleans, La., 30 March, 1867. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1829, began to practise in Charleston, and in 1832-'6 won distinction by his successful treatment of cholera. He then removed to New Orleans, where he was a founder of the Uni- versity of Louisiana, and its first professor of anat- omy. Dr. Hunt was house-surgeon to the Charity hospital, president of the Physico-medical society of New Orleans, and in 1866 of the University of Louisiana. He was a contributor to the medical journals, and wrote on yellow fever, in the treat- ment of which he was especially successful.

HUNT, Thomas Poage, clergyman, b. in Char- lotte county, Va., in 1794 ; d. in Wyoming valley, Pa., 5 Dec, 1876. He was graduated at the Hamp- den Sidney college in 1813, studied theology, and was licensed to preach in 1824. After officiating in several churches in Virginia and North Carolina, he became a temperance lecturer, and attained a wide reputation. He removed to Philadelphia in 1836, and in 1839 to Wyoming valley, where he afterward resided. He was agent for Lafayette college in 1840-'5. He published " History of Jesse Johnson and his Times," " It will not Injure me," " Death by Measure," "Wedding- Days of Former Times," and " Liquor-Selling, a History of Fraud."

HUNT, Thomas Sterry, scientist, b. in Nor- wich, Conn., 5 Sept., 1826. He received his early education in his native town, and there began the study of medicine, but soon abandoned it for that of chemistry, which he followed in New Haven under the younger Silliman. Meanwhile he also acted as assistant in chemistry to the elder Silliman in the Yale laboratory, and, after spending two years in New Haven, he was offered the appoint- ment of chemical as- sistant in the newly established school of agricultural chemis- try in Edinburgh, Scotland, which he declined in order to accept that of chem- ist and mineralogist to the geological sur- vey of Canada, under Sir William E. Logan. He continued in this

office until 1872, and

also held the chair of chemistry in Laval university, delivering his lectures in French, from 1856 till 1862, and a similar professorship from 1862 till 1868 at McGill university. In 1872 he became professor of geology in the Massachusetts institute of technology, succeeding William B. Rogers, holding that chair until 1878, and since that time has held no official appointment. Early in his career he became known by a series of papers on theoretical chemistry, which appeared in Silliman's " American Journal of Science " from 1848 till 1851. Hunt developed a system of organic chemistry that was essentially his own, in which all chemical compounds were shown to be formed on simple types represented by one or more molecules of water or hydrogen. An account of the development of this subject will be found in his paper read at the centennial of chemistry that was