Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/226

appliances. This boiler was either horizontal or upright, cylindrical, and contained the furnace within itself. A double cylinder formed a water- jacket, connecting with a water- and steam-cham- ber above, and a narrow water-chamber below. Numerous small, straight tubes parallel to the axis of the boiler, and about three quarters its length, connected these chambers. He also in- vented another form of boiler, in which the fire passed through small spiral tubes on the principle of the present locomotive-boiler, an arrangement that had the advantage of consuming the smoke. In addition he had several other forms with nu- merous apartments, to which the water was to be gradually admitted as fast as it was evaporated. As a means of communicating motion to his steam- boat, he first tried to use paddle-wheels : but, as these had been used before, he substituted a chain- wheel of his own invention. He planned a steam- carriage, which, with his tubular boiler, he said could move at the rate of five miles an hour, with a load of fifty tons. In 1796 he established the Salem iron-foundry, where he manufactured anchor?, chain-cables, and similar articles, and in- vented a machine that was patented in January. 1798, for cutting and heading nails at one opera- tion. He also invented a method of equalizing the action of windmills by accumulating the force of the wind by winding up a weight ; a plan for using the force of the tide by means of reservoirs, alternately filled and emptied in such a way as to produce a constant stream ; different forms of pumping-engines and thrashing-machines; and a plan for using the expansion and contraction of mi'tals. multiplied by levers, for winding up clocks and other purposes. He was elected to congress as a Federalist in 1800, and served till 3 March, 1803. He removed to the vicinity of Belfast. Me., in 1^17. where he cultivated a large tract of land, and was appointed a judge of the court of common pleas. In 1787 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Dartmouth, and he was a member of the American academy of arts and sciences. Mr. Read was the first petitioner for a patent before the patent law was enacted. See " Nathan Read : His Invention of the Multitubular Boiler and Portable High-Pressure Engine," by his nephew, David Read (New York, 1870).

READ, Thomas, patriot, b. in Lunenburg countv, Va., in 1745; d. at Ingleside, Charlotte CO., Va., 4 Feb., 1817. His father. Col. Clement, was clerk of Lunenburg county in 1744'65, for many years a member of the house of burgesses, and a large landed proprietor. Thomas was educated at William and Mary, began life as a surveyor, and from 1770 until his death was clerk of Charlotte county. He was a member of the State constitu- tional convention in 1775, supporting his neighbor Patrick Henry, was county lieutenant throughout the Revolution, and rendered valuable service by supplying the quotas of Charlotte county, by col- lecting recruits, and by supplementing the neces- sary means from his own resources. On hearing the report that Lord Cornwallis was crossing Dan river, he marched at the head of a militia regiment to oppose his progress. He was a member of the Virginia convention of 1776, and of the state con- vention of 1788 that ratified the constitution of the United States. He was an ardent adherent of the politics of Jefferson and Madison, and advo- cated the second war with (Jreat Britain in IM'J. His brother, Isiinc. tidier, b. in Lunenburg county, Va., in 1746: d. in Philadelphia. Pa., 4 Sept., 1778. was educated at William and .Man. for many years was a member of the house of bur- gesses, and on its dissolution by order of Lord Botetourt. was one of those that adjourned to Williams! mrg. Va.. to form an association against the act of parliament that imposed duties on teas, etc. He was a member of the Mercantile associa- tion, and of the Virginia conventions of 1774 and of March and June, 1775, and by the last-named body was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Virginia regiment. He was promoted colonel in August. 1770, and participated in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton. His death resulted from exposure in camp.

READ, Thomas, clergyman, b. in that part of Maryland that is now part of Chester county, Pa., in March, 1746 ; d. in Wilmington, Del., 14 June, 1823. He was the son of a farmer, who came to the United States from Ireland several years be- fore Thomas's birth. After his graduation at Philadelphia academy in 1764. the son became a tutor in a classical school at Newark, Del., was licensed to preach in 1768, and was installed as pastor of a Presbyterian church at Drawyer's Creek, Del. In 1797 he accepted the pastorate of the 2d Presbyterian church at Wilmington, Del. He was an ardent patriot in the Revolution- ary war. In 1776 he marched with a company of neighbors and members of his church to Philadel- phia for the purpose of volunteering in the Ameri- can army, arriving just after the victories of Tren- ton and Princeton, which rendered its services unnecessary. In August, 1777, he performed an important service for the American cause by draw- ing for Gen. "Washington a map that showed the topography of the country and a route by which he could retreat from Stanton, and avoid a con- flict with the superior British force that had land- ed at Elk ferry, and was advancing on the Ameri- can camp. He received the degree of D. D. from Princeton in 1796, and exercised his pastoral func- tions with great success till 1817, when bodily in- firmities impelled him to resign his charge. Even after that he supplied the pulpit of the 1st Presby- terian church in Wilmington.

READ. Thomas Buchanan, poet, b. in Chester county. Pa.. 12 March, 1823 ; d. in New York city, 11 May, 1872. His mother, a widow, apprenticed him to a tailor, but he ran away, learned in Philadelphia the trade of cigar-making, and in 1837 made his way to Cincinnati, where he found a home with the sculptor, ShobalV.Cleven- ger. He learned the trade of a sign-painter, and attended school at intervals. X' >t -lie. (Tiling nil in- cinnati, he went to Dayton, and obtained an en- gagement in the theatre. Return- ing to Cincinnati in about a year, he was enabled

by the liberality

of Nicholas Longworth to open a studio as a portrait-painter. He did not remain long in Cincinnati, but wandered from town tn town, painting signs when he could find no sitters, sometimes i_MiiiL,' jmlilii- . ntertainnients. and revert ing to cigar-making when other ivMMiives failed. In 1W41 he removed to New York city, and within a year to Boston. While there he