COSTON
COSTON
-', tr^l^u^/d/t^yuj^c t^i^^
U.S.N. , and througli tliein was encouraged to per-
fect hi.s different inventions. Through the in-
fluence of Commodore Stewart he obtained an
appointment as full sailing master in the navy
when twenty-one years old, and was placed in
charge of the ordnance laboratory at the Wash-
ington navy yard.
The department was
induced bj' him to
build an improved
laboratory with a
detachable roof to
avoid explosions
through confined
gas. Congress voted
an appropriation for
this building. He
invented and intro-
duced percussion
caps, rockets, per-
cussion primers for
cannon, and the
Lanyard lock. The
primer was adopted
by France in 1833, and used by Dahlgren on
all his guns, finding universal use in the Mex-
ican and civil wars, and was superseded only by
electricity. He also invented a portable gas
machine to produce gas from rosin, which he sold
to David Henshaw, a former secretary of the
navy. It was this machine that produced the
first illuminating gas used in Washington, made
at his own residence in the navy yard. His
parabolic reflector was adopted by the U.S. light-
house service, all reflectors previously used having
been imported at great expense. His inven-
tions as recorded in the U.S. patent office cover
the period from 1847 to 1859, his last being for a
pyrotechnic night signal, patented by his widow.
He invented the "Infernal machine,"' a subma-
rine boat, in 1844, similar to the Holland sub-
marine boat of 1898. His papers and drawings
of this boat were lost to the family through mis-
placed confidence in a U.S. naval officer. A
square in the U.S. navy yard was named in his
honor when he was twenty-six j^ears old. He
•was married in 1844 to Martha, daughter of J. S.
Hunt of Philadelphia, and through the courtesy
of Geoi'ge Bancroft, then secretary of the navy,
he made his home in the navy yard grounds
■where three of their four sons were born. He
gave to the government his invention of the per-
cussion quill primer and Secretary Bancroft rec-
ommended to congress the promotion of the
inventor to the rank of lieutenant-commander in
the navy. The senate passed the bill but it was
defeated in the house, a substitute being passed
creating the office of pyrotechnist, at a salary of
- $1800 with no rank or residence, which he de-
clined. Sliortly afterward he resigned from the
service to devote himself to his inventions for
manufacturing gas. and removed to Boston,
Mass., at the instigation of Mr. Henshaw. He
died in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 24, 1848.
COSTON, Henry Henry, inventor, w^as born in the Washington U.S. navy yard, D.C., Sept. 11, 1844; son of Benjamin Franklin and Martha Jay (Hunt) Coston. He was educated in the United States and in France, leaving Georgetown college, D.C., in 1864 to join the Potomac flotilla as fleet clerk under Commander Parker, on board tlie Don. It was while thus serving that he in- vented the aerial system of night -signalling for which he filed caveat in 1864. and which he im- proved in 1868, patenting the complete invention in 187T. It was afterward adopted by the U.S. navj'. In 1865 President JLiincoln appointed him a lieutenant in the U.S. marine corps. He served on the Juniata with the rank of lieutenant under Commander Dewey, being present at the bom- bardment of Alexandria, Egypt, where with his companj' he protected the Europeans, who fled from the city, from the fury of the mob. He was with the Juniata when she was the first American warship to enter a Korean port. He was attached to the Hartford of the South Atlan- tic squadron and as that vessel was readj' to pro- ceed to sea in the summer of 1877, he was ordered on shore with his company of marines to protect the Baltimore and Ohio railroad depot and other property from the strikers. He was then sta- tioned at the Pensacola, the Norfolk, and the Brooklyn navy yards successively, and on Aug. 23. 1890, he was detailed to the Baltimore, Capt. W. S. Schley, and commanded the guard of honor which accompanied the remains of John Ericsson to Sweden. For his service he obtained a medal from the king. He was on the Baltimore in 1891 when her sailors were attacked while on the shore in Chili, and he accompanied a battalion of ma- rines to defend the sailors. On getting into the boat he fell overboard and without changing his clothes i^roceeded on his mission. This resulted in a severe cold which forced him to be retired from the service in 1892 and which finally re- sulted in his death. He received the thanks of the department for extraordinary services, brav- ery, and devotion to his brother officers and men, and for his care of government property at Pen- sacola, Fla., during two epidemics of the yellow fever when Commodore Woolsey and many of the marine corps were victims of the disease in 1874. He died in Pensacola, Fla., Nov. 6, 1896.
COSTON, Martha Jay, inventor, was born in New York city, April 10, 1828; daughter of John Scott and Rebecca (Parks) Hunt of Baltimore, Md., and great-granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. William Morgan, a clergyman of the Protestant
