DURFEE
DURFEE
of the state, and was chairman of the commission.
The revision reported by it received the almost
unanimous appi'oval of two successive General
assemblies, but when submitted to the people
failed of adoption by the three -fifths vote required,
though there was a large majority in its favor.
He was made a trustee of Brown university in
1875, was chancellor, 1879-88, and a fellow from
1888. He was married, Oct. 29, 1857, to Sarah J.,
daughter of John and Sarah (Tiffany) Slater, and
had one son, Samuel Slater Durfee, Avho was
graduated from Brown university in 1880 and
became a lawyer in Providence. Judge Durfee
received from Brown university the honorary
degree of LL. D. in 1875. He published: Beports
of Cases in Supreme Court of Ehode Island (2 vols.,
1851-53j; Treatise on the Law of Jiighicays (with J.
K. Angell, 1857); TJie Village Picnic, and Other
Poems ( 1873); Gleanings from the Judicial History of
Ehode lilaibd (1883); Some Thoughts on the Consti-
tution of Bhode Island (1884); and Historical Dis-
course on the 250th Anniversanj of the Planting of
Providence (1887). In December, 1877, he deliv-
ered an oration at the dedication of the Provi-
dence county court-house, and in June. 1894, an
oration at the dedication of the statue of Ebenezer
Knight Dexter in Providence. He died in Provi-
dence, June 6. 1901.
DURFEE, William Franklin, civil and me- chanical engineer, was born in New Bedford, Mass., Nov. 15, 1833; son of William and Alice (Talbot) Durfee; grandson of James Durfee of Fall River, Mass. , and of Silas Talbot of Dlghton, Mass.; and a descendant of Thomas Durfee, Revo- lutionary patriot, state senator and member of the exec- iitne council of Gov. f ^r-" 1 Jolm Hancock. He
\^ received a practical
^ training as a me-
dian ic and pursued a special course in en-
- ,' . \N«^^|Sg v^ »\ .^meeringintheLaw-
■^ \^pB^^ , lence scientific school
,j J of ILirvard. He was
\ I. ^ an aichitect and civil
C//A ■^ /~?\ / engineer in New Bed-
/K af^(^A^A.ff-'CC/■ fold, city surveyor ^ for five years; in 1855
was associated with his father in the design and construction of the Gosnold iron works; was a representative in the state legislature, 1861, and secretary of the committee on militia in that body. Early in the civil war he designed a sub- merged gun for naval use that embraced all the essential features of that of the Destroyer," afterward designed by Jolm Ericsson, and had several important advantages over that gun.
f^^^
The government commission appointed to ex-
amine the weapon pronounced it the best of the
kind brought to their notice, but it was not
adopted by the government and Mr. Durfee aban-
doned further effort to introduce it. In June,
1862, he took charge of the designing and con-
structing of experimental steel works at Wyan-
dotte, Mich., for testing the invention of William
Kelly for making steel, and in these experimen-
tal works were made the first rail-steel ingots
produced in America, and on May 25, 1865, these
ingots were rolled into the first steel rails manu-
factured in the United States, the work being
done at a mill at North Chicago, 111., erected by
Mr. Durfee. In connection with the works at
Wyandotte he equipped the first analytical labo-
ratory attached to steel works in the United
States to determine the chemical composition of
the crude materials used in the production of
steel by the " Kelly "' or " Bessemer " process.
He designed and constructed a rolling mill at
North Chicago, the machine shop for the repair-
ing of small arms at Cambridge, Mass., and the
works of the Milwaukee iron company at Bay
View, Wis. In 1869 he planned and built the
works of the American silver steel company at
Bridgeport, Conn. , the first works in which gas
was exclusively used as fuel by means of the
Siemens regenerative furnace. In 1871 he was
made general manager of the William Butcher
steel works (soon after renamed the Mid- vale
steel works), Philadelphia, Pa., and supervised
the manufacture of the steel used in the St.
Louis bridge, the first steel bridge erected in the
United States. In 1873 he became general su-
perintendent of the Milwaukee iron company's
works at Bay View, Wis., where he introduced
gas as a fuel. In 1875 he was a member of the
board of judges of the Centennial exhibition and
was assigned to "Group XXL," charged with
the examination of machine tools for working
iron, wood and stone, and for his service was
awarded a special medal. In 1878-82 he designed
special machinery for the Wheeler & Wilson
manufacturing company, Bridgeport, Conn., and
introduced many improved methods and enlarged
their plant by erecting new buildings. While
with this company he visited Europe where he
studied the use of fuel-gas in the manufacture of
copper and brass, and on his return he erected at
Ansonia, Conn., the first gas furnace for refining
copper erected in America. In 1885 he engi-
neered the removal of a brick chimney eight feet
square at its base and one hundred feet high,
weighing 170 tons, a distance of thirty feet, to a
new foundation, for the Bridgeport paper com-
pany. In 1886 he was manager of the U.S. Mitis
company which was engaged in the introduction
of a process for the production of wrought iron
