The New International Encyclopædia/Haupt, Herman

HAUPT, Herman (1817—). An American engineer, born in Philadelphia, Pa. He graduated at West Point in 1835, but resigned a commission in the Second Infantry to become an assistant engineer on the public works of Pennsylvania. In 1844 he became professor of civil engineering and mathematics in Pennsylvania College, but three years later he resumed the practice of his profession, as principal consulting engineer of the Philadelphia Railroad, of which he became, successively, the general superintendent and chief engineer. He was chief engineer of the Hoosac Tunnel from 1856 to 1861. In the Civil War he was chief of the United States Bureau of Military Railroads, and served on the staff of General McDowell with the rank of colonel. From 1872 to 1876 he was general manager of the Piedmont Air-line Railroad, from 1876 to 1878 was chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Transportation Company and Seaboard Pipe-line,, from 1881 to 1885 was general manager, and 1885 to 1886 was general superintendent of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He invented a drilling machine that won the highest prize of the Royal Polytechnic Society of Great Britain, and was the first to prove the practicability of transporting oil in pipes. He wrote: Hints on Bridge Building (1840); General Theory of Bridge Construction (1852); A Consideration of the Plans Proposed for the Improvement of the Ohio River (1855); Military Bridges (1864).