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338
ENGINEERING NEWS AND
NOVEMBER 28, 1885

An engraving in the Railroad Gazette for February 3d, 1872, shows that engine so designed in 1831. It is scarcely necessary to add that this precise form of truck is now in use on over 125,000 miles of railway in this country, as well as on many thousand miles in other countries. After the completion of the two railroads above mentioned, in 1833 Mr. Jervis was engaged by the Canal Commissioners as Chief Engineer of the Chenango Canal, 98 miles long, with 100 locks. On this canal, for the first time in this country, resort was had to artificial reservoirs for the supply of its summit level with water, and Mr. Jervis was the originator of the method. In 1835 the work of the enlargement of the Erie Canal was attempted, and Mr. Jervis was called upon to make surveys and estimates on the eastern section. He proposed corrections for many errors in its original construction, and at Little Falls he wholly rearranged the locks.
In October, 1836, he accepted the unsolicited offer of the position of Chief Engineer of the Croton Aqueduct, considered at the time of its completion as the greatest example in the world of hydraulic engineering skill. The difficulties with which Mr. Jervis had to contend, caused by the ignorance and sometimes by the malicious criticism of the opponents of the aqueduct, greatly tried his patience and skill, but he succeeded in holding the position until the work was completed; and it deserves to be here recorded, as an example for engineers, and for the contractors of public works of this day, that the aqueduct constructed to supply the then population of 250,000, with a view to ultimately supplying a population of 500,000, starting with the delivery of 12,000,000 gallons per 24 hours, is now supplying 95,000,000 gallons daily to a population of 1,400,000, and that the cost of the whole work, exclusive of the High Bridge, estimated by Mr. Jervis on January 2nd, 1838, at $8,464,033, was completed by a total expenditure to January 31st, 1848, of $8,766,626, an excess of cost over the original estimate of but $302,593, or about 3.7 per cent., which excess is almost entirely accounted for by the loss of the partially completed Croton dam on January 8th, 1841, and by the increased cost of land damages outside of which items we have the personal authority of Mr. Jervis for stating that the excess in cost over the original estimate was less than one per cent.
Mr. Jervis was appointed in 1846 Consulting Engineer on the Boston water supply, which position he held until 1848, during which time the Cochituate Water-works were located and partially constructed. The Water-works at Port Jervis, which place was named after Mr. Jervis by the directors of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, were constructed under his supervision, as were also the Rome Waterworks, in 1868. In 1847 Mr. Jervis was made Chief Engineer of the Hudson River Railroad, which position he held until 1849, and was Consulting Engineer until 1850. During his incumbency the Hudson River Railroad was completed from New York to Poughkeepsie, which included all the difficult portions of the work. The obtaining of capital for its construction was greatly facilitated by Mr. Jervis' well-known caution in recommending any scheme.
In 1850 Mr. Jervis went to Europe, where he spent four months, and was received with great honor on account of his engineering achievements. While there he was invited by Robert Stephenson to witness the launching of one of the large tubes for the bridge over the Menai Straits, of which he says: "the spectacle was highly interesting in itself, and was followed by an invitation to dine with a party of English Engineers, an occasion I enjoyed very much." On his return he engaged as Chief Engineer in the construction of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad, now the western portion of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and then one of the most prominent public works of the country, about sixty-six miles of which, originally known as the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, had been constructed by the State of Michigan with a wooden rail and iron plates. Mr. Jervis continued his connection with this company until the spring of 1858. During the summer of 1851 he was made President of the Chicago and Rock Island Railway which was constructed from Chicago to Davenport, 180 miles, and brought into use about 1854. From the spring of 1858 until the spring of 1861, Mr. Jervis was without professional engagement. In the fall of 1861 he was appointed General Superintendent of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, then just emerging from a condition of practical bankruptcy. The bondholders had foreclosed and sold the road, and the company had been re-organized, acknowledging, however, all classes of stockholders and creditors to the full amount of their original interest. The road had been cheaply constructed and inadequately maintained, and was in poor condition. The stock was then selling at 8 per cent., and not long after Mr. Jervis entered on the management a stockholder inquired of him if it would be advisable to sell at 20 per cent. He held the position of General Superintendent until March, 1864, when he resigned to take that of Chief Engineer, which position he occupied until 1866, and was Consulting Engineer of the company until 1872. During the period of his superintendence the track and machinery were greatly improved, the latter being very much increased in quantity, as well in improved in quality. During his administration all the fixed liabilities of the company were promptly met, and soon after his resignation as General Superintendent the company paid a semi-annual dividend of 5 per cent. The foundation was laid by Mr. Jervis for the extraordinary success with which the company's affairs have been so ably managed by his successors.
About 1872, Mr. Jervis was consulted by the parties who were contemplating the building of the Cazenovia and Canastota Railroad, who submitted to him an estimate which they had procured of the cost of building the proposed line asking for his opinion thereof. With his usual caution and foresight he recommended that they double the amount of the estimate, and not undertake the construction until they were prepared to expend the increased amount. This somewhat delayed the construction of the road, the cost of which, when completed, fully sustained Mr. Jervis' views. In 1868 he was made one of the first trustees in the organization of the Rome Merchant Iron Mill Company, which position he occupied until the time of his death. The operations of the company for the first two years resulted in serious loss, and threatened its bankruptcy; but in 1872 Mr. Jervis came to its rescue with a large loan of his personal funds, and assumed the position of secretary, which he held at the time of his death. Under his wise and prudent administration - for his was the keynote in the management - the company retrieved its former errors, and is now on a prosperous footing.
It will be seen, therefore, that for more than seventy years Mr. Jervis has been an active worker, and all his work has been of a character to leave an enduring impression on the country. Since his practical retirement from active railroad management, in 1866, he found time to write a book on "Railway Property," and another on "The Question of Labor and Capital." In 1877 he wrote a paper, published in the International Review, advocating the use of locomotives for towing boats on the Erie Canal - an unexampled evidence of progress at the age of evidence of progress at the age of eighty-two. In 1879, at the Young Men's Christian Association of Rome, Mr. Jervis wrote a lecture on "Industrial Economy," which was delivered before that Association. He was then past eighty-three years of age, yet that lecture showed his mind to be as clear, strong and vigorous as in the days of his prime. In 1878, Hamilton College conferred on him the degree of LL.D.
His last professional work, and that which most fully illustrates the extraordinary character of his professional ability, and the esteem in which he was held by his engineering contemporaries, was his employment as a Consulting Engineer, on the proposed new Croton Aqueduct, by the late Isaac Newton, Chief Engineer, and by Mr. E.S. Chesbrough, then Consulting Engineer for that work. Upon this business Mr. Jervis came to this city in December, 1881, and remained here some two weeks, consulting daily with Messrs. Newton and Chesbrough, and on his return to Rome he took with him various plans, and made a report substantially indorsing the plans proposed by Messrs. Newton and Chesbrough.  That he should be equal to this work at the age of 86 was sufficiently remarkable, but that he should be considered as worthy of being consulted by men themselves veterans in the profession, is a still more extraordinary evidence of the exceptional character of the man.
Mr. Jervis' strongest trait was his absolute conscientiousness, exemplified in every walk of life.  His career was an example of the most sterling integrity, and while he had many critics and opponents during his professional career, the tongue of slander never wagged against him.  His life was a grand example to the young in all professions, and particularly to those of his own profession, who meet with so many temptations and discouragements; and a study of his memoirs, which will be published at length at an early day, will enable many a man to avoid the rock upon which so many barks have foundered.
His devotion to the good of his fellows is evidenced by his will, in which he bequeathed his valuable library and about one-third of his estate to erect a building for a library and lecture-room, for the use of the people of Rome, so long his place of residence.
Mr. Jervis was twice married.  In 1834 he married the daughter of the late George Brayton, of Weston, who died in 1839.  Two years later he was married to Eliza R. Coates, who survives him. His health for the greater part of his life was remarkably good.  During the past year his strength had been gradually failing, and he told one of the members of the committee at his last interview in November that his work was done.  He had no special disease; the machine had simply worn out from old age.  When one of the members of the committee talked with him, only two months before his death, his mind was as clear and his faculties as undimmed as at the beginning of their acquaintance, 24 years since, and it was only for a day or so before his death that mind and memory failed him.
In the death of John Bloomfield Jervis the whole community may truly mourn; for a great engineer, a good man, and a valuable citizen has departed.  The important and enduring works on which he had spent a lifetime will elevate and benefit the human race long after his remains shall have crumbled to dust, and his fame as one of the greatest of American engineers will survive the age in which he lived.  But above all, the remembrance of the industry, energy and perseverance by which he overcame all obstacles, and raised himself from the lowest to the highest rank in his profession, his purity of life and his honorable and high-minded character, will survive as an example and an incentive to the young men of America and encourage them to emulate his virtues.
Mr. Jervis became a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, December 4th, 1867.  He was made an Honorary Member of the Society, December 2d, 1868.